Alan Chamberlain
Alan spent his childhood in Harfield from the 1962 to 1972, from the age of five years old. Residing at 42 Surrey Street, he attended Clareinch Primary until their eventual amalgamation with Portia Primary. His fond memories of neighbours and friends are as vivid today as they have always been and he has maintained close connections with the friends he grew up with in Harfield.
Alan now lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he moved in 1981, but he returns to Cape Town regularly and maintains his close connection with the Harfield community. Some of his closest friends, all of whom are from Surrey Street, include the late Noel (Snoekie) Human, Charles (The Barber) Human, Abraham Human, Brian and Cyril Phillips, Chris Hamerse, Lionel Johnson, Yasmin Gamildien, Sudley and Mariam Fredericks. He is also very closely connected with Bonita George (nee Adams) from Lincoln Streetand Trevor George from First Avenue – both of whom are now based in Melbourne Australia.
Alan recalls the following experiences of growing up in Claremont:
“Waking up as a young kid during the summer holidays with blistering sunshine and knowing I’m going to have a great day with my friends in Surrey Street. As soon as all household chores were done, we made our way up to Claremont Gardens. Claremont Gardens to us, was like the best playground in the world! Any game could be played there, from hide-and-seek to cowboys-and-Indians, etc.
“At the back of the Gardens was a rugby field, and we knew some of the white kids that played there with a real leather soccer ball. This ball was like the “Holy Grail” to us – the best we had was a cheap plastic ball.
“We challenged them to games of football, looking like the street urchins that we were. We looked like easy pickings for them, but we had a secret weapon called “Cyril Phillips”. They soon found out what pure football magic was once Cyril had the ball between his feet! It also soon dawned on them that Cyril was an unfair advantage and that they needed an extra couple of players to bolster up their team. Didn’t make any difference. My friend could run through their whole teams blindfolded!
“We then started to mix the teams up, and really enjoyed one another’s company for many summers. I still remember one of them was called “Tassle’s”, a young Greek kid, who was quite a talented player himself.
“All of us were oblivious of the dark cloud of apartheid lurking in the shadows of our adulthood. The moral of the story is that kids are not born racist – unfortunately they are taught racism by adults.”
In Alan’s photographs (seen below), Alan recalls Mr Loy who owned the grocery shop in First Avenue – a person for whom he has such fond recollections. Mr Loy’s daughter now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and she and Alan have remained in contact.
One of Alan’s lasting memories is of Edith Young (nee Johnson), who lived across the street from him on Surrey Street, and whom he visited shortly before his migration to Australia. As a parting gift she gave him a jar of jam and a message to always stay in contact with old friends – something Alan has taken to heart.
