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Fellow pupils whose names I remember were Eduard (Eddie) Ladan, later to become a well-

known artist, Barbara Biden, daughter of Leo Biden who wrote an authoritative book on Cape
sea fish, and Paul and Don Nelmapius, and Peter Atkinson.

Miss Kemp believed also in bringing out our other talents as we had singing and acting. We
put in A A Milne’s “Where the Woozie wasn’t” with Peter Atkinson as Christopher Robin,

Paul Nelmapius as Piglet, and myself as Pooh Bear. We had a concert in the hall down in

Main Road and did a scene from Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Eddie Ladan as Bottom,
the beautiful Barbara Biden as Titania, and the rest of us as elves.

I was only at the school for a year but it continued for many years afterwards. In the late
1940s Miss Kemp and her sisters, Caroline and Margaret, were both retired and living in Kalk

Bay. I often spoke to them after church on Sunday or when meeting them when they took

their walks along to St. James.

MRS CASSIDY’S SCHOOL

Barrie Gasson

This kindergarten school was situated in the old stone house ‘Viewforth’ on Mentone Road,

St. James. Sheila Cassidy (known to all the children as Mrs Cass) started the school probably

in 1946, after the war, during which time she had been active in SAWAS and at the Seahurst
Auxilliary Military Hospital. Her sons Brian and Donn were away at school in Rondebosch so

the house could be turned over to some 15 or more children from St. James, Kalk Bay and

Fish Hoek for the morning hours. We started the day in the dining room where there was a
piano and all furniture had been pushed to the side. We began with prayers and this moved on

to ‘news’ in which we were encouraged to talk about anything that had happened the previous
day. She drew us out of ourselves. She also made us recite our home addresses and phone

numbers. We did some PT on the floor, sang, and did simple plays like scenes from Swan

Lake. Later we climbed a very steep, rickety and narrow flight of stairs to our classroom
where we sat at small tables and small chairs that fitted five and six-year olds. We learnt the

three ‘Rs’: writing with slate and also pencils, elementary arithmetic using bottle tops as