23. A Model Student Lacking in Confidence

We children were never bored since we had so many interests, and there was always the library just down the road to which we went so often that the librarian declared one day, and I quote her words, “It really is quite extraordinary just how often you children pop in and out of this library!” Yes, we loved the library. By that time, I was into the romantic historical novels of Georgette Heyer. I suppose that my teenage hormones were rising to the fore, and I was hoping that a tall handsome stranger (Richard Chamberlain/Dr. Kildare?) would come into my life and sweep me off my feet. I couldn’t see how I would ever meet such a person, because just about all the schools, except for those run by religious groups, were single sex. They were also for Whites only, something that shocks me today, but which we accepted back then.

Schooling was vitally important in our lives, too. John and I participated in the mandatory sports and joined other clubs and activities. I learned to play the recorder and began violin, but soon dropped the latter in favour of both the descant and the tenor recorder. I played in the school orchestra. My mother would come to listen to school concerts, but my father preferred not to attend. I already knew that he was not into socializing and that he felt uncomfortable in group settings, but I must admit that it still hurt that he didn’t attend my concerts.

My parents expected us children to do our very best. Schoolwork took precedence over everything else. Never was there a question of our not doing our homework, not that any one of us would have contemplated this. We must have been model students. All three of us worked hard, earning top marks. We were respectful, polite, and honorable. I don’t think any of us ever broke a school rule in our lives. We didn’t break any rules at home, either. As the years came and went, neither John nor I had a shred of teenage rebellion in us. Much later, Peter, who was six years younger than me, pushed the limits during his teenage years, but by then John and I had both left Southern Rhodesia, so we missed the uproar that Peter caused by refusing to comply with my parents’ strict rules. They probably didn’t know how to cope with a more typical teenager. John and I had been icons of behaviour and respect. Our parents’ word was the rule, and we knew it.

However, we weren’t unhappy, and didn’t feel repressed in any way. We didn’t have much money to spare, but we were always well fed and well cared for. We knew, too, that our parents cared deeply about us.

Radiogram
(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:X5683_-_Radiogrammofon_Granada_III_-_Gylling_%26_Co_-_foto_Dan_Johansson.jpg