When I was 16 - 1981, Johannesburg

Wow, Brendan! So glad you shared your very tumultuous year with us! Details about things like not being able to make your own sandwiches at boarding school are the sorts of things that we just don't think about, and really help us broaden our perspectives... fascinating!

So - will you be sending your own kids to boarding school? ;-)

Thanks Brendan Swemmer for adding your experience of being conscripted - much sadness accrues to the young boys on both sides of the 'war' in those times, doesn't it? All of them children without real choices (if there is ever such a thing). Whatever the big political picture, on an individual level most people are just trying to survive, aren't they?
My own son is doing a year away from home, working in Germany, as his coming-of-age transition period into adulthood; and I keep reminding myself of our 'boys on the border' at the same age.

Jeannette Private User, your daughter might find my project on Nelson Mandela useful: http://www.geni.com/projects/Nelson-Mandela-s-Long-Walk-to-Freedom-... - She is welcome to contribute too.

This one on Mandela, Pienaar & the Rugby World Cup in the film Invictus, might interest her too, if she’s a sports fan. http://www.geni.com/projects/Invictus-Mandela-Pienaar-the-Rugby-Wor....

hope she will attribute to geni soon, and maybe her mother nelia sufiyanova -speaking russian and not too much Dutch- likes to co-operate on the BIG TREE too:

Is Brendan the only man who is a heroe? Or how Jennifer says: he rocks! We women have the guts to write down our 16's memories and Brendan is a real heroe being the only man.
Men, following this project, are you that shy? Really? Come on surprise us with your stories, dont be a chicken... ;-)

when i was 16 it was in Waihi New Zealand, I was Form 6 at school, I had long hair down to my shoulders, i had my first girlfriend, the september 11 attacks happened and i got drunk for the first time

2 heroes! Thanks Jason! Whar a heavy year, september 11, first girlfriend first time drunk.
And what about music?

um linkin park was my favourite at the time

@Sharon, your write up was wonderful. Thanks to you and to everyone else who shared their memories. When I was sixteen, in 1956, life was very different. It was even before the day of the denims, and definitely before TV, which gives pause for some serious thought! But this is not about my memories. I want to acknowledge the recollections of everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts with us all. And good for the boys who joined in! Pam

This is a part of the whole project. The project starts at the left by "Related Projects", "When I was 16". There are more interesting stories told. Enjoy reading them and add your own walk down memorylane for us to enjoy them. We all have our different stories , because our 16's were in different times and places, parts of the world.
That is what makes it interesting, to get a glimpse of each other life. To know each other is to understand each other better. But hey it's also fun to see what we have in common and what's not.
And yes good for "the boys" who joined in! (I quote Pam :-))

Thanks Pam. Please write one for us - I hadn't realised, before writing it - how pivotal that moment in our lifetime can be to describe a 'before what i became' snippet.
And they were so interesting for the snapshot glimpses they provided the rest of us of such moments across eras across the world.

Jennie - we should def keep this project alive.

Yes Sharon we should keep this project alive! And we started it in englsih what's a good idea, for most of us to read, but hey it can be too difficult for some Geni users to write in another language. So we must tthink of another way to make it more availabe.

Hope you dont expect me to write it in Gaelic ! LOL
Yes this is a lovely and very popular project, should be translated in every possible language.
Just tell me what I can do to help

Read my message about it :-)

Ok, advertising it on FB too.

:-) Yeahhh Sharon!!!

Turns out that it is very popular on Facebook, 54 members in one day Jennie ,way to go yay!

Whats the link for FB please. I canna find it.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/353840561311035/

here it is Brendan!

Thanks

When I was sixteen ... 1975.
It certainly was a year of enormous experiences ... I got to see first hand that I was a person of "fight" (as opposed to "flight"). During the holidays while driving my father's VW Beetle on the farm, I was attacked by a stranger. After stalling the vehicle, the swine managed to open my door and was attempting to stab me with a very lethal looking dagger through the crack made where the door is attached to the body of the vehicle. Despite the fact that I was a skinny little girl, I managed to hold that door "closed" enough for him not to be able to reach me! The fear-induced adrenaline turned me into one p-o-w-e-r -house of a woman!!!

It was also the year that I was expelled from my very "larney" all-girl boarding school in Johannesburg!! It seems, the new Headmaster was hellbent on getting all the "naughty" girls out of his hair..... (...Can't understand this since I wasn't even naughty!!)

As for fashion etc. I was wearing "stove-pipe" jeans with a four inch zip up the back from the hem, cheesecloth embroidered "peasant blouses", hair long and always lose, lots of necklaces, bangles and a feather in one ear!!!!

For music, I was definitely a David Bowie die-hard! But also listened to Alice Cooper, Led Zepelin, Moody Blues, ELO and LOVED the way Peter Frampton 'made his guitar talk' !

I think this was also the year that "Rocky Horror Picture Show" was released. I was one of the lucky ones who saw it before the censor authorities decided it had to be banned in South Africa!!! AWESOME movie!

Jeez, Caroline - it was an eventful year for you. Thank heavens you were such a determined little survivor. Your headmaster obviously hadn't seen your writing ability!
It's "just a jump to the left!" (We still regularly have Rocky Horror parties here!)

* Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I attached a newly published YOUTUBE-version of his speech too:
* http://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000022278843551

And if it does NOT work on your computer, please go directly to
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRIF4_WzU1w&feature=youtu.be

curious about this, is mel related to braveheart ...
i know i am - mel is my 16th cousin twice removed
Mel Gibson
John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland, Duchess of Clarence
are both mine - and, his great grandparents
his lineage goes down: Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
his son, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset
his son → Charles, Earl of Worcester
his son → Elizabeth Brereton
his daughter → Agnes Hollingsworth
her daughter → Robert Valentine Hollingsworth, IIl
her son → Henry Parker Hollingsworth
his son → Valentine Hollingsworth
his son → Henry Hollingsworth, II
his son → Zebulon Hollingsworth, Sr.
his son → Samuel Hollingsworth
his son → Sarah Hollingsworth
his daughter → John Thomas Gibson
her son → John Gerard Gibson
his son → John Hutton Gibson
his son → <private> Gibson
his son → Mel Gibson
his son Mel Gibson
while my lineage has Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset as my great uncle - my lineage has his sister as my great grandmother - Mel Gibson is your 16th cousin twice removed.
You -- susan lynne schwenger
→ Lynda Mae Handy - Schwenger
your mother → James aka Jim Edward (Morton-Russell) Handy Jr.
her father → James aka Jim (Ruthven) Handy SR.
his father → Marion aka Marrian Ruthven - Handy - Satchell
his mother → Alexander (Thompson) Ruthven
her father → Robert (Witherspoon) Ruthven, Sr.
his father → John Andrew (Henderson) Ruthven
his father → John (Peadie) Ruthven
his father → John (Hutcheson) Ruthven
his father → George John (Reid) Ruthven
his father → William Alexander (Clerksone) Ruthven
his father → William (Gray) Ruthven
his father → Mary Seton
his mother → Sir Patrick Gray, 4th Lord Gray
her father → Gilbert Gray of Buttergask
his father → Elisabeth Stewart, Countess of Argyll
his mother → John Stewart, 1st Earl of Atholl
her father → Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots
his mother (16th great grandmother) Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots

OMG i just found out the news !! Rutger was on the board of sea shepherd, a few years back, i used to speak to him often, so sad, i loved him so much RIP Rutger