On The Border

I just bumped into Peter this morning
You know, Uncle Louis' son
And he greeted me cowboy style
Ja, with his hand cocked like a gun

You know, he was in the butchery
We were buying boerewors and chops
And he was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of short pants
And those blue rubber flip-flops

And his brother was with him
In his blue jeans and a gaudy tropical print
You know, I think he was trying to hit out in civvy street
Ja, after doing his army stint

He told me that he'd just spent six months on the border
But that for him it felt more like six years
And that they'd passed the time with jokes and with poker
And counted the days but not the beers

Well I had a friend called Johnny
And his surname was Lategan
And Johnny and I were in the army together
Ja, in the good old days man, back in 1971

But you know Johnny, he was a funny kind of guy
He was either very quiet, or shooting off his mouth
And then one weekend, he AWOL'd with a Bedford
Ja, and he hit the N1 heading south

But ole Johnny, he wrapped that truck around a tikkie-box
And he ended up in DB for about ten weeks
And I tell you, they cooled him down to zero there
Because when Johnny came out, yeah, he wouldn't speak

So you know, maybe that's where it happened
Perhaps he just was that way
Well, they could have pushed him a little too far
But I mean, who am I to say?

But it was, it was on the border that it happened
And nobody knows quite where
But I heard about old- old Johnny Lategan
Ja, from a buddy of mine who was there

And you know, it was hard, it was hard to believe his story
And it certainly wasn't the official line
I mean, anyway, that kind of thing is just- it's difficult to swallow, man
Because Johnny was such a good friend of mine

But he told me that- that Johnny took his own life
And he left a little note that said 'Cheers!'
And the five other troopies on patrol with him
Well he put a bullet between their ears

So when I bumped into Peter this morning
You know, he reminded me of Johnny Lategan
Because Johnny always used to greet you
Ja, with his hand cocked like a gun