Uncle Cappy was a mentor to his three sons and to many others around him. He was a huge influence in my life. He taught me how to play cricket, how to rough-and-tumble, how to BE THERE for your family; how to do the right thing. That you did not have to be skynheilig to be good.

As Mobiloil’s representative in the district he had new cars every now and then, which were cause for great excitement. His winged green Zephyr 6 Mark III (made 1962-1966), then his stompgat gold Zephyr 6 Mk IV are the ones I remember best.

His job with Mobil took him all over the countryside, visiting farmers and the depots, so he knew the back roads around Harrismith – and sometimes he’d take us along.

He was always available to help: With sport, with Sunday school, with church, with lifts to sporting events, being Father Christmas, arranging picnics, umpiring cricket, playing cricket, coaching cricket;

I was raised by my Mom and her Mom Annie, so was in danger of being pieperig, as they were gentle, quiet ladies. Thank goodness for frequest visits to the Jouberts, with rugged Uncle Cappy, three tough boys and – the toughest of them all – Aunty Joyce! Cappy would show you exactly how to hold a cricket bat; he would warn the boys and if they didn’t listen, physically wrestle them to the ground and donner them. I remember Etienne wrestling back, squirming, protesting and not giving up, and Cappy holding him in a vice grip on the grass until he conceded! When Etienne went one step too far for Joyce in trading chirps and talkback, Joyce would finally get to the point where she’d lean forward from the waist and jeer, ‘Etienne Joubert met ‘n bek soos ‘n skȇr!’ LIVELY action at the Jouberts!

Typical older brother, Etienne would try and get youngest of us all, Deon to do stuff, pushing the little one into taking the risk for our reward. Once when Deon refused, he said, “Chicken!” and Deon instantly and heatedly responded “I aren’t a blerrie chicken cos I aren’t got fevvers!”

Full of jokes and ‘streke,’ I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Aunty Joyce with her Cape accent – she pronounced the Afrikaans ‘so’ as sue, not sewah as we did – that put Tuffy up to this prank.

~~~oo0oo~~~

I wrote to his eldest son Etienne one fine morning, soon after Uncle Cappy had died peacefully in his sleep on his ninetieth birthday:

Et

I was lying in bed this morning listening to the birds and de-fragmenting the hard drive in my head when this popped up on some old grey cells:

Knyptang innie broeksak 
Dinamiet innie gatsak 
VOORWAARTS die Ossewa Brandwag!

Also then, of course you have to remember his song on a moonlit night:

O, die maan skyn so helder . . 
. . op my POEPHOL ! 

He was a huge influence in my life. A very good ‘normalising’ influence to go along with the more conventional, narrow influences!

I’m sure you can remember much more.

~~~oo0oo~~~

Koos,

Yes, he did rather have many funny little sayings.

Hou die blink kant bo was another favourite.

The ‘knyptang’ one he’d say aloud in the yard so that Eben Louw could hear.

“C’mon guys, let’s play the game.” That would be when us children were arguing.

He based a lot of his life’s philosophy on Cricket & the fairness & unfairness thereof.

When he drove me to Pretoria to start in the bank he reminded me:

Never over dress or under dress. 
Do not drink on your own. 
A gentleman leaves the club before seven.

I miss him often in sticky situations.

Have a great day Koos.

Etienne

~~~oo0oo~~~

Uncle Cappy widened our horizons where school and others tried to narrow them down. He showed us how you can be thoroughly decent and also naughty! So many skynheilige people who weren’t a patch on him would NEVER swear in front of us boys, but Cappy did – with a twinkle in his eyes. Now, mind, he never swore in front of us in front of Auntie Joyce! That’s for sure! That mischief was for boys-only gatherings.

~~~oo0oo~~~

As he was Mobil and Annie – my gran – was Caltex, those were the ONLY fuels we would even THINK of using in our cars. Our non-existent cars. We would NEVER use Shell or BP!

So when one day we were in his car at the fuel depot and we saw a Caltex tanker filling up from the BP tank we were MORTIFIED!! What!!?

Cappy calmly set our minds at rest, ‘All fuels are basically the same,’ he said – to our loyal mystification. ‘It’s the additives we add afterwards that make them different,’ he explained.

We were half-mollified.

~~~oo0oo~~~

   'You never forget the people 
who were kind to you in childhood' 
- PD James, English detective novelist

skynheilig – pseudo-holy; fake

stompgat – short tail

pieperig – a softie

Etienne Joubert met ‘n bek soos ‘n skȇr! – ‘Etienne bigmouth’

streke – waggery; jokes; pranks

knyptang, etc – the Ossewa Brandwag was a racist, anti-semitic, anti-British and pro-German organisation in South Africa during World War II. Justifiably angry at what Britain had done to them in the Anglo-Boer war, they over-reacted churlishly. Cappy had volunteered for the war and gone off to battle; on his return his church spurned him for wearing his uniform, so he joined the Methodists – the Methodists’ gain.

O, die maan skyn so helder – romantic: the moon shines so brightly

. . . op my POEPHOL ! – on my arsehole ! The sting in the tail of his mischievous ‘romantic’ song!

Hou die blink kant bo – keep smiling; look on the bright side

Feature pic: Deon, Cappy, Joyce & Tuffy – just Etienne missing

~~~oo0oo~~~