Part 59
Like so many people I’m speaking with, I’m reluctant to put the word “Happy” before “New Year,” so I’m settling for a “Better New Year” to all of you with a determination to change “Better” to “Happy” just as soon as possible.
It’s tragic to see that the emotional level of virtually everyone around us has dropped alarmingly over the period of the pandemic. Thankfully, there are some little pockets of resistance where small groups continue to communicate, in most cases still observing the basics of protecting oneself and others, as indeed they should.
These groups continue to be happy but in a more confined way. For example, my wife Hero and I have taken to watching some of those wonderful MGM musicals of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The sheer exuberance of the dancing by greats like Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Syd Charisse lifts the spirits immediately. Okay, so the stories are often corny but there’s an energy and hopefulness that seems to have disappeared from our present world.
And how about “Grease”? John Travolta and an irreverent bunch of teenagers sparked memories of happy, mad moments in my own teenage and later years. Not that I was much of a dancer, but it was the vibe created by young people facing a world of promise and a future of limitless possibilities.
About 90 miles from Cape Town there’s a small fishing village called Hermanus, which in the ’50s became a favorite holiday destination for people all around South Africa. The beaches were straight out one of those Beach Blanket movies, with pert young girls in full make-up and scanty bikinis intent on hooking up with one of the blond bronzed hunks who strutted their muscles and attempted a Travolta-like swagger as they walked along the beach or played touch rugby near the water’s edge. In my day, the early ‘50s, Hawaiian surfboards were just starting to appear on South African beaches and the more favorite occupation was body surfing, which required its own particular set of skills.
I can claim to have been quite good at body surfing. It was a wonderful moment when one timed a wave perfectly, swimming like mad as the wave started to break and then the exhilarating moment when I felt the wave lift my body and carry me along towards the beach. The trick was to then stop swimming and round your shoulders with arms by the side, thereby creating an air pocket underneath the body. You also had to lift the head up in order to breathe as the surf took you inexorably toward the moment when the wave petered out or on occasions dumped you unceremoniously face first into the sand. Quite often, the next wave would knock you down again as you tried to get up looking nonchalant as the girls stole sidewise glances from their prone positions on beach towels overlooking all the male talent on display.
Of course, within a few years, the Hawaiian surfboard all but wiped out our less spectacular, but just as exciting body surfing.
So many other joyous memories of those youthful days. As night approached, the barbecue grill came out for the ever-popular “Braai” (Afrikaans for cook) on the beach, where we would braai vleis and wors (Vleis – meat and Wors short for Boerwors – farmer’s sausage). Inevitably, someone had a guitar and we would sing the pop songs of the moment.
A couple of traditional South African melodies were usually thrown in such as “Sarie Marais” and “Daar kom die Alibama” (The spelling was incorrect, but it referred to the American Confederate sloop-of-war that, over a period of two years during the American Civil War, captured or destroyed 65 Union vessels in various parts of the world.)
It put into Cape Town in August 1863 for refitting and provisioning before sinking seven ships allied to the Union cause off the African coast. The crew obviously caused a hit with the dockside bars and the “ladies of the night” to the extent that the song soon emerged announcing the arrival of the ship.
On some occasions, a few of us would crowd into a speedboat and cruise around the lagoon in the moonlight with the guitarist playing romantic melodies, one arm around the girlfriend of the moment and a beer in the other hand.
Re-watching American movies of the 1950s period, they told of similar carefree lives of the young. It was for us largely a time before drugs but there was no shortage of booze. The Cape is famous for some of the best wines in the world, with the two major brands of beer brewed in Cape Town. Local brandy ranged from pure gut rot to some very fine spirits. In the Transvaal in the ‘50s where the city of Johannesburg is located (now the province of Gauteng) the favored drink was brandy and Coke. Some years later, I was commissioned to make a film designed to persuade the Transvaalers that wine was not just a drink for the elite but could be enjoyed by anyone without having to adhere to the snobbish rules that followed it around. If someone prefers red wine to white, then go ahead and drink it with fish. It should be your choice. The campaign was successful and today even the local farmers “up North” enjoy a glass of wine with their meals.
The ‘50s and ‘60s for most nations were a period of breaking free from the horrors of World War II. As a child that had lived in Britain throughout that war, it was a time of wonder and of hope. South Africa probably emulated California of that era. The sky was the limit. Business opportunities blossomed. South Africans excelled in so many fields ranging from medicine to engineering and mining, as well as the arts and sport.
Of course, South Africa was not just the fun-loving, surfing, singing and partying utopia. The darker side of the country was the ever-encroaching shadow of Apartheid. By the 1960s, under the leadership of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, the Dutch-born psychologist who trained in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Apartheid became a horrifying exercise in social engineering.
It could be said that we whites of that period lived in a fool’s paradise but many of us became increasingly antagonistic to the regime of Verwoerd’s Nationalist Party. It was the old story of a handful of fanatics in control that terrorized the majority of black and white.
Inevitably, the bubble had to burst and, as the turbulent ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s saw an ever-growing force of the people, both black and white saying, “No more. This has to change.” And finally, in 1994, it did!
In many ways South Africa has become a microcosm of the state of our planet but, when I think back to the carefree days, I have to say that it was how life should have continued to be. In hindsight, it should have been a glorious time for all races, but my point is that, as we face a world torn by strife, deceived by lies and false data, let us recall the better times and work determinedly for a return to a world of opportunity for anyone of any race, color or creed who has the courage to persist and turn our glorious blue-green planet, third from the sun, into the kind of world we would all like it to be.
In addition to getting our heads right, it makes complete sense to support the new computing system of ExoTech, with the brand name ExoBrain that will bring the relief of simplicity over complexity. A system that will bring benefits for millions previously not privy to the advantages of any kind of computing. This revolutionary system also happens to be extremely cost-effective and will be affordable to the fifty percent of the planet’s population who have never owned a computer. It will be equally valuable to big business, sick of spending millions of dollars on systems that fail to deliver what they have promised.
Let’s all remain optimistic and cheerful against today’s adversity. I’ve lived long enough to see it all disappear before, but this time ExoBrain has struck the mother lode. We just need the intention to get it done!
A better and soon-to-be Happier New Year to you all!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.