The Common Vein

Compiled by Sam Sharp

  Mr Connor

  Sean walks in to the class and yells: ?Stillerman Oout!? Stillerman promptly takes his basher and blazer from the hooks at

  the back of the class and marches out, upstairs and along the passage towards the (Cape Dutch) Admin Block, a

  hundred form 2 eyes following him, I have since heard, as he goes ? what can he possibly be up to? All the way to the

  Bosses office! Sean gets called in and sheepishly enters the bosses office to answer ? why did you kick Stillerman out the

   class for no reason!!! Please don?t do it again Mr Connor! As we walk out the bosses office, Sean turn?s sheepishly to

  me and says: Stillerman would you like to play a game of golf with me?! We had a great game at Huddle ? can?t

  remember who else was there ? hacking all over the yellow course as if the best of friends! Always had a good bond since

   then. (Stillerman)

  At the 2007 reunion in Sydney, I reminded Mr Connor that at PT on the rugby field in Form 1 he would say to Hilton

  Frankel ?Ay Frankel yer grunny?s a co?boy?. He remembered saying it but not the reason. I remember it because Hilton

  and I are related and I knew his ?grunny? and she was no cowboy. (Sharp)

  Sean Connor ? taught us about wee ?long and cross tots? (Stillerman)

  And in form 2C when Ivor Myerson protected his head from a klap from Sean Conner, but had a compass in his hand which

   went straight through Sean?s hand!!! (Miller)

An Email from Sean Connor September 2009

Great to hear from you after all these years

I was trained by you on the soccer field but never had you as a teacher in the class. I have 4 children all of whom played soccer and I particpated in the training of their teams.  I quote your ?Puuush it? mantra for the short passes ? and I try my best to give it an Irish brogue ? and quote your wisdom of how to connect the ball with a team mate in an accurate way when they are close by??.Not too much force ? a special instep position of the foot and then just right movement to make an accurate connection  Its the story of life ? how to make the connections

Thank you for keeping your connection with our group.   We are trying to accumulate the bios of our teachers together with ours ? ?

 No teacher hs beeen bold enough to send their bios our way.   We challenge you to be the first one  tell us where you came from why you came what you experienced and why you still keep the connection going

?Puuush it?   It would be great

 

  Mrs Barclay

  At our 2007 reunion in Sydney, Mrs Barclay was one of the teachers present. I did not think she would remember me but

  went up to introduce myself, saying that she taught me in 1966. Her reply: ?No Sam, it was 1967?. And of course she was

  correct. (Sharp)

  Mr Benny

  Mr. Goodman ? He never taught me and I?m not sure he taught to anyone in our year. His nickname naturally was ?Benny.?

  I remember Alan Browde teaching us the song

  ?There?s a little old man from Yeo street Yeoville

  Go Benny, Go Benny, Go Benny Go?

  accompanied by a chorus of

  ?Boom-chicka Boom-chicka, Boom Chicka Boom?

  while others banged their fists on their desks in time to the song. (Cramer)

  Miss Berman

  take out your testtttt books not your texttt books (Davidoff)

  Class:  ?Chips here comes Butch?.  Butch: ?Chips?  I?ll have a packet?.  (J. Lippa could do this perfectly.  I bet he still

  can) (Sharp)

  Butch Bermann: Don?t But Me no Buts! I?ll kick you over the Rugby Posts! Textbook: Legacy of the Past. (Stillerman)

  Mrs Berry 

  best dressed teacher on the staff (Hellman)

  Mr Briers

  Mr. Briers (manual training) on how he lost 3 fingers in an electric saw to illustrate how careful you have to be because

  the saw can take off one?s fingers so quickly you won?t even realize it

  ?Someone says ?whose fingers is those finger? so I look at my hand and I see 3 fingers missing so I says ?those are my

  fingers’?. (To be said with a very hard Afrikaans accent.

  He was also a racist and when he flapped you he made you walk slowly around the table so that by the time you were ready

  for the second flap it was really starting to sting. (Cramer)

  Mrs Cohen

  you cannot be separate and equal. (Hellman)

  Mr Colwyn

  ?Pull cheek slide? in freezing water (Sharp)

  Mr Crawford

  Till Assembly a few weeks later: Screams the Boss: ?Will Stillerman and Sahpiro please see me in my Office ?

  immediately after Assembly!?. Stillerman and Shapiro saunter up to the Boss?s office and enter? There on his desk are

  our exam papers!! So I take a peek at my paper and? lo and behold ? I see in huge red writing in a circle 0/100!!! At

  which I promptly burst out laughing !!! ?Why are you laughing?? belows the Boss! ?Because it?s the Biggest JOKE!?

  says Stillerman, not really knowing what he was saying ? in the Bosses Office! Can?t quite remember after that! Flaps or

  something no dount!! (Stillerman)

  The year before us made mirrors that swivveled on a base.  There were a few that were left in the Crawfords manual

  training room.  Colin Shaprio was right at the back and did not have much room to move so he spent the year with his back

   to the board and saw most of the year through one of these mirrors perched up at the back of the room.  When he finished

   some product he made, it was the wrong way around ? mirror image. (Sharp)

  tell me about pinus sylvenstrus (Davidoff)

  it is alleged that he does not actually mark the exams ? he decides to either throw darts to work out the marks for each

  person, or he throws the papers down the stairs and sees where each paper lands!!!! Sooo, Stillerman and Shapiro

  decide to put Mr Crawford to the test ? to proove that he does not actually mark the exams. Sooo, the exam question is

  ?Draw a Plane?. Sooo, Stillerman and Shapiro both proceed to draw elaborate diagrams of an Airo Plane! Exams get

  handed in and all is forgotten. (Stillerman)

  Miss Deveaux

  Had a habit of inadvertently (I think) folding her fingers while she read to us so that it appeared as if she was pulling a

  sign (Sharp)

  Mr Dominee

  Was he known as the ?Flying Dutchman?? (Sharp)

 Ms Freed

She was,  I know ,the teacher who had the most influence on how I think and love the English language. She allowed each student to progress and grab the most out of what she had to say and teach. She was a real force and I was sad to learn she had passed away.  One day she came into class wearing large sunglasses and she was not the leanest of women.  As she sashayed into class someone said  ? you look very Hippy, Miss Freed? to which Ivor Myerson replied ? yes, Hippi-potomus.?  The reason I loved her was that she too laughed and we all carried on with the lesson.  I think that day I learnt the lesson of being able laugh at myself. (Selesnick)

  Mr Goldberg

  Leslie Singer has to remember the day he swung a huge bunch of keys ? tied together on a large ring made of string ?

  around his wrist and the thing flew off, did a nice parabola Morrison would have appreciated, and landed square on the

  head of our Hebrew teacher Mr Solly Goldberg as he entered the classroom. (Sharp)

  Rabbi Isaacs

  Rabbi Isaacs tried his best to teach us Rashi. For many years I regretted not learning to read this because of all the

  nonsense we performed in his class. So one day I downloaded the alphabet conversion from the internet, and now I can

  read Rashi. I wonder why it weemed unrumountable then. However during one of Rabbi Isaacs classes, the girls passed

  around a tube of red paint. We all dribbled the paint under our nose and told him that there was a virus going around that

  caused us to have bloody noses. We all spent the lesson in the washroom giggling and taking the paint off our faces. He

  was a very kind and patient man and let us go along with our pranks. (Perkel)

  In form 2 we used to have Rashi, taught by Rabbi Isaacs of Cyrildene shul. We generally gave him quite a rough time.

  One day just before he walks in, Errol Price (who was a congregant at Cyrildene) goes up to the board and writes across

   the top ?Help, I am trapped on the other side of the board?, backwards, i.e. right to left as if it had been written from the

  other side.

  He obviously had something planned.

  The lesson started but Errol took his time. When he was ready, he suddenly pointed to the board, yelled ?Look Rabbi,

  someone is on the other side of the board?. With that, Errol runs up, starts hammering on the board yelling ?Are you okay

  back there?? The Rabbi glances round totally perplexed. We were all hysterical. Others rushed up to join Errol. Everyone

  got in on the act. The place was like a riot. It was hilarious. The poor Rabbi was helpless. I don?t remember how it was

  resolved, and would like to hear other accounts. However, eventually order was restored.

  A few minutes later Mr Katz, head of Hebrew walks in. It was uncanny and I don?t know why he asked this but he says to the

   Rabbi ?Is Price behaving himself?? There was a short pause. And then, to his eternal credit, showing great loyalty to his

  congregant, Rabbi Isaacs quietly says ?Not bad. Not bad.?

  Anyone else please fill in the gaps.

  A few years ago, when Errol and his wife Heather came to live here I related this story to her in his presence. Incredibly,

  he had no recollection of it at all. (Sharp)

  I would like to add apice to Sam?s story about Rabbi Isaacs. Rabbi Isaacs liked the class windows to be open and Rabii

  Katz liked the windows to be closed. Wehad the Rabbis teach us back to back. So before Rabbi Isaacs came ini, we made

  sure that the windows were closed. So when he came in, the firt five minutes were spent opening the windows. Then when

  Rabbi Katz came in, the first five windows were spent closing the windows. (Perkel)

  Mr Jordaan

  Mr Jordaan who use to write ?Yom Ha?Din? in Hebrew on the board to announce upcoming exams (Sharp)

  Mor?e is vandag! (Miller)

  Mr Katz

  Treat me like a dog and I?ll bite (Davidoff)

  In form 2 we used to have Rashi, taught by Rabbi Isaacs of Cyrildene shul. We generally gave him quite a rough time.

  One day just before he walks in, Errol Price (who was a congregant at Cyrildene) goes up to the board and writes across

   the top ?Help, I am trapped on the other side of the board?, backwards, i.e. right to left as if it had been written from the

  other side.

  He obviously had something planned.

  The lesson started but Errol took his time. When he was ready, he suddenly pointed to the board, yelled ?Look Rabbi,

  someone is on the other side of the board?. With that, Errol runs up, starts hammering on the board yelling ?Are you okay

  back there?? The Rabbi glances round totally perplexed. We were all hysterical. Others rushed up to join Errol. Everyone

  got in on the act. The place was like a riot. It was hilarious. The poor Rabbi was helpless. I don?t remember how it was

  resolved, and would like to hear other accounts. However, eventually order was restored.

  A few minutes later Mr Katz, head of Hebrew walks in. It was uncanny and I don?t know why he asked this but he says to the

   Rabbi ?Is Price behaving himself?? There was a short pause. And then, to his eternal credit, showing great loyalty to his

  congregant, Rabbi Isaacs quietly says ?Not bad. Not bad.?

  Anyone else please fill in the gaps.

  A few years ago, when Errol and his wife Heather came to live here I related this story to her in his presence. Incredibly,

  he had no recollection of it at all. (Sharp)

  ?All talking sheeshes at five to eight? (Cramer)

  Don?t remember all the teachers that year except a few. I think that?s the year Mr Katz taught us some Rashi ? it seemed

  like the same sentence every lesson ?Yeter, Choten Moshe?? Still don?t know what he was trying to teach us, but I guess

  I can still read a bit of the Rashi script today. (Stillerman)

  Mr Katzew

  the red haired wiry hebrew teacher from Israel We asked him where he got his muscles ?Got my muscles from picking

  olives in Israel (Davidoff)

  Mr Klopper

  Form 2 K Mr Dave Klopper?s Class. He would grab your neck, squeeze and say ?Stillerman, why have you not done your

  hoomeework???!!? and not let go?

  Incident 1 of the year: Klopper comes in one afternoon to do the Register. Sits on his chair and gets up again very slowly

  lift a drawing pin up from his seat in his hand and holding it up in front of the class in bemusement! As I knew nothing

  about this, I naturally burst out laughing ? enthralled that I had finally seen someone sit on a drawing pin on his chair!

  Needless to say?. No one else laughed as most of the guys knoew what was going on! So I was prime suspect number

  1! We had to stay in all afternoon until I (or someone else) would finally own up! Eventually we got home? but guys kept

  coming up to me for years after that ? saying ?Stillerman, why didn?t you own up to putting the drawing pin on Klopper?s

  chair??!!? Decades later, about 10 years ago, a guy comes up to me in our Shul and says: ?Stillerman ? you know who put

   the drawing pin on Klopper?s Chair??? It was ME!!!?(None other than the famous Lesley Singer himself!!!) I guess

  some of you guys knew that all along ? didn?t you? (Stillerman)

  Mr Konviser

  remember his car It was a metropolitan nash (Leveen)

  OK ? so we gave Konni a hard time that year ? please forgive us! Worst incident? There?s Konni chasing me around the

  prefab above the tennis courts. The guys split open a row of desks to let me through, and then close the gap so Konni

  flies over the top and lands on the other side!! (a bit exagerated, but true no less!). (Stillerman)

  Konvisor said to me ?your barmitvah is a tickey high, why are you rushing it? (Leveen)

  In form 1 we actually worked very hard and well with him to do our barmies. George and I both did the same full Sedra with

   extra lessons, the record and the whole shabang, for which I am truly grateful to my parents and Konni. I can today still

  lein from Torah with the trop he taught us, as well as any Haftorah. It is one of my greater pleasures to do this on a

  Shabbat morning. Later in High School around 69 he taught me the full benching and Sheva Brochas for my sisters

  wedding, for which I am also grateful. His passing several years later was very sad indeed. (Stillerman)

  ?When my mother asked Konvisor how I was doing re my Barmitzvah lessons he said,

  ?Vell, Mrs, Cramer, if I was starting a kvior I wouldn?t invite Philip?? (Cramer)

  Mr Krause

  also read and taught with the book upside down and backwards (Davidoff)

  a guy who spoke with quite a posh English accent but taught us AFrikaans. Oh boy. Quite a debonair character. What

  was his name. With a K. Krause or Krauser maybe. He had an ability to punch a brick wall tremendously powerfully and

  not hurt himself. (Sharp)

  Mr Lowry

  Mr Lowrie caused some controversy at this time by apparently saying that ?The Jews have as much right to Israel as the

  Chinese have to Australia?. I think in the KD environment at that time, he had to take leave of absence?! He did return

  sometime later. (Stillerman)

  History ? the legendary Don Lowrie?. Took us tediously through the French Revolution up to where Villeneuve lost his

  Nerve! I liked his circle showing how the extreme left and extreme right meet up ? both in totalitarian regimes like

  Stalinism and Fascism. (Stillerman)

  Thick horn rim glasses that he nervously drove up his nose with an index finger (Davidoff)

  Dave Lowry in 1967 had a habit of walking up the isle toward the back, making his points off the top of his head (and

  flicking it at the same time), and then reversing down the same isle. Linday Leveen sat at the front and kept moving the

  teachers table in his path so that he would crash into it and move it away. Repeatedly he would collide with the same

  object, mysteriously reapparing in his path. (Sharp)

  Mr Morrison

  He was our cricket coach in Form 2. Once in class that year he gets me to come up to the front of the class and

  demonstrate a cover drive. Puzzled, I comply, going through the required motion. He says to me ?See how you followed

  through there. Well, in the same way, next time rule off when you finish a problem.? (Sharp)

  I still remember Mr Morrison teaching us to draw a parabola neatly ? by focusing on the whole picture ? the furthest

  imaginary points on the curve, rather than the nearest ? a lesson I have tried to apply in life as well. (Stillerman)

  Mr Pearce

  Another sad memory is the day the bee hive opened on the rugby field and hundreds of bees swarmed out . I remember Mr

   Pearce taking action and protecting the students by herding them into the classroom and averting more bee stings. One

  of the victims was Sharon Diamond who wound up in the hopsital and was later released. BTW, she is not on the list of

  matriculants at KDHS. (Perkel)

  Mrs Pieser

  Her car was put on the balcony of the Admin Block (Miller)

  Miss Rickerts

  Mrs Rickerts used to call Ronni Hellman ?Ronald? (Sharp)

  Eric threaded about the young arfikaans teacher Rickerts and her low cut dresses. I remember the gawking was called

  ?sessions?. Instead of saying we were going to gawk we would say we were going for a session (Leveen)

  Mev Riekert who kept on bending over showing us her tits (Stillerman)

  thick Afrikaans accent and used to make me read aloud all the time (Hellman)

  Miss Rosenberg

   Heather Rosenberg ? gorgeous magical teacher ? I loved listening to her read poetry to us ? totally mesmerised.

  (Stillerman)

  Mrs Sadovsky

  Mrs Sadovsky ? swinging from the Chandeliers! Taught us Julius Caesar, Dickens Hard Times and the rest.

  (Stillerman)

  Mr Savage

  that incredibly good looking rugby coach? (Hellman)

  Miss/Mrs Shapira/Ostoriviak

  Ah- mention of Noya (Shapria) Ostowiak. I was in love with this woman from the moment I laid eyes on her and was

  crushed when she got married! She liked me too (not in that way unfortunately) and was of enormous help to me in matric

  and was essentially responsible for my getting a distinction in Hebrew.

  I am afraid that I enjoyed outrageous favouritism from her. She would send guys to the office if she caught them chewing

  gum. When she caught me she would smile and say ?Oh Sem?.

  I remember she once organised a debate in form 4, to be conducted in Hebrew. Should Israel have diplomatic relations

  with West Germany? She appointed me to speak for the negative. I was pretty good at this stage, having just returned

  from the Ulpan. I still remember the elements of my speech and at the end, she came up to me, almost in tears, and

  thanked me.

  One other time she gave us a lecture on Josef Mengele. By the end she was in tears. I asked her if she had lost family in

  the Holocaust. She had not but was overwhelmed in telling the story. (Sharp)

  Noya Shapira (or Shapria as per Sam) and Nili Amiel ? thanks for the memories ? had the hots for Noya too ? She taught

  us Pirkei Avoth ? still the most valuable lessons of hebrewhood at KDS ? the Hillel mantra ? that has become an obvious

  top mantra for this group Went through the limud website ? but did not recognize any of the names of the lecturers Looks

  like an amazing program I still do not know exactly what you are up to. I know it involves Germiston and Wits Medical

  school but I cannot tie those together (Davidoff)

  I too loved Noya Shapiro She was tall and slender. She told us how her brother was a fighter pilot in the IAF (Leveen)

  One of my memories ? I have this foot fetish ? maybe because my Dad was in the shoe business ? I remember her long

  slender (naked) feet in sandals (Davidoff)

  Dr Thomas

  Doc Thomas ? the legend; You bloody Ponk! Stillerman: Come to the front on the right; Shapiro ? come to the front on the

   left. Now bend over; Now Charge!!! Made a deal with my mom I could give it up if I passed Form 1 Latin. Thankfully I

  scraped 56% and do not regret the foundation it gave me in understanding some of the roots of the

  English language. (Stillerman)

  Mrs Van der Vesthuizen

  who had that undefinable quality of being able to stamp her authority on the class without ever raising her voice. (Sharp)

  Mr Webster

  Later 67 David Adler and Eddie Webster, two young history teachers set up our current affairs society and arrange a visit

  to the SA Institute of Race Relations, where we spend the day interacting with colleagues from different races and

  cultures, watching movies on prejudice and stereotypes ?. Another life changing experience, demonstrating how peace

  and understanding are actually possible in practice. (Stillerman)

  Mr Williams

  Boozie Williams played Rugby for Hilton against Michaelhouse on a field full of cow and sheep dung. As the scrum

  folded and his face got pushed into the ground (I think as hooker) he would hear a loud and strong voice shout out?

  More Pressure in the Rear Michaelhouse!? (Stillerman)

  Mrs Woolf

  great teacher (Davidoff)

  Mr Zimmerman

   Meish Zimmerman hits the roof ?with his twinkle toes. OK Stillerman ? this is IT: You are grounded ? you are not going

   up Massada as punishment!? The bus trip to Massada next day was quite sombre, with sympathy expressed by a few kind

   people such as Collette and maybe Mrs Berry (!) if I?m not mistaken. Nevertheless we go to bed in the youth hostel ?

  and Stillers is plotting and planning?. How can I miss Massada on this momentous tour to Israel ? impossible!!!

  Needless to say, up at around 3am ? off we go up the legendary Snake Path of Massada (Stillers in the thick of it!!) What

  could Meish actually do?? Turned out to be a most memorable experience ? watching the yellow ? red ball of the sun

  rising over the Dead Sea horizon ? (if you?ve never done? please do it!) Can?t remember what Meish actually said or

  did to compensate for this deviation from plan??!! Think I was restricted to the bus for some brief time maybe?? On we

  went to swim in the Dead Sea and then on a long bus ride all the way up to the North and to (Stillerman)

  Rosh Hanikrah on the Lebanon border! Meish?s strict instructions ? ?No Straying off the Path?. Definitely No Swimming

   in the Sea!? There we are walking down this path overlooking the magnificent azure sea and down towards the grottoes

  (In those days you had to stop at this point? today, the cable car takes you all the way into the amazing caves). And

  then? Stillers strikes again. Gathers a group of rebels and all together they crawl along the coral of the pathway and

  then jump? into the beautiful turquoise blue water!!!! Soon we have a whole group of guys in the water!? and then we

  join hands in a large circle!? in the water! ? and then we begin to sing! And dance! The Horah! ?Havanagila,

  Havanagila!? I really can?t remember what Meish had to say at this point in the story!! I imagine he must have been

  thoroughly exasperated!. Nevertheless, justice was seen to be done! As we get back on the bus, we (the meshugena

  crew and me: can?t quite remember who was in on this one) realise that our feet are all cut to smithereens by the coral!!!

  And aching with pain! We had to be taken for tet injections and I suppose painkillers (can?t remember where). A story

  worth telling and reliving!! (Stillerman)