The Common Vein

1952
On the 6th February 1952 King George VI died. My father, Max Koopowitz said ?The king is dead, long live the Queen? and I was born.
Needless to say, I had a lot to live up to!

Welcome to Welkom!1954 to 1963
My parents owned a trading store in Welkom where we used to spend our afternoons after school. My kleptomania started around the time I went to Nursery School. I used to have a very small suitcase (I was a very small girl) that I used to fill with things like sweets, combs, necklaces, more sweets, and bananas, all the loot I stole from the shop and from the pantry at home, and take them to school. My earliest memory of nursery school was opening my little suitcase and smelling the bananas after they had been there for more than a week. To this day every time I smell rotten bananas I want to vomit.
My primary school years were spent at St Agnes Convent in Welkom, where I went, along with all the local Jewish kids.. it was great because we used to get Jewish Holidays, Catholic Holidays and Public Holidays! The only trouble was, our sports day was always held on a Saturday morning and we had to go to Shul, so I always missed the Egg and Spoon Race! After a while they decided to change the sports day time to 1 .00 p.m. so I was allowed to go after Shul. This was the start of my running career.
All the nuns were German and I am sure that some of them were left over from the Nazi Germany days! there was one particular Sister, who had quite a sense of humour. She was late for class one day and was very puffed and she said ?sorry I?m late girls but I was out in the garden tending the vegetables and didn?t realise the time? so I stood up and said ?Sister are the dagga plants still doing well?? and she laughed her head off and gave me a smack on my wrist with the sharp part of the ruler.
My best friend at primary school was Catholic and we used to go to the chapel after school and get down on our knees on those velvet cushions, and pray to Mother Mary. My mom took me out of the school after that and I wasn?t allowed to pray to Mother Mary.
We rode our bicycles to school and the movies and used to leave them unlocked outside the movie theatre (bioscope). One day, I came out of the flicks and my bicycle was gone. I still haven?t told my parents.
I used to wear bobby socks (those long white knee socks) and almost got beaten up by the Reitz girls who hated bobby socks or me.. I nearly crapped in my pants when one of them walked past me and made a comment. Their father used to run the OK Bazaars store in Welcome and they were the type of girls who had MULLETS. We called them ?cheap? in those days.. still, I was petrified of them! I never wore bobbysocks after that.

King David High School

The story starts in 1963 where at the end of that year, after my parents sent me to Habonim Camp and I left early because I was so homesick (Michelle Hellman?s mother let me sleep in the sick bay until my cousin came and got me!).. they decided to send me to Boarding School, along with all the other families in Welkom, sending their kids to the same boarding school, Sara Lea, Barbara Cohen, Johnnie Hersch, Alan Horwitz, Nicky ? can?t remember everyone ..

Anyway, so Form 2 landed up at KDHS in Mr Connor?s class. I thought he was awful ? I couldn?t understand his Scottish accent, he was so rude to me because he didn?t help me at all (I had no idea where I was or what I was doing) and so I went to Norm and asked him to move me into another class, but that meant I would have to take French, so I did. I had to have extra lessons in the afternoon which was great because it meant I was ?free? from boarding school for the time it took for me to walk to Madame?s house in Tregoning Street!!

I was in Mr Morrison?s maths class, taking extra French lessons, having absolutely no idea what I was doing and managed to fumble my way through school until Matric where I failed miserably because I didn?t study one single thing except typing and shorthand which I passed with flying colours! When I went to get my certificate from Norman?s flat, he said to me ?yes Janice, you will never amount to anything ? your marks are dreadful!? I grabbed my certificate and tore it up in front of him and said ?you?re an a-hole Mr Sandler ? I never liked you and I never will? then I woke up.
The real story is that he did say I would never amount to anything but because I was probably so pleased to be finished school I didn?t say anything back to him!!
I was very shy at School, hence the fact that no-one remembers me because I never said ?boo? to anyone and kept mostly to myself. My only claim to fame was the fact that I was the first girl in the hostel to bunk out, climbing out of the window and running down the street to the steakhouse, only to find that Shai Rappaport beat me to it! They put bars on the windows after that!!!

I was very fast on my feet and my dad always told me that was where my brains were.. So, after school, I used to train with Paul Nash, who ran the 100 yards in 10 seconds. I had a big crush on him! I loved running and I loved going to the Wanderers to train! There were so many boys I could run after on the track even if they didn?t know I was there!! I was heartbroken when I twisted my ankle two weeks before we were meant to run against Northview and I couldn?t run. I think Ronnie won that race?.

Fast forward to ?
1974 saw my parents desperate to get rid of me to some poor unsuspecting bloke, so I married a guy called Eddie Ward or Edward Ward as he used to call himself. His parents were from Rhodesia and he was terribly British. We used to argue a lot about everything so in the end we thought it best to go our separate ways.
1978 ? I used to go to Swaziland quite a lot to visit a friend of mine who lived there and so met my very first and last dark in colour (coffee colour) boyfriend! He was from Mauritius and part Indian and smelt of garlic but I fancied him like crazy and we used to talk on the phone for hours .. actually I only ever met up with him twice but we had a lot of phone conversations and he spoke with a very ?la- di d a? accent! (there is a pattern starting to develop here with the accents)

In 1980 I decided to put in emigration papers for Canada and Australia leaving my options open and whoever decided to have me, I would go to that country!
Australia was first to accept me (probably because they realized I was a kleptomaniac from Nursery School) !! and so I left South Africa, with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes to come and live in Sydney.
I arrived in Australia on April 14th 1981 and who was the first person I met? On the very first day I arrived, my brother in law had a business meeting with Manfred Levy. I travelled all the way around the world and the first person I meet is someone I was at school with! He didn?t remember me either!!
The first place I lived at was Hornsby Heights ? if anyone of you live in Sydney you will know where this is? its like living in Pretoria and having to commute to Johburg to work.. I didn?t stay there very long and eventually settled in Cremorne Point after moving about quite a lot and having different flatmates.
Worked at a fragrance company called Shulton, who manufactured Old Spice, Blue Stratos and Pierre Cardin fragrances. My job was Marketing Co-ordinator. I must have been good at my job because after a few years my boss tried to promote me to Marketing Manager and I got the horrors because he said I would have to present the brand at conferences in front of people and would have to learn how to speak in public!! I just couldn?t do it ? I used to practice in front of the budgie, in front of my nephews or in front of the mirror.. I was always great! But when the time came to do it in front of an audience, I knew I would freeze! So what could I do? I left the company after 5 years of being there. No-one told me to do a Toastmasters Course did they?!!!
In the meantime, I met my future husband Greg, who is from Kenya and who was an ?ex pat brat? who?s father was head of a shipping company called Nedloyd and lived in Hong Kong. He had a lovely la-di-da accent as well ! he was also a lot younger than me.. he was 25 and I was 34! I remember meeting him and thinking ?this one I?ll marry? but It took us a while to get married (8 years) and we have been married for 18 years! Both of us decided that we did not want to have children as we are both quite adventurous and can?t stay sitting for too long! Greg is a great white hunter brought up in Kenya and Tansania and has lived in a lot of countries, finally settling in Australia straight from Hong Kong, which was quite a pleasant shock for him as he prefers the open spaces to the apartment life!

Once we settled down after we were married and after my mom had her terrible accident, we decided that it was time to do something different. I started a promotional products business and Greg continued to do computer programming. Eventually he came to work with me as ?Sales and Admin Manager?
Boy did that work out well or what ??!! never employ your spouse ! So after a few years, once we had made enough money, we decided to buy a farm where we could retire. We didn?t know anything about growing coffee ? we saw it as an investment property with nothing on it but rolling hills and a few cattle and horses. but it somehow ended up that Greg started reading up about how to grow coffee and we took a chance, sold our house in Sydney, moved the office to Dunoon, sold our apartment in Avalon and with the money from that, we bought a tractor, 18,000 coffee plants, put a shed up, bought a ride on mower , 2 dirt bikes and a buggy! The last three are essential items to have on a farm ? must have fun if you have lots of land!!
Our coffee was planted by 9 hippies, who arrived at work with about 3 teeth between them, stinking of BO, rolling their own cigarettes (I think they were cigarettes) and with very hairy armpits and legs.. and that was just the girls!!! By the end of two weeks we had 18,000 trees (or very small plants) planted. Six months later, the rains came, and came and came and came.. we were living in a waterfront property for a while, our plants were all drowning, about 4,000 of them were sliding down the hill, the rest were very distressed.. it was a terrible time.
Just after that I decided to buy a Hair Salon in Byron Bay ? I thought I may as well seeing I spent so much time in one!! Whilst we were waiting for our coffee trees (the ones that made it out from the floods), we needed money to live on as I was trying to cut back on my promotional products business so that I didn?t have to spend too much time in Sydney. The Salon was great for that, but because Byron Bay attracts a lot of transient people, all you can employ are transient people, who stay there for 3 months and move on.. so it was always a problem getting good staff.

After a couple of years I decided to sell the salon and thankfully made a profit! I continued with my promotional gifts business and thank heavens the coffee was now starting to take off! We were roasting other farmers coffee, as we still didn?t have any of our own (it takes 4 years to grow to a stage where you get beans) so we wanted to get our name out there so people knew there was such a thing as Australian coffee!
We had our first harvest in February of this year and sold the bulk raw green beans (or naturals) to a guy who paid $11.00 / kg. I think we had around 6 tons of coffee ? a very small amount .. but enough to start paying back what we already put in! We hope to harvest in September/October (hence the reason I can?t go to the reunion!!) and hopefully we will double or triple our tonnage! We are quite proud of ourselves for having a go at something we knew nothing about, and thankfully were successful at! I can now boast that I am comfortable speaking in public!

Next year we plan to take our motorbikes on a trip around Australia ? we have been around parts of Australia on bikes but not on Harleys ? this will be a first !! MORE TO COME !!!

Mom

?. its funny what you said about the bird.. when my mom died, we had this black and white bird hanging around the house as well and we named her after my mom (I always assumed it was a she).. she had one good leg (the other was crooked). The reason we though it was a SIGN my mom was still here is because of this story: I got remarried in 1992 to Greg and two weeks after we married my mom and her two friends went on a holiday to the Gold Coast (here in Aus). They were walking across the road (green pedestian light) and all three of them got mowed down by a bus which was driven by an incompetent driver. The first two friends were lucky and only suffered minor injuries, broken arm, scratches etc but my mom lost her leg. So of course had to live the rest of her life with 1 leg.. she eventually died of breast cancer in 2000 but when we saw the bird.. well ? it was her!!

On PJ?s

On Motorbikes

Janice Jansen November 13 at 4:59am Reply 

oh yes I forgot.. the new motorbike! remember the movie ?The Great Escape? with Steve McQueen?? well I?m sure you all remember it.. he rode a Bonnie in the movie and I have wanted one for a long time but my hubby talked me into a Harley so I bought the Harley and am not happy with it, (a) its so bloody loud (b) its so bloody hot on my legs (c) it can?t corner (d) it doesn?t like stopping suddenly (e) the clutch and gears CLUNK and basically I?m sick of the bearded toothless Harley riders I come across. Now the Bonneville is a dream to ride, as soon as I got on it and went around the first corner, I had a big smile on my face and couldn?t get rid of it! It was so light and so easy to ride, the seat was comfy, the gears a dream.. okay it doesn?t have forward controls (which means you can?t stretch your legs) but at least you can stand up if you want, it is easy to ride and I am soooooooooooooooo excited! yeahhhhhh!!!!

On Too Much Debate on KDS Bursary

the last thing as an Aussie, I would want to do is give anything to an aboriginal.. they get everything handed to them on a plate.. all my donations go to worthy causes like prostate cancer, breast cancer, guide dogs, etc. I have no spare money to hand out to any kid to go to King David. All education should be free. Enough said about this shit. ENOUGH is ENOUGH. please take me off this thread if you can.. I am sick of this conversation going around and around. If want to give, I give, there are no arguments about how, when , what who or where. Just DO it .. don?t keep going on and on about it for fuck sake. It seems everyone is trying to ?one upmanship? on the next person. This is not why I wanted to contact all 69 students again.. it was supposed to be fun. now its just a pain in the arse. There. I?ve said what I think.