Charles Jacoby
[as die SA sanger bedoel word, is dit Jacobie - daar is egter wel ook elders meer as een Charles Jacoby]
She recalls the very day that
they told her that the cowboy had
DIED.
Long, long ago.
The man with the horse and the hat
and the unfiltered Lucky Strike.
She claims to remember that.
You don’t say!
Can’t be!
No!
He used to be for real;
a hero.
Her brother told her so.
She knew somebody was lying.
She’d seen him
and seeing is believing!
On the screen of the drive-in
only three Saturdays before.
He’d been untying a woman.
Now just listen here:
this woman did recline
on a railway line!
Heaven knows
who’d put her there.
Anyway, Charles Jacoby
must have been pretty sick already
‘cause he never even rubbed the lady’s wrists.
With a “Howdy Ma’am”
he simply untied the lady
and left her to stare.
Rode off into the sunset.
Just lifted his hat and left it at that.
“S’long Ma’am.”
The very next day the family visited
the agricultural show at Kroonstad.
They went all the way from the farm.
It was the day she grew obsessed with injuns.
It happened like this:
She had only just turned three and
even so, nobody
took any notice of her.
She had to grab hold
of legs and skirts and hands
or teeter against stands.
The skies were dotted with clouds
that never quite
covered the bright.
One had to blink or stare at the feet,
the boots
the slops
and the slacks.
One had to dodge the drinks dripping
from styrofoam cups.
Oops!
She remembers having been a little undecided
about where to go:
the candyfloss guy
or the clown with the balloons.
So she grabbed hold of this very sturdy leg
(mistook it for her dad’s)
and her brother witnessed it all:
Charles’s tall Red Injun
stopping his show,
he was pouring water on to the Free State soil
and, listen to this!
MAGICKING it into fire
and she thought that a farmer
who owns a haystack
would never have hired
a foreman that did
that! Ever!
Yahoo!
The injun stooped
as she looked up bewildered.
Waah!
He bent down
and smiled
and tousled her hair.
Her brother just stared.
“Just so, Ma’am.”
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Kommentaar
Ek het Charles Jacobie in 1957-58 in Oudtshoorn gehoor toe ek 3-4 jaar oud was en was so bevange gewees deur sy musiek dat ek sy naam tot vandag toe onthou. Dit het in my onderbewussyn ingekruip en laas nag toe ek rustig in die bed was het ek dit weer onthou en dit dadelik op komper gesoek. Noe kan ek weer slaap.
Ja, ek onthou hom goed. Ek was as jong seun op dorpie Marchand naby Kakamas. Veral sy “Mocki ’n bird song”. Ons wou almal cowboys wees. Gerhardt Bergh: Saldanha
Ek onthou hom goed. In die sestiger-jare het hy Desembervakansies in Die Dennebos-oord op Ceres opgetree en musiek gemaak tussen die vakansie- gangers.
Ek onthou hom baie goed. Was seker so in standard 3, of soos hulle vandag sê graad 5, toe ek hom die eerste keer hoor sing het in Standerton. En hy was een van my gunstelinge. Vandag is ek al 75 jaar oud.