Let's be clear from the beginning! I am not a racist, I have never been a racist and all South African's are not racists. Sure there are some, just like in any other country. This is very important to understand.

Do I believe that Apartheid was wrong ,YES DEFINITELY. It was so wrong! I do however not believe I need to defend myself ... I was born into the situation, I could've been born anywhere in the world, but I was born in this beautiful country - South Africa.

It was not due to anything, I, or my parents did, or even my parents, parents. It was just life as we knew it.

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I was born in 1972 in a small town, Klerksdorp, North West (Previously Western Transvaal). Phew!, I am getting old … but, I am still young at heart.

What was it like to grow up in the 80's in the apartheid era?

Well, it is difficult to explain, but the bare bone answer is that we were brought up very, very conservatively. We were cut off from the rest of the world. There was a lot of sanctions enforced by the rest of the world, rightly so… No international sport, No international television programmes … we lived in our own little world! South Africa did very well in those times from a economic perspective. I mean the South African Rand were much stronger than the US Dollar at that point!

We were however not only cut off from the rest of the world, our own television service, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), also did not show what was really happening in the country. There were massive, aggressive protests happening and it was not broadcasted. As general citizens we were really kept in the dark. At the end of the day, I am very much an optimist.

Growing up in small towns for my whole school career, I did many things which were frowned upon, without even knowing about it. I had many friends from different races. Zulu, Xhosa, Indian … it never mattered to me… My father were the Primary school headmaster, in another small mining town - and living in small town was seen as part of the elite. Not sure how it is in other countries, but in a small town, all the preachers, doctors, school headmasters, attorneys are the people you need to know. You are under the spotlight the whole time. I will never forget, how I always after school climbed the fence, to go and play with the guys that worked in the school garden. Wonderful memories were created … every afternoon.

However being cut off from the world, did create a different type of person. Every South African's have many stories to tell… I guess in the rest of the world as well. I can however relate our stories :)

I read a posts recently about growing up in the eighties, and it triggered many memories (I will reference to some of the content of that post). I do not want to into the negative memories, I would rather highlight the positive things. So a few key things I clearly remember.

Chappies

Chappies (Bubblegum) had a "Did you know?" written in each of the wrappers. We lived for this … Did you know

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Drive without a seatbelt

We never had or wore baby-seats or seatbelts. It was standard practice. I would rather not look up the accident stats for those times as I am sure it will be scary …

We played in the street …

The neighbourhood kids got together and we played either cricket or tennis in the street. When a car came, we all moved to the pavement, let the car pass and then we played again! Nowadays, I see that this is still happening in places like India … I really miss those days.

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When you were naughty you got "6 of the bests" in the headmasters office …and bomb drill were standard at school

In those days there weren't things like naughty corners … And we were happy to accept it … But only if you knew you were wrong. From the bomb drill perspective… we really enjoyed missing a few hours of school. But these often very frequently.

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Travelling to the coast for holiday meant getting a goodies bag at the tollbooths

Till today whenever I stop to pay toll on holiday I hope that there will be goodie bags… but nothing, only a bag full of advert :)

Local Children Television programmes

The only real international children television programmes we had were Gummy Bears and He-Man - and the masters of the Universe... The rest were all local. Liewe Heksie, Wielie Walie and many more

Camping was the in thing!

Most people were camping.. I guess this still happen today, but it was the in thing to do back in the day

There are many bad stories, but like I say, I only try to remember the good, despite the terrible things that happened. Not everything was hidden, but we did not see a fraction of it.

I would love to hear stories from other nations and cultures about what it was like to grow up in the eighties in other countries. I would love to understand what else we missed out on!

Please write some posts about growing up in the eighties from all over the world.

Here is the first of the first of another country Growing up in the eighties in Croatia

Happy Steeming!
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