It is never too late to have a happy childhood...

I grew up in a township.  My childhood was just as  good or perhaps even a little more privileged  than others.  But growing up in the Apartheid construct that was Mankweng Township or Turfloop as it it affectionately known to the locals ,  I had very little public amenities to play around with.  See in the eyes of the Apartheid system, a black child was never to be stimulated.  I had a swing, but it was made my my dad, who spent several days with a welding machine in a bid to bring joy to my world.  The government on the other hand saw it fit that my friends and I should play in the dusty streets  and use use bricks as cars and rocks as dolls.  It's okay I suppose as it fueled our imaginations. We have good memories.

Two weeks ago I went to Turfloop where my parents still live and visited the Post-Apartheid library run by the Polokwane Municipality.  I walked through the all the sections ( there really aren't that many) but what captured my attention was the children's section and what  I found was  there. I found 'The wonderful world of Pooh'. Oh how I would have loved this as a child.  But still at the tender age of 32, it was the only book I took out. And  what I found inside the book , which was obviously donated, was an inscription that said, To Laura, Happy Birthday, From Steve, 1977.  I wonder what Laura's childhood was like...