A Life in C Major

A LIFE IN C MAJOR By CHRIS SCHUTZ Copyright Dr C.J.Schutz schutz(a,usinet.co.za tel. 021782 4244 2014 Cover design: Reinet Blignaut Cover photo: A Class 19D sets off for a long run: Courtesy of David Bern. Printed by Zip Print - Fish Hoek. FOR PIERRE, REINFT AND CAROL AUTHOR'S NOTE I have been blessed by my children's interest in my past. It is in response to their questions that I have written this account. It is the story of how Christ became the major influence on my life, and what happened as a result, hence the title of this book. C 772cz/.or is also a musical term and my favourite key when playing the oboe - a key without shaxps or flats. It also mirrors my desire to live for the Lord without my own discordant ,Sharps' or ,flats' . My daughter Reinet had asked me to describe my early years, "leaving nothing out." I have therefore concentrated on my history bc/ore marriage -after that my children were there, so they knew what happened! Nevertheless, I have added a brief overview of experiences from marriage to the present, just to round things off. As I grew up in the Age of Steam, trains have always been a part of my life -hence the cover photo. ACKN0lvLHDGEMENTS Reinet put in much hard work in improving some of the text, and also the art work for the cover design, for which I am very grateful. I am indebted to my wife, Milly, for editing, for encouragement and for tolerance. Likewise my brother, Bill, helped with editing and suggestions, often recalling shared experiences from our childhood until the present. I wish to acknowledge the help received from my son, Pierre, with unfriendly computer programs. He was very patient with his slow-brained father. Daughter Carol also contributed expertise on matters Adz.croro/f - thank you. Then Mark Kirby, friend and professional I.T. boffin, responded frequently to computer emergencies, for which many thanks. My mother, bless her, had kept many of the letters and postcards which I had written from countries foreign. These were great memory-joggers. Fortunately I had also retained various documents from the time of the events when they occurred, including my own diaries from 1949 to 1952. I have listed some of the important published literature I consulted, at the end of the book. Unfortunately most items are likely to be out of print, but possibly available on the internet. Since studying together, Angus Wilson and I have climbed many mountains and have remained close friends. My thanks to him for permission to describe some of the crazy things we did. My thanks also to Andrew Peppetta for permission to describe our teamwork during travels in foreign countries.. Despite efforts to obtain permission from others whose names or quotes appear in the text, some could not be traced. To them I apologise. CONTHNTS 1. EAELYYEARS 2. UNION HIGH SCHOOL 3. TEENS 4. FINAL SCHOOL YEAR 5. STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY 6. FORESTRY 7. CAUX 8. MACKINAC AND U.S.A. 9. B:RiLZIL iENT) THE TIGER 10. PERU 11. BOLIVIA AND CHILH 12. ASSHMBLY OF THE AMERICAS 13. SOUTH AFRICA 14. CONFHRENCH FOR TOMORROW'S AMERICA 15. CONRAD HUNTE 16. PHTER HOWARD T] . "SING OUT '65" TS. "GET GOING GUYANA" T9. "SPRINGBOK STAMPEDE" -AEND TWO OE US 20 ..... AND AFTER 21. CONCLUSION APPENDIX 1. Some extract; from Peter Howard's letters to me 2. Some extracts from Peter Howard's letters to others 3. Family Tree RECOMMENDHD READING CHAPTER 1 EARLY YEARS I was walking up Newlands Road in the small hours of the morning cold, carrying a bag. There was no traffic, the street lights were dim (a war time precaution) and the world was completely silent. I was eight years old. Inside the bag were sausages. Eventually I reached the construction site where the road was being upgraded, marked by dim, flickering, red paraffin lanterns. The elderly night watchman, warming his hands over the glowing coals of a brazier outside his hut, was expecting me. He immediately produced a frying pan and we started to cook the sausages. I don't think we talked that much - we just enjoyed each other's company, and eventually the sausages. I revelled in the atmosphere -just the two of us, surrounded by the silence of night and the world still asleep. As it grew light, I helped him collect and extinguish all the red lanterns. Then back home for breakfast. Mom's sausage bill must have increased, as I did this over several week-ends, but with her blessing. Our home, Ec7e72sz.de, near the lower end of Newlands Road in the Cape Town suburb of claremont, was the flrst home that I could remember. The family My arrival on the 24th February 1933 at a house in Alma Road, Rosebank, Cape Town had apparently not been greeted with enthusiasm. My parents were Willem and Jessie Georgina Schutz, and my brother, Rudolf Wilhelm ("Billy" as a boy, now "Bill") had been born 16 months before. My earliest recollection of him was at the age of about two years, when we were both sitting on the beach at Sea Point while I was eating sea sand with enjoyment! My father, a civil engineer, eventually became Chief Engineer of the Cape Divisional Council. He was born in Colesberg in December, 1902, where his father, Wilhelmus Lodevicus Fourie Schutz, had founded the law 1 firm Schutz & de Jager in 1900. Wilhelmus had married Maria Catharina van Rooyen. I never knew my grandfather, as he had died in the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic at the age of 45. But I do remember Ouma, as a stern, imposing figure dressed in black. We children were rather afraid of her, but she left money for our university education -bless her. According to a recent book on country law firms ("Gentlemen of the Law" by George Randell), my Oupa had been Sir Abe Bailey's attorney, and this wealthy and influential client, when passing through Colesberg frequently telegraphed his legal adviser requiring a consultation. Schutz would then board the side-line train known as the "Coffee Pot" at Colesberg and travel the two or three miles to Colesberg Junction station to meet Sir Abe. On several occasions Schutz acted as the auctioneer at the sale of Sir Abe's farm properties. This was a tremendous honour for a country attorney. Until recently the law frmi was still known as Schutz & de Jager. My father had three sisters: My Aunt Dolly (Christine) was a respected Afrikaans teacher who never married. Also a teacher, Aunt Hettie married Johnnie Loock, a Karoo farmer. Aunt Irene married Vemon Jenvey who worked for the Railways, but sadly eventually to die of asthma. She then settled in Colesberg where she was a wonderful carer for the elderly of the town. Further back in our ancestry it would be nice to believe that we are descended from the greatest German composer of the 17th century, Heinrich Schiitz (1585-1782), but we are unable to trace our ancestry before 1767. Schutz with or without the if772/czw/ is a very common surname in the German speaking countries. The first Schutz to settle in South Africa was Johannes Augustus Schutz,1767 -1821, born in Harburg, Germany. In 1803 as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church he was on his way to China, mainly because of the Napoleonic wars. Due to the shortage of ministers at the Cape and the ill health of his wife, he was easily persuaded by the Governor to make the Cape his permanent home. Ministers of the D.R.Church were government employees at that time, and he was appointed to Swellendam. In his unpublished book ,J.A.Schutz' (1994), Judge W. P Schutz believes that 2 J.A. was "intelligent, cultured, well educated .... one of the leaders of the community, but often bored by the frontier that he had never really chosen, and bored by many of its bigoted and uneducated people." Judge Schutz adds that "his especial weakness, however, was a disposition anxious for contention. (This gene is not yet wholly lost after the dilutions of many generations)." Although not an alcoholic, his drinking was at times excessive. This led to his suspension without pay, for two years. Upon promise of reforin, he was appointed to Graaff-Reinet in 1816, and moved with his family as the first residents of the newly built Reinet House pastorie (now the Graaff- Reinet Museum). There are silhouettes of him in the museum and in the consistory of the big D.R.Church. There had been no minister for quite a while before his arrival, resulting in a backlog of weddings and christenings. Sadly then by 1818 he had resumed his drinking habits, and was dismissed from the church. He then settled in Paarl, where he died three years later. My mother, Jessie Georgina Schutz, had worked in the Income Tax offlce before she married. She was a keen hiker and member of the Mountain Club. She was born in Cape Town on 6th February, 1901. Her father, Frederick William Hobbs, had been born in England in 1870. His father had been a piano tuner, and FW was a talented violinist. As a technician in the British Post Office, he was transferred to Cape Town in 1890 (civil servants in those days could be transferred to any outpost in the British Empire). He also played his violin in the orchestra in the Cape Town Opera House. After installing the first telephone exchange in Kimberley, he returned to London in about 1898 to marry Jessie Georgina Goldsworthy, born in 1869, a highly rated dressmaker.

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