My daughter and I am sitting this morning waiting for her class to begin on Zoom, scrolling through the online shopping catalogues, drooling over clothes that a) She can’t afford, and b) will never fit me😅 But it’s nice to daydream and get excited about things we will probably never have. I love her sense of style in music, fashion, movies etc. She reminds me so much of myself at that age and it scares the shit out of me…if she is really like me, I see tough times ahead and understand why my Mother always just sighed and said, “I wish you have a daughter and I wish she is exactly like you, so that you can see the shit I have to deal with everyday…”well touché Mom. Hope you are enjoying the chuckles up there in heaven 😂😇
While looking at clothes, we start chatting about shoes. I’ve never really cared much for shoes…they should protect your feet, be comfortable and match every outfit…Once again my youngest displays the same attitude towards shoes and we have the same alternative taste in fashion (should I feel honoured or worried, guys?) So now I have to show her the shoes I bought with my first pay check! New Rocks with springs in the soles…🙄 Don’t judge! Of course my daughter loves them 😍 (couple of notches on my street cred😎) and tells me she would like a pair of Doc Martin’s but they are so expensive…and for a moment I could see my blood pulsing through her veins and heart…I can be sure that she was not switched at birth – that’s my daughter all right😏 Her class eventually starts on Zoom, and I start searching for the store I bought my Doc’s from when I was 15…who knows, if it still exist, I can maybe surprise her one day and just casually stop there because she needs new shoes and I heard they had a sale – this is what I love about being a mother! 😁
Found them!! Still in business after 30 years! They have moved to PTA (good thing – when I was 15 they were located in a shady part of JHB) and would you believe, moved to the neighbourhood I was born in and stayed until age 4! I have a handful…and I’m serious it’s literally about 5 memories from that period in my life, but I wonder…Maybe I will be able to recognise the house if I see it? I know we stayed across an open bushy area…with a river and bridge. Does that sound right? PTA is one of the biggest cities together with JHB and Cape Town…a river and a bridge in a street with residential houses…in a suburb…in the city 🤣 In my defence, I was only 4 years old, and at that age every thing seems big and wow! So I start looking around on Google maps and spot a thin blue line, like a river maybe? So I grab that yellow, cute dude with the dangling legs on Google Maps (he’s so adorable!) and plant his stubby feet in the street running parallel with that blue line. OMW! You are going to think I’m fibbing but the first visual image opening up on street view is a bushy area with a bridge (I shit you not😲) leading to the other side of the neighbourhood and I just know that if I turn around, my parents old house will be behind me. So I do… and that’s the house, I’m sure! All my old photographs are in storage, but I know this is the house. In one of the photo’s I can remember, I’m playing in that garden in front of that house in a lime green dress with white socks and black little shoes – cringey fashion sense, I know, but our parents used to dress us in horrible coloured corduroy pants…need I say more? 🙄
So I messaged the only person who might be able to tell me if that was our address over 40 years ago and am anxiously waiting for an answer. I’m sure she is either in awe of my spectacular memory at the age of 4 or…WTF, why would she remember her cousin’s address from over 40 years ago…or, shaking her head while telling her husband how sad it is, that Levina’s daughter lost a couple of marbles in that accident…I know it’s totally improbable, but not impossible that I might be correct…That would be awesome! You never know how things will turn out, like today for example…one moment talking about shoes with a spring in it’s step and moments later taking a stroll in the avenues of the past…
UPDATE!!!
So it’s the next day and I just HAVE to give an update!! 🤸🏻♀️ Haha, but I guess the cartwheeling emoji sort of gives it away. WTF are the odds? I mean, I was 4 years old when we moved from there and have only been in that area once or twice again in the 40 years after that!! I am gobsmacked and even more amazed by this grey jumble of strings in our heads! Ok, so the river part made it easy – but that’s the thing – that river part is one of the few memories I have of my dad and I, walking across that bridge and him explaining to me what quicksand is…no other reference, just that memory from when I was 4 or younger. A little translation of what my aunt said: “…Wow, you know what, your are completely correct with that address. We had fun times and I have many fond memories of every time we visited there…”
Like I said, you don’t know how things will turn out, never say never, even when the odd’s are highly improbable it’s never impossible! Sometimes you just have to go with your gut…From a spring in your step to a bounce in your heart, leaping into faith!
