We were now on our way to South Africa on board the S.S. Nestor.
Pop liked to sit in the lounge after dinner and manipulate a deck of cards. He did it for practice and to keep his hands flexible but as the evening wore on people would slowly begin to gather around him. Dolly would sit on the sidelines, enjoying the expressions on the faces of the passengers. I must confess, I was as fascinated as anyone. Pop could always fool me with his card tricks or coins,
On arriving in South Africa, Dante was told that he must post a bond of fifty pounds for each member of the company. This was to assure the government that we would not be stranded and unable to leave, I assume.
When the time came for departure, Dante, I think with good foresight, asked for all of his money, earnings as well as bond refund, to be paid in gold. We were given several sacks of twenty dollar gold pieces. The day after we sailed, Britain went off the gold standard, which meant that we would have suffered quite a loss if we had taken paper money. He continued this practice for some time and in 1934, when the United States went off the gold standard, we were in fine shape, having most of our money in sacks of gold!
There was a particular trunk that the gold traveled in. “Uncle Fred’s trunk.” It actually was a trunk that had belonged to Pop’s brother-in-law, Fred Bitner. The family and most trusted members of our company knew about the importance of Uncle Fred’s trunk and made sure it was well looked after.
Before this arrangement was worked out, on leaving South Africa, Pop gave the sacks of gold to Mom and she distributed them amongst the family. Even so, she always carried a very heavy handbag!
We played Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg then back to Cape Town and Durban.
In Johannesburg Pop bought Bill a motorcycle. The family all felt that Bill was his favorite. Whether he was or not, he always seemed to get anything he asked for. He had such a wonderful disposition, everyone loved him. He could be a terrible tease with his little sister though but then he would make up for it by taking me for a ride on his motorcycle, which was forbidden! He was allowed to ride between towns on his “bike.”
While in Johannesburg, Dolly bleached her hair and surprised everyone. Pop liked it.
We did more sightseeing in South Africa than usual, going out into the country to visit the natives, the Bantu living in huts made of straw and grass or sod. The huts looked like beehives or huge baskets turned upside down. The natives wore bone and metal ornaments in their ears and noses and some had plates in their lips.
I was surprised to see “rickshaws” in Johannesburg, pulled by jinrikisha boys. There was one in particular, he was an older man, a celebrity, his costume was a magnificent array of feathers, headdress and tunic, so he did more posing with tourists for pictures than pulling his rickshaw.
We went down into the gold mines in Pretoria, wearing heavy raincoats, hats and high boots and after the elevators took us deep into the earth, I understood the need for the rain gear. There was a constant drip of water wherever we walked. We were given chunks of rock with visible veins of gold in them.