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kerricapazario · 5 years ago

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Plomer Street - The Early Years

Running around and playing all day is what I remember the most of this house. I was born in 1988, we lived here until I was 7 years old.

I shared a room with my little sister, Jessica. All my oldest sibling’s friends nicknamed her the ‘cute one’. i wonder what that made me; I can only expect annoying.

My mother worked from home in our adapted garage, more commonly known as “The Artroom”. She had a colleague named Jacqui who always had weirdly long fingernails, a long dyed dark red hard in a bun and smoked like a trooper. She and my mother pained polystyrene cutouts which has been stencilled from a projector on the wall. This artwork ranged from Micky Mouse to Hairspray adverts. The Artroom was always filled with messed paint and glitter all over the carpet and Jessica and I were always locked out so that we “didn’t hurt ourselves”.

We had a maid named Maria - I LOVED HER!! Maids in South African do everything from making sure we were dressed for school in the morning to making us dinner at night. I don’t remember much about Maria except when she left us. I think she was fired - not sure why, but I was running up the road behind her crying and begging her not to go. Maid’s always lived in quarters on our property. This was the SA way. But they were below us in terms of status, which is sad and something I only realised once I’d left South Africa not even a decade ago.

Jessica and I shared a room, Samantha, my older sister (5 years older) had the room to the right of ours and my parents had the main room which had an en suite. Justin lived with us too, he is my mother’s son but my brother and my dad’s son for all intents and purposes. He slept in, what I think now, would have been the office or study. The door wasn’t a normal one, it staggered across and clicked as opposed to closing as normal. I don’t remember much of him staying with us, but I was young and when I was 5 he was already 16.

Samantha and I want to a school that was a 5 minute walk up the road, called ParkRand Primary. We had horrible looking uniforms that were made up of yellow button up t-shirts with short sleeves and a navy blue sleeveless dress that went over it. My mother always used to put pig tails in my hair as much as I would cry for her not to, I used to walk around at school holding the two tails together in order for it to change my appearance.

My first class was Grade 1 and I vaguely remember my first day. My mother took the usual first day photo’s and I felt very proud to finally be on my way to ‘big school’. Sam went to the same school, she would have been in Standard 4.

Samantha was blonde and popular and we always had a number of boys and girls outside our house coming to visit. These are the ones who dubbed Jessica with her nickname.

I looked up to Sam in many ways and wanted to hang around her and her friends. Understandably, she never wanted me around. I get it, it’s the same way I looked at Jex. But Jessica and I did a lot of things together and were treated more as twins. We are only 2 and a half years apart and did everything together. When describing their 3 girls, it was always, “Samantha and the girls” which annoyed me. Why were we always what sounded like Samantha’s back up dances? Why couldn’t it be, Kerri and the girls? I suppose it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

So yes, Jex and I were brought up like twins. We had a bunk bed, we wore the same clothes, bathed together every night and received birthday presents on each other’s birthdays up until about the age of 10.

In retrospect, Jessica was very cute. She had beautiful blonde mousey hair and chubby little cheeks much like her daughter now.

My dad worked a traditional office job and was gone early in the morning and came home at night. Every night, he would come home and open up his suit case and give Jessica and I each a sweet. This carried on much until my pre teems - thanks for the weight gain dad!

Candice is our eldest sister who is 14 years my senior and lived with her Mother and Brother. She is my father’s child and unlike Justin, did not call my mother her mother in any way. That’s a story for another day.

I remember Justin got his first motorbike and I got my first bike for Christmas and when my dad was teaching me to play in the garden, I fell and hurt myself and he made me get back and try again. I don’t really remember Christmas’ in this house other than one - probably because we have pictures to accompany it. Jessica and I sat at our red plastic table and everyone sat together on the big one. My grandad was there, my father’s dad.

I used to run away a lot when I didn’t get my way - this happened quite a few times except that by run, I mean, I’d pack a bag and go sit right outside our gate on the pavement as I was scared to walk up the road by myself. My mom always said, I used to run around the house naked like a bushbaby. There is a picture to prove is unfortunately.

We had 3 dogs, Oliver, a sheepdog, he was lovely and I remember him passing away under a tree in the garden. My mom was distraught - she loved him. We had a pavement special, also known as a mixed breed, named Tunder. I don’t remember how he passed away. When I was about 4, we got a staffie named Boris who was my dad’s dog - he was the boss.

There were also a few cats running around. Some run away or got run over, unfortunately but I was very young. I do remember getting TJ, who stayed with us for over 20 years - more on her later.

Like more family’s, we had our traditions like, on a Friday, we would all go to the video store and my parents would let us get 2 videos. They would watch theirs on a Friday night and we could watch ours on the Saturday Morning. We would also get a takeaway and looked forward to that weekly spoil.

It is a time that I wish I could remember more of. I wish I could see my old toys or watch my parents bring us up. Take me back to 5 years old please...if only!

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