Rag memories
In 2017/18 we put out a call for alumni to share their Rag memories and experiences – thank you to all who responded. To add your memories, please email or write to us: Alumni Relations, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050.
Giles Sechiari (MBBCh 1957)
Giles Sechiari wrote to us from Ormskirk in Lancashire, UK: “Your enquiry has brought about in me a situation akin to what Marcel Proustwas describing in À laRecherche Du Temps Perdu.” He was co-author with his brother Jerome Sechiari and Denis Pryor of an epic poem in Wits Wits 1957 about Lash le Roux. “I realise 60 years is quite a while, although it did not seem so long when we three discussed things over the telephone.”
The opening line of the poem went like this: Lash le Roux went to the Plaza, like Samson to the Gates of Gaza. “Lash is a fictional character composed out of our group deliberationsabout the likely hero of the motorcyclists whose glimpse of paradise was ownership of a Harley Davidson motorbike! Their uniform was the leather lumber jacket usually adorned by decoration and a slogan (in their patois a ‘lummy’). The rival young male group was the Ducktails with their winkle picker shoes. There were some unseemly clashes twixt thegroups – a notable time at Zoo Lake comes to mind and was news worthy at the time, I seem to recall.
“I must add,” said Sechiari, “that the editor of the ragmag was the brother of one of my classmates, which probably playeda part in our awful puns and scansion reaching publication!
“I best recall the 1957 Rag, my last, as an event of fun and camaraderie as well as student shenanigans (leg pulling) and of course Wits Wits that had Lash Le Roux emblazoned on its pages!There was a Rag committee to oversee and organise, with several subcommittees for the various elements that went to make up Rag. My details of these are scant butthe procession and its progress through town needed planning, the Rag queen and princesses were to be chosen, Rag Ball organised and the appointment of editor of the Rag mag. This time consuming task was rumouredto require the incumbent to take a sabbatical from work (or at least some acknowledgement from the tutors).
“Arrangements for issuingcollecting boxes and overseeing their return were strict. A letter of authority went with the box to prove bona fides from the Ragcommittee. Ican recall getting my 'scrounging letter' to prove my official capacity to collect cash for the worthy cause. This letter was also helpful in procuring materials for float building from timber merchants and paint and hardware shops, blackmailed by an army of cunning undergraduate extortionists. I believe that parents were often subjectedto this, especially if they enjoyed any connection to larger stores and warehouses!
“For my part in float building I can recall clearlyour small group. Abe Rubin, later professor of Obst & Gynae in the USA, Ken Woeber, later leading endocrinologist (USA), Dennis Pryor, later headmaster ofa school in Jhb, and not least my brother Jerry, who went on to building and architecture, now in Hermanus.
“Our float could not match those who had corporate backingbut my aunt had a property in Muldersdrift near the Sterkfontein Caves and there she had a derelict HP Singer car that had ground to a halt. When I showed interest, she generously and willingly gave it to me. I knew that if I could repair the car we had the basis for a diminutive float and this is where the scrounging letter became so handy.
“With the help of some motor enthusiast friends we found the fault with the engine (worn jockey pulley on the timing chain!)and following a tour of scrap car merchants in Fordsburg, with luck we had the part and our float was soon mobile. We had to discard the superstructure of the saloon, which was decayed, and make way for a verisimilitude of a boat; at least that best describes it.
“On the day we had to drive 25 miles to Milner Park although neither licensed nor properly roadworthy for passengers! Charity prevailed and our scrounging letter found yet further use, protecting uswhen we were accosted by traffic cops who not only waved us on to RAG but also offered to escort us. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and soon had our box full following the procession and jamboree. After all the excitement we found ourselves at Phins near the neon sign for Lion Beer at the campus front gate as it was, had a bite to eat before going 'up the hill' to our customary oasis in Hillbrow near the Med Schoolat that time. We celebrated our day but it did not dim the memory of a fun day.
“We drove back to Muldersdrift in the dark, but ever resourceful, we had fitted two Lucas Blastfurnace (I think) headlamps and the dark sheltered us from observation, no attention from the bastions of law and soon safe home.
“My final word is that I never wentto the Rag Ball, most regrettably. It was my Cinderella moment.The subject of my desire, alas, had a better offer! Perhaps I had aspirations too high! Happily there is a fairytale ending as I went on to meet and marry a gem.”
Rhoda Toker (Ellis) (BA 1971)
“Oh my goodness – memories from a gazillion years ago!I often joke that I did a BA Rag! Well, for me 1967-1970 was a very exciting, busy time. I spent four years dedicated to Rag and more time in Rag office than in lectures!
“My happiest memory was, of course, being the winning debutante in 1967 and winning a trip on the Edinburgh Castle to Southampton and then joining a NUSAS tour of Europe. NUSAS used to organise student tours in those days. Students joined us in Cape Town from UCT as well! There was a Tukkies group of students on the boat as well – they heard the word NUSAS and avoided us totally the entire trip! It was just an amazing experience meeting new people and touring wonderful countries and visiting all the museums and art galleries and special sights of each country. Eating cheaply and gaining a fortune of weight!
“Back to Rag, which was generally a frenetic time on campus, recruiting of first years to be debutantes, preparing to put together the magazine and then selling Wits Wits on street corners – a huge undertaking – taking a bit of abuse from motorists but really having fun dressed up and trying to collect as much money as possible.
“Mrs Lal Colman, our Rag secretary, was amazing – tiny in stature but she ran that office for years! She would procure a premiere every year at the Civic and the debs, royalty and drummies had to sell advertising space for the programme andsell tickets.
“Then the highlight of everything was the Rag procession through the streets of Johannesburg. One funny memory I have was when in1969 I convened the deb portfolio and we built our float at the home in Waverley of one of my committee members with permission from her parents. We literally took over their home for a week, with students in every inch of their home, making flowers and the truck in their garden being made ready and decorated. All was going well – we worked through the night before the procession – still not making enough flowers though. But then discovered to our horror that we could not fit our float through their gates – we hadn’t thought about that. The family allowed us to dismantle their gates and part of the brick wall to get out of the driveway.Kindness personified!
“Our float had been sponsored by Ster Kinekor to advertise the movie Sweet Charity. It was very embarrassing that we never finished it and the big brass from Ster Kinekor were waiting with the Mayor to see us. I also didn’t think it would be right for my little first years to be dressed like sweet charity. Such a prude!”
Helen (Carman)(BSc Physio 1964) and Noel Joughin (BSc 1961, BSc Eng 1962, PhD 1966)
Helen writes:“I am the scribe in this partnership, so I will give you Noel’s and my memories of Rag. As I remember, there was a lot of imbibing during float building and on the day. The floats were lorries or trucks covered in chicken wire, and we made thousands of tissue-paper flowers to stick into the wire to disguise the vehicles and make them into fantastic creations.We sold the Rag Mag, Wits Wits, all over Joburg, and most people bought them willingly, but some needed a lot of persuasion or coercion!
“Men’s and women’s res students took part enthusiastically. We all dressed up and carried collection boxes. I remember Noel in a nappy, painted yellow, with red ears, with his collection box. We walked next to the floats, and exhorted spectators to give us money. Money was also thrown down on the parade from the higher buildings that we passed. Towards the end of the procession, most students climbed onto the floats, and coins rained down on them. However the students were generally too tired (or too full of beer) to care.
“The prettiest girls with the best figures were chosen as drum majorettes, and drilled to perfection. They looked grand in royal blue, white and gold. Alas, I never made the squad. However, as physiotherapy students, we were all delighted when one of our class was made Rag Queen (Louie Louw, 1963).
John Buttress (BSc Eng 1962)
“I have one clear memory of Rag from about 1959 or 19660.It involves Nick Gay, who rose to be Prof. NC Gay of the Bernard Price Institute. It was the time of nuclear disarmament and hyper intelligent Nick carried a large placard reading Build Bigger and Better Bombs. (Interpret it as you will.) It is a tribute to the power of alliteration that I can remember it 60 years later.
“Another memory is of using my motor scooter in about 1960 to try to marshal the Rag procession. I had a battery-powered loudspeaker but it was like trying to herd cats! As for the Rag queen and princess part of it, we saw it as a bit of fun. They were beautiful girls with personality and intelligence – most of the girls at Wits were intelligent.”
Adjunct Professor Rosemary Crouch (BSc OT 1971, MSc OT 1984)
“I was an occupational therapy student at Medical School from 1957 to 1960. Rag was very exciting, only in 1st and 2nd year for us because our final year was taken up with clinical practice and I was assigned to Cape Town. In first year (1957) we built our coelacanth float on a dirty old coal lorry that had to be cleaned first. We came third and were absolutely delighted! We stayed up all night and then took part in the procession the next day. I don’t know where we got the energy!
“For 1958 Rag I decided to audition for a drum majorette and was very delighted to make it. We were given a pile of material and a diagram and were told to get our uniforms made. I made my own. It was a great moment in my university days and, although frowned on today, it was the greatest of fun. It had something to do with the military precision and we had very skilled trainers – we could not put a foot out of time!
“One event after Rag was at Grand Central racetrack and we processed before the racing cars started. I can remember flying off the track when we heard the engines roaring!
“These types of events allowed us to bond as students and work together. The drum majorettes brought us in contact with other students and I still meet some of them today at the age of 78. Someone will come up to me and say: ‘Weren’t you a drummie?’ This often happens at the lovely annual alumni tea.
“Times have changed and in many ways for the best, but when it comes to women’s rights, even then we really held our own both in building our float (we were mostly women students) and also as drum majorettes.”
Peter Sutherland (BSc Eng 1960)
“Only vague memories -- many of them I've been tryinghard to banish from my brain! The freshmen at Men's Res in 1957 (class of '60) were, like happens every year, treated like dirt. For Rag, we dressed and made-up as ridiculously as possible and were chain-ganged into going begging in all areas of Jozi, starting early in the day and continuing until we were ‘exhausted’ (wink) or our tins were full. It was actually a fun day, enabling us to accost (terrorise?) random, innocent citizens without fear of arrest.”
Professor Patrick Fitzgerald (BA 1976)
“In my second year I co-ordinated some selling of the Rag magazine in Germiston (where I lived) but I never did anything else. I was a radical activist while Rag was for all the goody-goody middle-class liberals!
“In 1975, as an SRC member I opposed Rag giving money to the South African Defence Force Border Fund (in support of the ‘boys on the border’). It was taken to a mass meeting where I spoke against the Chairperson of Rag (Michael Rakusin, a fellow KES boy). Thevote was lost withthe majority in a packed Great Hall endorsing this decision by Rag.
“The losing side (us), bolstered by the forces of the South African Voluntary Society (a university-based student society which built schools in the rural areas during the university vacation), marched out of the hall. This event in some way began what later became the war resistance movement and the End Conscription Campaign.
“The mass meeting where I was outvoted was quite vociferous – I was shocked to see the support for the apartheid army at ‘liberal’Wits). I received abusive phone calls and several death threats leading into the mass meeting and afterwards.
“A small anecdote. These events happened at the same time The Rocky Horror Picture Show (a highly censored version) hit our screens. Before the main picture there was something called Killarney News (this was pre-TV times). Much to my surprise the first item was the mass meeting at Wits and myself facing down the crowd/mob and making a point– the editor must have had some sympathy with me or shared some anti-apartheid sentiments. This vision of myself on the big screen restored some confidence to my battered psyche. And then The Rocky Horror Picture Show began in all its glory, with the song “It’s just a jump to the left”. What a beautiful release from the vicissitudes of apartheid South Africa and the vicissitudes of being an anti-apartheid activist in those times! Rocky Horror always had a special place in my heart after that night.
“When I think back, and there may an element of the arbitrary here, this was the symbolic moment when the struggle against the draft of young white men began in earnest. I think this Rag event at Wits caused us to realise that we had a hard job in front of us to campaign against the apartheid war machine and compulsory military service. A decade later the End Conscription Campaign was in full swing and the Congress of South African War Resistors highly active from exile, both playing an important role in the broad front which ultimately ended the apartheid regime. So thank you Rag for accelerating the understanding of what needed to be done to break the psychological hold of the apartheid system over even supposedly ‘charitable’ white youth…”
Michael Cohen (BSc Eng 1961)
“I’m going back over 60 years; I am now 79, I graduated from Wits in Civil Engineering in 1961.
“I think it was in my first year of Rag that we dressed up in schoolgirls’ uniforms. When I look at the picture I wonder how I could ever have done that. It felt very odd – it was my cousin’s old uniform. In another year we dressed in sackcloth as people form the Stone Age. People found the outfits hilarious.
“In 1958, my second year of Rag, they put me in the deadest part of town where there was no activity and I sold 119 Rag mags. They couldn’t believe it; maybe people felt sorry for me. Rag was a lot of fun and I wasn’t one for alcohol so I had a lot of fun without alcohol and it was for a worthy cause.”
Fred Bihl (BSc QS 1959)
“I contacted two of my friends who were with me at Men’s Res and asked them if they could also comment (Alick Costa and Bert Brown). The summary is as follows:
“As freshers at Res we all had to sell Rag raffle tickets to the public. This enabled us to earn points towards the ‘qualification’ to obtain a Wits blazer at the end of first year. It involved groups of us from res (safety in numbers to avoid being harassed by the Braamfontein ‘ducktails’ on leaving and returning to the campus), dressed in our undergraduate gowns, travelling into Jhb Central in the evenings (by bus) to sell tickets to residents living in the apartments in town. Residents in the Fattis and Monis building in Jeppe Street were particularly generous.
“We participated in the building of a res float each year, including scrounging materials and obtaining a truck for the week before Rag on which we built the float and a driver on the day.
“On Rag Day we were all armed with collection boxes to collect funds from the crowds lining the route the procession took. The Rag Committee always arranged insurance cover for a significant sum in case the event had to be cancelled due to inclement weather.