In the late 1950s, the 1960s and into the 1970s, Louis Botha Avenue – the road through the Grove – throbbed with life. Lined with shops and eateries, and alive with music and romance, it was the backdrop to a melting-pot of working-class people, many of them with roots in Europe, who had made their homes in Orange Grove and the surrounding suburbs.

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For the compiler of this book, John Burgess, and for his friends and others growing up along Louis Botha, it was all about swapping comics, marbles, hula-hoops, hitch-hiking, bunking school, the sessions and socials, midnight movies, clubbing and music – regardless of individual cultural backgrounds.

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In these pages, John has collected some of the tales of that road through the Grove, told by the people who were there. Many of the contributors are in the last chapters of a story that began decades ago – one that they’re delighted to share now.