The Common Vein

August 2009

Living in Australia

Wife Sheli Besser

Children Simone, Michael, Peta-Lee

email hsjanks@tpg.com.au

When I received the invitation about the 40 th Reunion of our Matric Year, it did not feel real. It does not seem that 40 years have passed. I started thinking back over the past 57 years of my life.

I was born on 3^rd January 1952 and lived in Bertrams until we upgraded and moved to Orange Grove when I was 4. I did not go to Kind David Primary school but to Linksfield Primary school where I did battle with many of my future friends on the sports fields playing cricket and soccer against King David Linksfield. I still remember Ashley Davidoff wearing red Adidas soccer boots and playing cricket against Ronald Epstein and my cousin Barry Judelman. The late Barney Meyers used to stop on the way to school at our scholar patrol on a Thursday morning to ask me what the sports results were from the previous day.

I attended King David for my high school years only and must say that I have only great memories from my years there.  My first day at high school was one that stood out, as the Head boy David Goss caught me with out my blazer on and marched me to the prefect?s room for a lecture on the school rules.

 Dave Klopper made an impression on me as he had played football for South Africa. He was also one of the first persons that I knew who left South Africa to settle in another country.  He left and another soccer player Sean Connor joined the school. I can still hear his Scottish accent calling me Janks that sounded more like Junks.

 There are many memories that I have from my time at school, but for me the sports tours to Herzlia and the rugby and cricket tours to Vryheid (Tevis Shapiro?s home town) and to Kimberley really stand out. I still have a cutting from the paper of our 1 st XI captained by Alan Browde being bowled out for 11, after drinking all the way down on the train journey and then the next day beating the better Kimberley school. The Boss was not impressed with us.

 I was fortunate to attend the King David Schools reunion that was held in Sydney a couple of years ago and caught up with many Old Davidians and teachers, some that I had not seen since I had left school. To catch up after all these years was fantastic.  I remember speaking to Mrs. Barkley who had also taught my daughter, reminiscing about her late Dad who I used to speak to for hours about cricket. To see Sean Conner after all these years was fantastic.  I did not realize how many people from our 1969 year were living in Sydney.

After doing my national service I worked for a wholesaler. When the Yom Kippur war broke out, I together with my younger brother Selwyn volunteered to go to Israel. I spent 6 moths on a Kibbutz working before returning to SA. I was involved in the Furniture Manufacturing Industry with Star Furnishers as a sales director for 20 years until we left SA for Sydney in 1996.

In 1975 I married Sheli Besser and we were blessed with 3 children. All three children went to King David Sandton Primary School. Simone matriculated at King David Linksfield. It was strange going to parent teacher?s evenings and to see some of the teachers who had taught me, now teaching my daughter. Simone is a teacher and is married to Greg Schapkaitz (ex King David Victory Park). They have a son Zac of nearly 5 months.  Michael attended King David until he was 15 and finished his schooling at Masada School in Sydney. He is an accountant and is married to Jodi Sacks (ex Kind David Linksfield). They have a daughter Cara who is just over a year old. Peta-Lee only went to primary school in SA and finished her schooling at Moriah College in Sydney. She works in the travel industry and is currently living and working in London.

 We have been in Sydney for 13 and a half years and I am now involved in a stationery business. I still have after all these years something to remind of an institution that I was privileged to attend, my striped colours blazer ? a wonderful memory.