A less privileged white growing up in South Africa in the 1970's - Part 3
Music played a very positive part in our young lives, but the associations with music sometimes opens wounds and revives bad memories. I had just started high school (STD 6), second day and one month short of my 13th birthday. I told my mom I needed two A4 hardcover books for Science and Geography. I followed her into her bedroom where she proceeded to lift up the worn and torn linoleum floor covering, reaching underneath it to scrape out some coins.
To my great surprise she started to hum a tune over and over and then asked me if I knew which song it was. I recognized it instantly…. Neil Young’s Heart of Gold!! She gave me an extra 10 cents and asked me to buy the 7 single (played at 45 rpm) …
Image Credit: Kickasstorrents.video
My heart sang.. my mom loved music and was secretly listening while I had my half hour listening time.
She left me and walked into my sisters (more than one) bedroom to help my 9 year old sister out of her school uniform and into casual clothes….. I heard a loud THUMP… followed by a gasp .. and then silence. I ran into the room to see my mother lying on the floor…. pale and unmoving… my sister just standing there chewing her knuckles. She had suffered a stroke and sadly passed away just over two hours later.
I could not listen to that song for years without breaking into tears !!
That was the start of really hard times but I do not want to dwell on those but rather our lifestyle and all the stuff we as kids used to get up to.
In my introduction post I made the observation that there were two key passions in our collective young lives… well up until 14 or so when the opposite sex became the 3rd {smile}…….. Music, which was covered in the Introduction and Part 2 and the other biggy… PINBALL ! The hours and hours spent watching and playing these amazing machines, bumpers bumping and pops popping, targets to knock over … there was hardly a corner café’ that did not have at least one.
That corner shop is The Yellow Canary where we spent the majority of our holidays watching and playing pinball. There are many stories that will follow around the goings on at this cafe
Image Credit – www.myrtlebeacharcades.com
Amazing colors and artwork … news of a NEW pinball spread through the neighborhood in hours. No cell phones or social media … just human word of mouth… and then the kids were lining up to take their turn!!
Image Credit: www.e-bay.com
One of my all time favorites (second favourite after Flying Carpet) was the Spirit of 1976… it was advanced and had new features like extra balls, sound effects and flashing lights... but more importantly... 15 free games.
(Right click on the picture and 'Open in new tab' to get a bigger, more detailed view) Take time to read the super advances on this 'new release' of pinball.
Image Credit: www.bmigaming.com
No modesty here, I was a pinball prodigy. It was 5c to play a game and we would club together our cents to get me a game. I would swiftly ‘fill’ the machine up with 9 free games and then wait for customers. When other kids came in to play we would give them two games for 5c… until there were only two games left and I would fill it up again.
(Right click on the picture and 'Open in new tab' to get a bigger, more detailed view)
Image Credit: www.pinballrepair.com
The Flying Carpet … just looking at this pinball picture I am grinning ear to ear.
Other interesting designs, the art was really intricate in some cases. This by Bally, a rival to Gottlieb
Image Credit: www.feelnumb.com
There is a lot to explore around this subject but this post getting a bit long now ...so until the next time, thanks for reading !