Barrett recalls bare-foot rugby

"I grew up on a farm playing backyard footie in my bare feet," Barrett explains, eyebrows raised as he remembers his youth in Rahotu with parents Kevin and Robyn and seven siblings. .. So did we on the Highveld in the fifties. And it hurt kicking the ball on those really cold Saturday mornings. But the first time I wore boots it felt like I was anchored to the ground. So I gave them up for a few games and regained confidence. Still once the bigger forwards started wearing boots the die was cast and I had to go back to the boots. . Not without regret, rugby never felt as effortless as in the old bare-foot days

Ahhh, the days of bare foot footy. I think I bought my first rugby boots when I was around 8. So I had 3 years playing in bare feet. I only wore my rugby boots in formal games anyway , never for backyard rugby. Hell, we didn't wear shoes to school, we left home with them on, took them off & hid them in the hedge only to put them back on before entering the house. Some might say that's why I have wide hairy feet, lol

 In the 1940's and early 1950's virtually every family in Riversdale where I grew up were poor - some just poorer than others.   The Government looted the farms buying up wool at a pittance and donate wool and gold to England to get their industry operating.   Boots and shoes were luxuries nobody could afford - so unlike most others we at least got bicycles to use going to school from the farm - leave alone getting boots to play rugby.
At times it was freezing cold with the water in the river had an iced surface, but still with hands virtually frozen on the bike handles we had to go to school.   So bad - my mother knitted gloves for us and we at last got shoes to wear to school .    The gravel road to the farm was poor and that made life for kids like us even worse.
I only wore boots playing rugby after I left school - so what else is new?   The kids nowadays has no clue about what we went through those days - they would never know about the total absence of facilities we are used to nowadays.   We had to work on the farms and neighbouring farms to earn some pocket money.   That money we used to pay transport fees to go and play rugby in nearby towns.   The transport was on lorries with a cover over the back.  
It was only in the late 1950's that we got a telephone and electricity was only supplied in the 1970's when my mother got a fridge for the house the first time.    
We nevertheless had a wonderful and fulfilling childhood.         

 Grew up dirt poor but always had good rugby kit .Crappy or non existent school shoes but excellent boots .Unlike your wingers and other squishy characters who get to run away a prop has to dig in and hold his ground like a proper rugby player ,so boots and sprigs it is !Yup that cold rock hard winter pitch is hard on a wee kids feet eh Moz ?Especially when the grounds so frozen you can pick a puddle up and toss it at some bugger hehehehehe...

Props......best left to be dealt with by other props.

 Cloudy
We had lots of fun too.  I can remember us building a canoe from a rusted old roof zinc sheet.  We called it Drommedaris - the name of the ship that brought Van Riebeeck in 1652 to the Cape.   It leaked faster than believable so we tied a rope to pull it out when it  sank in the farm dams.  Too dangerous to use it in the water holes in the river bed - which the original farmers called Zeekoegat - ie Hippo Pools.  There was apparently lots of hippos there in the 1700's so much so that the farm - where buildings were erected in the 1700's - are even today still called Zeekoegat.   It was the oldest farm in the area where I was borne - there was no hospital maternity ward those days - and where I grew up.
   
 

Playing rugby barefoot is fine- especially if your underfoot is hard from regularly walking on hard and hot surfaces.  The problem is when someone else is wearing boots- and they stand on your foot.

Boots.....all sport was played barefoot in the parks where I grew up.
Those were indeed great days and the friendship forged then have stood the test of time.
Gratefully.

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Also liked my corrugated carboard pads for backyard cricket.

You guys had cardboard pads for cricket?? You were lucky, not only did we not have pads but we had to use the severed leg of our best rugby mate for a bat. Ah, those were the days ;)

My school was so poor we used a former teachers skull as a rugby ball

 I used to shear in bare feet ,when I shore at the Sth Australian state championships as a wee 19 year old the buggers made me wear shoes .So I shore in the finals with a pair of cowboy boots on ! I think it was Aboriginal fast bowler Eddie Gilbert who used to bowl in barefeets ? Reckoned he liked to grip the pitch with his toes .And I recall a West Indian bowler forced to wear shoes only to be caught bowling with the bottoms cut out of his shoes hahaha!My mates idiot dog ate my school shoes so I spent a whole term walking to school in winter sans footwear ,but yer tell that to kids these days and they wont beleive yer! ,ah but it were all green fields back then hehehehe...Mikey I used to work milking the cows at me uncles dairy farm before and after school for pocket money 2 miles out of town made for a fit wee happy chappy !Moz everyone knows that wingers are just half a wannabe prop who couldnt eat fast enough to put some meat on their skinny wee bones ,!

Severed leg as a bat ...hmmm.......seems like you would have been stronger on the legside??

Hell WD this string has really unlocked some memories....love that story about the shoe bottoms cut out.

"Leg before wicket " was our main problem Mozart :)

So you had wickets....but not a bat. See that's what's wrong with you chaps, always starting from the dark side.

 We had more kids than gear so we used smaller kids as stumps and dried bogies as balls ,we would have to nail some of our "stumps" to the ground to stop them wandering off hahaha!Moz one thing I really like about this site is that it has shown a side of Bok fans and South Africans we wold otherwise never see ,Definitely more respect for our fellow rugby fans as both lovers of the greatest of all sports and as people .Most of us have been bought up tough ,hell look at poor wee JW having to create amputees for a game of cricket !A lot of my preconceptions have gone out the window EG: I thought you guys were all church going Boer type peeps but thats not so is it ?With a notable excetion here and there of course .

Funny how many of the posts on this string strike a common cord. Thanks for the kind thoughts WD.....having a joint site like this is uniquely cool.

Yes, this site has a great mix of people & the common experiences of youth in different countries is amazing. Of course we have to help some of you blokes out & explain the bleeding obvious sometimes but we do it with humility:)