Vetnews | Oktober 2024 30 « BACK TO CONTENTS OP Village Traditions Written by Sarah Biesman-Simons and Cecilia van der Walt of OP Village The original Huis Onderstepoort building is now referred to as Old Res, which is still a male-only corridor. The area that used to be the student-run library is now used as a lounge and dance floor and quickly reaches maximum capacity during a World Cup rugby match. After each jol, there are sure to be groups of people chatting and relaxing on the balcony. The funds generated from their annual Crocodile Fest and Beerfest are used to host children from a nearby children’s home for a braai, campus tour and games day. The boys of Old Res go away on an annual camp weekend and their annual ‘Huisdans’ or ‘Dinee’ always proves to have an interesting theme with even better outfits. The boys also have a Ginbledon day against Helshoogte where the tennis is grand and the gin always flowing. Early days In the 50s, there were 20 students in a class with only a single female. Classes took place across the road at what is now the ARCOnderstepoort Veterinary Institute. All of the exams were orals, and everyone would wait at the circle in front of Old Res for the last student to finish his or her oral and return with everyone’s marks. During these years, there would also be dances arranged annually by each year group in the Old Res dining hall. That’s a lot of dances! Dr Lente van der Merwe (class of 1957) was one of few with a bicycle, which would often be ‘borrowed’ by students in a rush to get back to res on a Friday afternoon. One Friday afternoon her bicycle was nowhere to be found...until one of her classmates discovered it on top of the Old Res chimney! Rally, one of the most popular traditions of OP Village today, started in the 50s. What started as a race with a variety of challenges and time limits along the way, is nowadays one of students piling into the back of decorated trailers which haul them between farms in the area. It is a day of swimming in dams and under bridges and floating along rivers. The final stop at the bridge above the highway always proves to be a spectacle for the drivers below… The students used to put a braai on the back of one of the bakkies, a tradition which quickly ended after it toppled over one year. In another year, one of the students couldn’t find his way back to OP, and decided to drive back on the railroad, miraculously making it back to OP in one piece! The 70s Moving into the 70s, OP used to have a 9-hole golf course and annual golf days were a proud tradition. Unfortunately, with new roads and the expansion of the residence, it has since been removed. Another tradition that began then is OP Concerts. We suspect this has become an annual Res Awards Evening with live music and poetry performances by students. Another tradition from the 70s is the Belonje Report, a very scientific-looking questionnaire that contained one significant question. The conclusion drawn: sexual activity decreased as you got older. With the arrival of female vet students in res came the Sperm Skerm (translated to mean sperm shield). This was a security gate placed in the C block between the male and female sides of the corridor. However, it did not stop the two from mingling. Med vs vet started out as a rugby game between the two faculties in the ‘70s, and we often catapulted black eggs at the med students. It has since transformed into a classic ‘OP jol’. Rag Parades (Jool) The Rag parades took place from the main campus to Church Square. Some OP floats were made (mostly by the second and third years) to hide booze, while others were made to look inconspicuous so that we could join the parade, only to reveal various forms of inappropriate images after it began. Some floats were filled with truckloads of manure which was thrown at people. Another float in the late 1970s was a ‘surgical demonstration’ with surgical drapes and real sheep organs with a student in the front explaining the surgery with radiographs. Every year, the OP students had to climb to the top of the Paul Kruger statue, and every year they would spray shaving cream onto various people (whether it be the mayor, his wife, or the vice chancellor...). In another year the Opiates decided to try and stop the whole procession. They yelled “DEAD ANTS”, which was the cue for everyone to drop to the floor with their arms and legs in the air, forcing all the floats and cars behind them to stop. Needless to say, we were eventually banned from the RAG parades, but it was a good few years before we stopped showing up anyway. The RAG Nappy Parade was a tradition that took place from the 70s to the 90s.
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