Slices of life - by Dini Esterhuizen
The Van Gas family living in our valley had six beautiful daughters, when they probably called a halt to the dream of a son. Van then focused on his film career as producer of his first and only movie. A South African cowboy production. Oom van Niekerk of the farm shop was the villain and he and Tannie Dot, our Sunday school teacher, got shot in the story. Our dad took us to watch the shooting on the set one afternoon, and I remember Oom van Niekerk and Tannie Dot lying on the floor covered in tomato juice from the shop.
Two families living in our valley were very interesting and probably eccentric.
But as it is with true eccentrics, they would be the last to realize that. The children of these families attended the same farm school where we were, four lovely girls of the one brother and four cousins, the sons of the other brother. At some stage our parents took us out of the farm school and sent us to the city, probably concerned about the level of our education. This was where I first noticed that when I told people about the ordinary life where we grew up, they gave one another a knowing look. As if I was exaggerating.
Hey friends.
