One Gansbaaier, Piet “Soolaas” was not only an angler of note, but also a man with an unusual sense of equilibrium en tough teeth.
One of Piet's tricks was to balance a wineglass, filled to the brim, on his forehead and bend over backwards until he was lying flat on his back. He would then tip the glass and down the wine to the dregs without spilling a drop. He could also flip a burning cigarette butt in his mouth so that it kept on burning inside, and then drink a glass of wine "around" it without extinguishing the cigarette!
Piet's other tour de force was to take a tickey (for those too young to know, this was a small silver English coin worth thruppence) into his mouth and bite it in two with his amazing teet.
He would be paid in drinks for his feats and one chap who picked a quarrel with him (possibly for wanting to pay) had the end of his nose bitten clean off.
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Talking about noses: one Andre Hartman loved live snakes and once brought a puffadder into the bar of the old Joy’s Kitchen. A visiting German tourist wanted to see the snake from close up, but the snake wasn't having it and grazed the German's nose with its fangs.
The upshot was more serious than expected and the poor creature (the German of course!) had to be hospitalised to the tune of R40 000...
Don't trifle with a viper!
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