About Our Words: Affenruchen
Message by Keith Roelofse from East London
Keith writes:
I love the articles they bring back so many memories
I'm Keith Roelofse was born in Oranjemund in 1961 and left in 1971.
My father worked as a chef in the mine mess in town and Uubtvlei and Affenruchen as relief staff. I sometimes went with him and remember him feeding massive baboons at the kitchen door in Affenruchen.
Affenruchen was the place where my father taught me to play snooker on the big table. I had to stand on a box.
My father passed away in late 2008. He was Corneels Johannes Hendrick Roelofse, known as Neels to most people.
He loved snooker and also played league darts in town. I still have many trophies which he won in Oranjemund.
We lived at 32-13TH Avenue. My mother Joan is 78, and my sisters are Denise (50) and Ellen (53). Ellen attended Windhoek High.
I recall playing around the "hydraponics" and "horse race course". I alos played on an army tank. Must have been at the M.O.T.H. Club.
I remember the flamingos in a dam on the way to the beach.
We all in those days used to attend the cinema on Saturdays it cost 5 cents and for a further 5c you got a bunch of sweets and cold drink. The trailer was almost always Zorro.
We moved to Cape Town and the family has been living in East London since 1976.
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