We were extremely fortunate to have grown up in a country and city where the sun brought potential quality and opportunity to our young innocent lives.
During most of my school life I lived in a city called Pietermaritzburg. It was also called “The sleepy hollow” because it was located in a deep valley surrounded on its northwest and east borders by large hills. The inhabitants were tranquil people who lazed and relaxed in its warmth. On the surface nothing exciting ever happened here. Though it had a few discos, a local cinema and drive-in, Pietermaritzburg wasn’t the classified vibrant and exciting city which would attract flocks of young folks. Here we had to be creative and use our environment to create our own quality free time.
Later in life when I worked here as a police officer I realized that I had been wrong. The city wasn’t as sleepy as people believed. That I will explain in a future story.
My neighbors were Italian and we got to know them to be very kind and warm people who later became part of our daily lives in a way that knitted us together as one great family. We played, fought, loved and above all learnt from each other many of life’s great lessons.
There were two Italian homes next to us and the one had a swimming pool which became our favorite hangout in those hot, sweaty summer days. They were also long days although when you enjoyed yourself the way we did the days would really seem far too short.
Me in the swimming pool – photo © OnsStories.com
We used to play many games in this pool like water polo, and we also competed in races. My Italian friend Mauro was the breaststroke champion and I did well in backstroke but looked like I was drowning when I tried to do butterfly stoke.
We also did dangerous stunts like diving backwards off the side and wrestling. One person would sit on another person’s shoulders and in pairs you would wrestle and fight the nearest other opponent until they crashed into the water. Then we would all climb on a massive tractor tube and see who could stand up and balance the longest while wrestling and shoving others off the tube. The last one standing was the champion. We were blessed not to have drowned ourselves or somebody else in the process.
The owners of the pool were the parents of Enzo and Italo who were two of the strongest guys I have ever met. It was always an awesome challenge to beat them in any duel.
When I was sixteen Mauro and I each owned our first motorcycles. Mauro had a brand new Yamaha FS50 and I had built up an old 1965 Suzuki M10 with the help of my brother-in-law. These two motorbikes were as much a part of our daily lives as were the air that we breathed.
My 1965 Suzuki M10 – photo © OnsStories.com
One hot summer morning I rode the bike into the city center to buy something. Dressed only in a pair of shorts, t-shirt and slops (open sandals) I set off up Longmarket street. Unknown to me disaster was coming my way. The Suzuki’s front mudguard was secured with four screws. Two of them had slowly loosened as this bike was ancient and vibrated like a percussion hammer drill. Next moment as I changed into top gear which was the fourth gear the screws dislodged themselves with the result that the mudguard hinged forward. It trapped the front tire and the next few seconds I was a flying duck. I went over the handle bars and hit the tarred road with force. The Suzuki skidded and catapulted past me.
I had fallen many times on the rugby field but I hadn’t expected the tarred road to be so vicious. I couldn’t swim that entire summer which was such a punishment. I couldn’t face or bear to hear anybody dive into that pool. Every few inches of my body was covered in “roasties” (open or lost skin) and I didn’t dare wet the “wounds”.
I still loved my Suzuki even though it taught me a very painful lesson. It was that all things in life require careful attention and maintenance.
About Bugs
I got my inspiration for this website from the song called “Imagine”, and so I decided to go on this adventure. I have always wanted to put up something like this where my friends and I could express our memories and dreams for the future. Share them with us, because if many people dream the same dream it will certainly come true.
Dear Bugs,
as you can imagine, I remember those times very well, so well that I would like to add to your beautiful reminder that at the drive-in we often put the Renault sideways so we sat looking out of the side windows and so, seeing the film for free. As far as the swimming pool goes, thanks to you all I also learned to swim in that swimming pool even by night and in the darkness, which is a very strange feeling. I become so good in breaststroke, that when I came to Italy with no training, no coach, all on my own I took part in the national swimming contest for partially blind.
I was so good that I won three medals, all bronze. Pity the races were one after the other, so I had no time to get my breath back. Moreover the swimming pools in Italy are all indoors, so that the air inside is really very little, that does not help to get the gold medals!