Grandad as a Boy in Mossel Bay

Grandad as a boy. January 17, 1900. This was the day that Ralph Charles McGaffin was born to Peter McConky McGaffin and Margaret Cope McGaffin. There are a lot of questions concerning my father and his early childhood. My sisters and I were under the impression that Dad was born and raised in a small town called Mosselbaal in South Africa. However, according to information collected by Maggi McGaffin Rush (more about her later), it appears that my Grandfather moved from Ireland to England and married Margaret Cope. Margaret was apparently a widow with a son named Kenneth when they were married. Margaret died after giving birth to five more children:

• Trevor
• Robert Clanrye
• Ralph Charles
• Doreen
• Gwen

Following the death of Margaret, Peter and the family moved to Mossel Bay, South Africa where he became the head master of a very exclusive boy's school. This is a correction to the prior paragraphs. The other day I received some old papers of my Dad that had been with Shelagh since he passed away. One of the papers was his birth certificate. It was issued in Mossel Bay, South Africa. So now I know that he was not an Englishman. I heard many stories about GrandDad as he lived in Mossel Bay. This was a small town on the southwest coast of Africa; it was a small seaport that was also a whaling town. Ralph, who went by the name of Charles or Charley, spent a great deal of time on or near the water. He loved to sail and to swim. He often talked about the way they brought whales into port and then beached them to start the butchering. He said that they would prop open the whale's mouth with boards and he and his friends would climb into the mouth and slide down the tongue. He also talked about a man who was sweeping a pier and an octopus reached up and pulled the broom out of his hands. Anyone who lived by the sea spent a lot of time in the water both swimming and boating. He always claimed he was not a strong swimmer, but he knew how to stay afloat for long periods of time. One day he and a friend took a sailboat out for a sail and a storm came up. The boat capsized and they were thrown in the water. I imagine that the boat sank because he did not talk about hanging on to anything. The friend said that he was going to try to swim back to the port. Dad went under and was sure that he felt himself going far down, but he knew that he had to live because he had to help his father. When those in port realized that they must be in trouble, they sent out a boat. They found Grandad's friend and then they continued in a straight line and found Grandad. Even though he had that close call, he never lost his love of the sea. When WW1 broke out, many of the young men went to England to volunteer. Ralph was too young in the beginning, but his brother Robert Clanrye (the name of an Irish river) went and was stationed in France. One night during a period of very heavy shelling, Robert volunteered to take the place of a married man with a family, because he thought that it would be very dangerous on that patrol. During the night Robert was killed by the German gunfire. Later in the war, Ralph was able to enlist and was sent to England for training. Just before he was scheduled to go to France, the war was over. He then returned to South Africa and went to Rhodes University and graduated with a degree in chemistry. Grandad talked about many things that he did while growing up. There were many ostriches in the area and on the farms. They would sometimes ride the ostriches. He said that it was like riding a bucking horse. They would also eat the eggs. One egg would feed a number of people. He and his friends often went into the mountains to camp. Water was very limited, so they would clean their pots and pans by rubbing them with sand.

Grandad was raised during the period that segregation was very strong and the blacks had virtually no rights. At that time, it was an accepted practice to have a black person as a servant. While he was young, there was a young boy who was assigned to be with him and meet his needs. This boy was supposed to stay with him, but they were not allowed to walk on the same side of the street. Grandad never did like the separation of the races even though that was the way it was done in South Africa at that time. Whenever he had the chance, he would play and associate with the boy that he called his friend. Black people were paid very little money and were not allowed out on the street unless they had permission from their master. They were provided with shelter and a bag of "mealy meal" (I assume that it was ground corn) and a very small allowance. They were not owned by the master, but they were still treated like slaves. Grandad spoke many times of the way the blacks were being treated. This became very real to me when in the early 70's Grandad's brother Trevor came for a visit. He was a farmer with a large farm in the Transvaal. He really believed that a black person was not capable of making any major decisions and could not be trusted. He was very confused when he found that Steve's teacher was black. Then he went to the Post Office and found that there was a black man working in the Post Office. I don't think that was something that he was really able to accept. I will talk more about Trevor later in the "70s" section. Dad talked about a time when he and Trevor went out with a gun. Trevor challenged him to shoot at a bird. He did and he killed the bird. He felt so bad that he told his father and was punished for this unnecessary killing.