A true Springs veteran

Brian and his twin sister, born in 1928, were the second set of twins his mother gave birth to within four years.

“When my mother gave birth to the first set of twins, after my first sister was born the nurse was taking her to the ward and the doctor said, ‘no there is another one coming’, and the same thing happened with my twin sister and I, ” says Brian.

Brian also has two brothers, although they are not twins. He is one of six children who were brought up in Brakpan.

“Of course in those days you didn’t have any help around the house. My mother did all the housework and cooking, she did everything, she was unbelievable”.

After doing his apprenticeship, Brian moved to Springs to work on the mines.

“I worked at Grootvlei and then at East Geduld and from there I moved into working in the municipality,” he says.

Brian was too young for conscription for the war, but later on he did voluntary conscription in Benoni which he says he was at almost every weekend.

“I really enjoyed it and was fortunate enough to become a Sergeant.”

Brain settled down and got married to his wife in 1954 and had a son and a daughter who both still live in Springs close to their parents.

Brian worked at the municipality for 30 years during which he was the caretaker and electrician for the old town hall and at the theatre. “I was the first full time caretaker at the theatre and I worked there till I retired”.

Over the years, Brian has been involved a lot with the community in Springs and the landmarks such as the War Memorial and he can be seen as a Springs veteran for all the work he has done.

“I came to Springs because I thought it was a beautiful town,” he says, “But I could move out tomorrow because it is now so terrible in comparison to what we had”.

When he was younger, Brian wanted to be a nurse because when he fell ill as a teenager and had to be admitted to hospital, he admired the work that the nurses and doctors were doing. “My father would not let me be a nurse and in those days you did what you were told, so I volunteered for the Red Cross at the Far East Rand Hospital for four and a half years and I loved it, it was really a fantastic experience”.

He thinks there is a lot missing in Springs including a sense of community which the town had years ago. One of his first jobs working at the municipality was working on the War Memorial, which he is very passionate about and saddened by the current state of it and its surroundings.

Despite the lack of community participation, Brian is, at the moment, on the committee for a Music and Arts Festival but he says there are no venues to hold such festivals and the comity cannot afford the price of the Civic Centre. He feels there is a big problem in Springs in terms of a sense of community.

“There is just no atmosphere in Springs anymore and no communication,” he says.

Brian reminisces about what Springs was like when he was younger. He says it was so beautiful and clean. “There was so much to do in Springs back then, there were cinemas and events at the theatre and at the old town hall we had magnificent days there attending shows and events”.

He says that events were always well attended and effort was made to make those events amazing, but now, there are almost no people at events hosted in Springs. Through being on the committee of the Music and Arts Festival as well as being involved with Scottish dancing, Brian and his committee are trying to get children back into having a sense of community.

“We had a magnificent choir evening the other day ay Strubenvale Primary,” he says.

“Seeing how the landmarks I grew up working on and looking at have been vandalised and disregarded breaks my heart but there is just no concern for these things anymore and nothing gets done about it”.