Thirteen Formative Years |
 LIVING IN JOHANNESBURG – 27, 12th Avenue, Parktown North: This photograph (by an unknown photographer, possibly by Bobby or Anthony) was probably taken in early 1952. From left to right are Nigel, Stuart, less than one-year-old Charlie, Lilian, and – on the right – Carolyn Craggs. The Craggs family lived diagonally behind us; the back of their 32, 13th Avenue, Parktown North, property overlapped slightly with our 12th Avenue property. The family – Alec (who was a South African army World War II veteran and a builder), Doreen (who worked in the University of the Witwatersrand’s library), Robin (who was two years older than me), and Carolyn (a year younger than me and a year older than Stuart) – were wonderful neighbours. Stuart and I spent countless hours playing with Robin and Carolyn in their backyard. What is more, when Bobby and Lilian went to Britain and Europe in mid-1955 (taking four-year-old Charlie and our two-year-old adopted sister, Linda, with them), Stuart stayed with the Craggs family for three months (while I boarded with friends, Chick and Madeleine Nathan, who lived about seven miles away, in Bryanston). Our friendship with Carolyn and her family was one of many family friendships from our time in South Africa that has literally lasted a lifetime … |