Please read below about my class’s Senior Citizen’s project. The person that I interviewed was my granny, Gill. When you have read about my project, please fill in the comment box and tell me about a senior citizen or grandparent that you know. Thanks
The project starts
Our Senior citizen project started with a tea to which we invited our grandparents, some folk from a Retirement complex next to our school, Â and other retired people in our community. Our class baked for the occasion.
    
     
 Some of us prepared little talks to give at the tea.
The tea
I was very lucky because my granny came to the tea.
She joined our project and comes every week.
This is what I have found out about my Senior Citizen, Gill who is also my granny.
 Gill as a small child.
My name is Gill and in my family there were seven children. We lived in the Highflats in Kwazulu-Natal. My father worked as a shopkeeper and my mother was a book keeper. In those days the popular jobs were nurses, doctors, teachers, farmers and dress makers. Before I started going to school I remember playing happily in a big garden. I loved to play with my dolls and draw with chalk.
Gill’s primary school days
In those days the schools were very strict. I went to two schools – Ixopo and Port Shepstone. Everyday I walked to school. In class we did English, Afrikaans and maths. We wrote in pencil; and then we went over it using a nib and ink. We didn’t have computers in those days. If we were naughty at school the teachers smacked us or sent us to the office. We had lots of homework in those days. On the playground I liked to play Eggie and Aunty over, Sally go round the moon, and Rounders.
Gill as a teenager
When I was a teenager I wore dresses. I didn’t have a cell phone. Our school had some extra murals but not many. In my spare time I knitted, read books or played with friends. In the evenings my family used to play board games, cards or just read. If I wanted to visit a friend I contacted them on the ordinary phone. Guess what? I was grade eleven when I went on my first date! We liked to go to the beach for a date in those days. A perfect date would be to have a date with a real gentleman with good manners. I loved pop music at that time. If I went to the bioscope I liked to watch romance, animal films, or cowboys and Indians films. My mom liked to cook meat and vegetables and she often gave us fruit salad. I met my husband at a beach braai.
Here is a slideshow about the project.
How has South Africa changed since you were a child?
A really good way that South Africa has changed is that all people are now equal and there’s much more public transport.
Can you tell us anything interesting about your own grandparents?
Granny and Jim were like second parents to me. Granny sewed and baked a lot and was never unkind to anyone. Jim gave me one shilling a week and with that I went to the cinema, and bought a crunchie and a big ice-cream.
What advice can you give us to help us in our lives?
Always be true to yourself and respect yourself and others around you.
Are there any herbs and remedies that people used in your days (for colds etc)
We used lemon and honey for sore throats and Jamaica ginger for sore tummies!
Any interesting stories you could tell us?
I loved to watch the sardine runs in those days. We would take our buckets and scoop up buckets of fish in the shallow water.
I remember the time when I jumped from the top of the lockers at school and broke the springs which were made of chains. I then threw them out of the window.
We went away for sport and we traveled on the back of a big lorry. We left at 4am and got back at 10pm. We were usually hoarse from all the singing and shouting.
I loved to serve in my father’s shop. I would weigh sugar into brown paper packets which sold for a tickey or a shilling. I used to cut material which was measured by the yard.
