Contact with the Johnsons

Retha asked whether I still have contact with the Johnsons.

Yes, I am very privileged to have had contact with them through these 40 years. My brother visited them the year after I left and he was treated like a king by them. A few years later, my parents visited them - and my mother came home with lovely salad recipes that we still make. Thelwyn took part in karate world championships in the U.S. and she and a friend flew across the U.S. to visit them. They had a great time. Jan visited them a year later - a detour after a business trip in Atlanta.

I had always dreamed of visiting again, but Jan and I only managed to visit them again in 2005. We had a splendid time. Ellen took us to Yellowstone National Park where Anne worked at the time. (She has since retired.) We had also gone there when I in my A.F.S. year. It's an unreal place and not to be missed. When I was in primary school we once watched a movie about Yellowstone and cowboys and afterwards my friends and I played cowboys and dreamed about Yellowstone - Actually being there - of all the wonderful places in the U.S. - was a dream come true!

Reesie organised a reunion in the Conrad mansion and it was a great afternoon with lots of "Do you remember" and "What happened to so and so.." The Conrad mansion was the residence of the founder of Kalispell and built in 1895. It is a beautiful Victorian House and right across the Johnson residence.



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Mother, Anne, Reesie, Dad, Me, Ellen and Jan on the front porch of the Johnson residence - an old brick house with a flatroof - unusual for Montana.

Steve Sutherland who had taught me to snowski in my A.F.S. year took us river rafting in the Glacier National Park and Ellen, Jan and I hiked on Big Mountain - we went up with the ski lift and hiked down. It was early spring and there was still snow on the mountain, but Ellen marched right through it while Jan and I slip slided behind her.... I had forgotten how tricky it is to walk on icy snow. (It had been one of the hardest things for me to learn in my AFS year: how to walk on ice to school and balance a stack of books and files on an open arm. There is something to be said for our school cases!)

Dad died in 2006 and we were so glad that we were able to visit him, before his death. Mother is now 90. We were there for her 86th birthday and that was special for us too.

All the Johnsons have been here on different occassions to visit. Ellen came in 1977. She was single then. Jan and I were married but still childless. We camped in two tiny tents in the Kruger Park and there were lions just outside the 4 foot high Marula camp that night! Anne and Reesie came in 1984 - right in the school holidays. We couldn't get rondawel space in any of the Kruger Park camps, so we bought a caravan.. a tiny little heavy Jurgen "Centurion tank". (Our name for the model.) I don't think they slept too comfortably! (Sorry about that!) Mother and Dad came in 1985 and spoilt us rotten. Ellen and husband Dan and their lovely sons came in 2007. It was soooo good to see them. They are part of the reason why this blog is in English and not in Afrikaans.

All the Johnsons have been so good to us through the years and we can never thank them enough.