the dam wall

Hartbeespoort Dam has been popping up a lot lately. Thanks to the very wet rainy season, the sluices have been opened a number of times, and the videos have been everywhere. It’s the sort of thing social media can’t get enough of. Water thundering over concrete, mist in the air, everyone suddenly a hydrology expert.It sent me back.My little family lived out there in the late seventies. My parents moved us from Brits when I was about three. Schoemansville was still a sleepy place then, tucked against the southern slopes of the Magaliesberg, with that big, shimmering expanse of water laid out below like something important.Both my parents still worked in Brits. I was at a crèche there, Siembamba. Ilze went to a nearby primary school and then to a "day mother" in the afternoons.At least, that’s how I remember it. Isn't memory a funny thing? It keeps the shape of events but smooths the edges, like water over stone.Anyway, getting to Brits meant crossing the dam wall. There was no…