The Common Vein

Tevis Shapiro

Bio

Having read so many wonderful Bio?s over the last few weeks, I am a bit embarrassed to post mine because, compared to what is already posted, it is really a history of material non-achievement!

Anyway, here goes!

I arrived at KDHS at the beginning of the 3rd term of Form 2. Those of you who have read what has already been posted will know that I referred to an incident at my school in Vryheid which resulted in my leaving rather quickly.

By way of background, Vryheid was, at the time, the centre of the Northern Natal coalfields and was thus quite cosmopolitan in its make up.

Fairly large English population and a big German population, to the extent that at primary school, German was one of the languages taught. My late Dad actually had a regular bridge game with a German chap who had served with Rommel in North Africa.

There were the usual ?JEWBOY? comments which I learnt to ignore until the annual boxing evening at the school at the end of 2nd term. I was usually OK during the 2nd and 3rd terms because I played rugby for the school teams so was acceptable. Common thread there.
My boxing team manager was a German whom I subsequently learned was a member of the SS. When I got into the ring, I saw I was to box my 3 rounds against probably the biggest guy in our form. As we got to the centre of the ring he whispered in my ear ?I will hit you once and please go down and stay down? I didn?t realize what was happening, didn?t stay down and got the biggest hiding of my life. It only came out later that the teacher had chosen my opponent specifically and told him to really beat me up.

So, I arrived at KDH Hostel as a little Dutchman from Vryheid who actually spoke better Afrikaans and Zulu than English.

Thank the Lord I was put in a dormitory with Bobby Heilbrunn and so it started.

First class was Sean Connor! As he walked in he said to me, in that brogue of his ?You?re new here? I agreed and asked how he knew. He said I kept quiet and stood up when he walked into the class. Quite a difference from my previous government school!

I must say that I was lucky in that I had the most remarkable friends in the hostel, among them Bobby [he was my Best man 1st time round], late Hilton Cohen, Alan Crown, Manfred [Doos] Levy, Paul Paster and many others [Including Janice in Aus!]

I recall mike Medjuck telling us that if we didn?t shake up our ideas, we would all end up in jail!!! Kyk hoe lyk hy nou!!!

Only really enjoyed 2nd term because that was rugby time and the games against all the Afrikaans teams in the Brixton and Langlaagte areas. We used to laugh when the opposing teams could not work out how a team from a Jewish school actually spoke Afrikaans. We had quite a few hostel boys in the team.

Did just enough work at school to stay under the radar and pass Matric. The boss actually tried to persuade me to repeat Matric, not because he was concerned about my marks but rather because he wanted me to play another year for the 1st team..

Thinking back, the only teachers who really got to me and thus I performed were Eddie Webster and Sue Freed!

1967: ULPAN. This was going to be the experience of a lifetime and I suppose it was, but not in the manner that I had expected. The day before the trip to the Golan Heights, some horseplay in one of the rooms and I ended up with a ball point pen stuck in my eye. Everyone went to Golan and I went to Hadassah Hospital for a week. I still recall the party that the group had for me the night before I left to come home. My folks kept the telegramme that Meish sent them. It read ?Your son is in hospital with a serious injury. Not in danger. Will contact you on return to Jerusalem? Bear in mind there had been a bomb blast in the Old City the day before and an Israeli warship had been sunk near Eilat. Also no-one was at Pension Margoa so they couldn?t find out what had happened.

Anyway, alls well that ends well. Had sight in only one eye for 25 years and then had a transplant and am fixed.

Drifted through school, playing rugby, bunking out of the hostel to the Six Gun for old man Golante?s burgers and pink sauce and the Radium Beer Hall for the odd beer.

Highlight of Matric was the trip to Herzlia. Saw some of the pics posted, particularly the one of a group of us at Millers Point. Doesn?t Choni look good!!

After a brief excursion at Medical School at TUKS, went to Wits and graduated after some time, as an attorney. Have been practicing as such since then. Maybe one day I will get it right and won?t have to practice anymore.

Built quite a reputation as a criminal lawyer but no longer practice that type of law any longer. Was on the receiving end of violent crime a couple of times so decided to cop out of the criminal courts.

Shortly after getting divorced from my first wife I met Felicia! She became my soulmate and I had the best 20 years of my life until March 2008, when she died.

As for my boys, Gideon, the younger one, matriculated at Herzlia at age 15 and took 4 gap years, working in England and traveling across Europe. He is now reading History at Bristol University. I envy him!! He blames Eddie Webster because he says I love history so much and that is due to Eddie!
Joshua, the older one has, unfortunately, taken a different path. He joined the Church of Scientology as a full time member .He has copped out of the real world and we don?t really have much of a relationship anymore. This was the beginning of my Annus Horibilis. He told me the news a day before my mother died, which was a week before Felicia was diagnosed.

Anyway, shit happens but the sun rises in the East every morning and so we go on.

Reading of all the wonderful achievements of the 69?ers is, for me, a bit depressing but at the same time wonderfully uplifting. Mine just seems to be a history of material underachievement. If nothing else, it has forced me to re-look my life and think on issues that I had avoided doing for decades and for that I thank each and every one of you.
It has been great re-connecting with all you guys from all over the world and the ?bittereinders? still here in the Beloved Country!

KDHS

I arrived at KDHS at the beginning of the 2nd term in 1967. Strange timing but this was occasioned by an anti-semitic incident at my school in Vryheid. It was caused by a teacher who had been in the Whermacht during the war and he had some comments about my late father who, like Terry?s dad, had been captured in North Africa, put ?in the bag? and ?gone over the wire? when the Italians capitulated. He also kept in touch with the Italian families who helped him make it to Switzerland. He was a typical Litvak so didn?t talk about that period of his life. History lost!
I recall my 1st day at KDHS. Felt the pressure so decided to go for a smoke in the bottom bog after the 1st period. Robert Lawrence walked but wasn?t wearing his blazer. Asked me what I thought I was doing. I replied that if he didn?t know I was having a smoke he had better wise up!!
He returned 5 minutes later wearing his blazer and off to the Boss. Norman?s words were ?I knew I would see you soon but I didn?t think it would be this soon? Also said ?This will hurt me more than you?
Might add he had a vested interest! His family in Kimberley introduced my parents to each other!
Who remembers Molefe, the bus driver who drove the sports teams to away games.
Pulled at my heart strings to read Stillers reminiscences about 67 Ulpan. I had already come back to SA when all those tours and incidents happened.

Maternal Grandfather .. Almost Unbelievable

Coincidence: My maternal grandfather came to SA about 1890 on a boat from Lithuania. He was told, on arrival in Cape Town, to go to Malmesbury which was a 30 mile walk up the road.Whilst walking along the road he saw a man walking in the same direction and thought he recognized him from the boat.
After a few hours the greeted each other. To cut a long story short, the other fellow was my late wife?s grandfather, They started the Shul in Malmesbury and the 4 grandparents are buried next to each other in the Malmesbury cemetery. I met Felicia by accident nearly 100 years later and we married [2nd time for both] and it was a marriage made in heaven till she passed away last year. Coincidence?

From Blindness to a Wedding

Alls well that ends well! 25 years after losing my eye in Israel, I had a lens transplant and VOILA, I had 2 eyes again. Quite an adjustment.
Terry, by the way, how long did your family live in Kimberley

Sam, youve got a better memory than I have. I do recall we couldn?t fly direct to Israel at the time. Didn?t we fly TWA to Rome and then to Israel or am I mistaken.
I had the transplant in 1992 and when I cam round from the anaesthetic, Feliciua was sitting next to my bed and the first thing I said to her was ?Will you marry me?? She said she would give me the answer when I had recovered my senses. She accepted my proposal 5 years later. We often joked that I took a long time to regain my senses, if at all.

My Dad

The only story my father told me about the escape and journey from the South of Italy was after seeing a movie with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastriano called ?Sunflower? War movie set in Italy. Scene in the Milan Railway station at the bottom of a cast iron staircase down to the platform. My father told me that he and the 2 youngsters he was with were at the bottom of that very staircase and he overheard 2 SS officers discussing that the train would be stopped 200 meters outside the station and anyone with suspicious papers would be shot next toi the railway line. They decided to catch the next train!

 People think I am Losing It?.