​Farm life:

My family, the Sussmans, farmed on Grassy Bend, Lea (near Brey) and Knynsa (near Tosca) and later Waterloo outside of Vryburg. As a child we often used to go to Knysna and Lea with our parents. The farm had no power and no running water. Sans a fridge, we had a cooler room and used a wooden stove. The absolute highlight was listening in on phone calls. Then the phone system was a party line - operated by an operator who had to make the call and the connection. Before television, listening to other people's calls was the best entertainment for all ages. During the course of this labor of love I found the death certificate for my late great grandfather, Harold (Hirsch) who came to South Africa around 1913. He passed away in 1938. I discovered that he was a cattle farmer. His son Benno also farmed, first near Mabalstad and then Vryburg. There was a time when our father lived in the Molopo on Knysna and came home for the weekends. Later, my father Isaac also bought farms called Poplars and Weltevrede (near to the Jocums) and Langrand near to Pudimoe. For a while, we also had a butchery - Elgin - in town. It was next to Barclays Bank and opposite the Rauff's bottle store.​ After our father passed away in 1991, my younger brother Brett took over the farming, marking four generations of Jewish farmers. That came to end. 

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Farm life had many highlights. None greater than a swim in a slimy dam on a hot summers day. Walking, horse riding and driving in the veld were an integral part of many a childhood. Helen Kristeller recalls eating Moretwala berries: "I also remember my Dad taking us to the veld to pick brown berries off trees which had thorns and eating the berries." Waterloo and our family gained notoriety thanks to a baboon called Koos who joined the farm shepherd in guarding the flock. (Click here to see the articles - 1, 2 and 3)

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Dawn Rottanburg shared a wonderful note written by her mother Felicia Perel:

 

I have very fond memories of going out to our farm on a Sunday afternoon with numerous friends of my folks and the attendant children. Mom would go around to the homes of various friends, ring a table bell at the front door indicating that a visit to the farm was planned. The farm was 14 miles from Vryburg and there was a big stone house on the farm. When the “volk”* saw the trail of dust coming towards the farm, they would open the house, light the fire in the house, put out the card tables and put out cups and saucers etc. While the adults pursued their card games, we (the children) would go off to swim in the dam. The water was green with lots of tadpoles, grasses etc. but we couldn’t have cared less. We were in there as fast as possible and had a wonderful time. In winter, we would climb the “koppies”+ to pick prickly pears and invariably, or inevitably, end up with thorns on our hands or sometimes in our palates. Oh, the simple joys of childhood!!

 

What was true in the 1930's was as true five decades later.

 

Farm breakfasts were boerewors and eggs, accompanied by Worcester sauce and if we were lucky macon and eggs. No trip to Johannesburg would be complete without getting some Nussbaum produce on Louis Botha Avenue. There were also hunting expeditions -springhares at night using a spotlight and game shoots. Maurice Joffe recalls their family visiting the Grace family farm in the Kalahari and hunting with them. Though old man Morris kept a distance from the community, he and Joe went way back to the old country. The Grace family had a San (Bushman) farm hand called Koopmantitus who was a prolific tracker. On Sundays we used to go to town to fetch the Sunday papers with the donkey or mule cart. Our parents enjoyed a few quiet hours and we gained popularity with the town folk who we picked up and took out to Waterloo. On many a Sunday we had a braai on the farm and went down to the Valley for a swim in the river. Waterloo had a stream in years we were blessed with rain, the river was great for fishing and swimming in.