Mr Zandhuis...

[JohanB]

I remember, a couple of years before we left, he (Mr Zandhuis) moved into the house right accross the road from ours, in 2nd Street. He was the headmaster at the time, so it was every schoolkids duty to hate him, especially after you've been to his office a few times!

Since he now lived right accross the road, I used to take a tennis racket, and hit smallish round stones with it, high up in the air, all aimed to come down on his roof. You'd get to hit like 10 before the first one hit his roof, and then we'd stand dead still behind the fence, peeping between the planks and watch him parade up and down his fence looking for the culprits... After 2 minutes, he'd go back inside, and the barrage would start all over again.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! ..... Dok! Dok! Dok! Dok! Dok! Cling-a-ling!! and so on...

If you were really lucky, you'd hear glass break sometimes! Now that I'm big, I can only imagine how it must have driven him nuts! I'd be at him for an hour at a time, and he never thought about looking in the other yards! He always appeared to be looking for kids around the corners playing tok-tokkie!

Someone else wrote about how we kept ourselves busy, and were never really bored, and I have to admit, they were dead right saying that...!!!

[darryl weidemann]

i think i spent more time in his office than i did in any classroom. i used to think that his canings were the be all and end all of life , then i got used to them , after which i ended up laughing more than anything else .......until i got to high school

[Michele Alexander (Voden)]

Mr Zandhuis, was actually a very nice chap and a most excellent geography teacher..... I enjoyed it when he taught geography...

:o

[Nicky Hodge]

Absolutely Michele, he was the one teacher who broke the mould from the old fashioned way of teaching to the modern method. He really made his lessons fun and different. I can still recall him now, explaining the difference between "John O Groat's" and "Land's End" in Britain. He would knock on the door and let "John O Groats" in. He would then knock on the door and let "Lands End" in. He would "introduce" them to each other, and have them "talk about themselves". All this was done, with us all in fits of laughter, and because we were enjoying it, the information stuck, even to the present day. He was strict without being over the top, and always struck me as a very fair man. If you crossed him though, look out!!
I can remember one evening, just on dusk, Richard Gerstener and I were bouncing a bouncy ball to each other, over oncoming cars in 13th ave. As bad luck would have it, I misjudged the distance of a particular car, and the ball became trapped beneath the chassis and the road, bouncing really fast between the two surfaces. The sound inside the car must have sounded quite amplified, as the car in question came to a rapid halt, and who should step out ....., non other than Zandie ..... Eish !!
I copped an absolute mouthful, and was told to report to his office first thing the following morning. Needless to say, I bunked the rest of the week due to " a sudden onset of stomach cramps".
Where did He and Budgie end up retiring to?, and where are the girls?   

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

Spoke to them in Hermanus a few years back.Do believe they retired there. Zandie taught me in Std 4 + 5. 1968 1969

[Nicky Hodge]

Thanks for that info Diana.

[Cheryl Quantrill (van Greunen)]

I remember him bringing the Great Trek to life with demonstrations of how ox wagons were ridden by perching on the back of a chair and the class roaring with laughter.

[georg ruf jr.]

Hey Nicky.
You're description is just perfect. A teacher we all respected and learnt a lot from.
I remember one of his favorite sayings: "Do you want to get a hiding, hey!" or "Watch your step, hey!". But he never hit anybody. Compared to the two fellows (don't remember their names) that taut?! us Afrikaans and PT. We were scared sh*tless by them.

[Bev Burchell]

Hi again George

Yeah the Zandhuis's have retired to Hermanus.... they live in a retirement complex called "Kidbrooke" just before Hermanus in fact.  I am sure they are in the phonebook if you want to get hold of them.

regards

[georg ruf jr.]

Zandie always appeared to us as an old man because of his grey hear. His brain cells were always fit. I remember he played hockey and cricket.
I still see him walking about. It seemed, he was always moving, but never in a rush

[Julie Vice (Willson)]

What a gem of a teacher

[georg ruf jr.]

What a gem of a teacher

When did you have him as a teacher, Julie?

[Julie Vice (Willson)]

Gosh it feels like 100 years ago, '75/'76 not sure

[georg ruf jr.]

Nice to see you're online again Julie.
If you went to his classes at that time, we must know each other. I did std. 7 in Mrs. Ralphs class 1976.
I had Mr. Dickens in Maths. That's all I remember now.

[Michael Alexander]

Link check: http://www.oranjemundonline.com/Forum/index.php?topic=214.15