One cant help remembering certain places more than others, but with me every place I ever visited in my days in Krugersdorp has a turn to come to my mind. They just jump up and declare that they want to be remembered. Actually they do this without asking permission, which is very rude, but memories have a license to do that you know. Coronation park is one of those cheeky little devils, the high eucalyptus trees along Main Reef Rd line up behind the yellow iron fence which never held anyone out but for some strange reason I cant remember every climbing over or crawling under the fence. I remember always going through the gate, and thats strange for a Krugersdorp kid. For example the Wanderers had a high corrugated iron fence, cut at the top in V shapes that were very sharp, especially if one landed on one of them. This should have prevented even the bravest kids from climbing over, yet we always climbed over. Usually it was okay because there was a piece of wood near the top where one could support oneself in preparation for the downward jump. Once my friend Lebos foot slipped and there he was astride the V shape with pointed part sting into his, anus, actually he was lucky it was about 1/2 from that place. It was a job, I can tell you lifting him up from there. He was very quiet mind you and I eventually put some plaster there when I got him to my home in Percy stewart Str. Lebo, had a great imagination, which made up for many of the things he wasnt so hot at doing, like riding a racing bike as fast as Jimmy Swift, the great cyclist sprinter of my day. It was no simple matter to climb that fence and get our bicycles over also, so that we could ride that amazing sloping track. I still remember old Jimmy in a peloton racing around that track at breakneck speed in competition against a cycling team from Germiston, called the Germiston Harriers. The spectators made so much noise in the new, flashy grandstand that one could imagine it was full, while really we were just a cluster of wild cycling enthusiasts huddled in the middle. These competitions were so important there was even an announcer over a loudspeaker to give a running commentary of every race. But I always entered Coronation Park by the gate, usually with my mutt tagging along after me.He simply could not understand that he wasnt wanted, but sometimes we had fun swinging high on those swings hanging by long green iron rods from a green rod at the top with red balls at each end. Man there were some guys like Marshall Yelland who swung so high his feet reached that iron rod at the top. And what about the slide. I have never anywhere seen such a high slide as that. You climbed to the top on hefty grey colored cast iron stairs, holding on to a wooden rail, painted dark green. You looked down from the top as if youd reached the top of Table mountain, at the shiny light bronze slide itself and that was a slide, you slid with great momentum while your stomach jumped into your throat from fear of what would happen at the bottom, but you always came to a smooth stop and ran back to the stairs to do it again, hoping that no one would push you off just because he thought it was his turn or just for the fun of seeing you topple down and break something, but that never happened, I only imagined that it could.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 18:23:37 +0000
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