Good Old Days - Growing up in
Malaya not Malaysia
Dedicated To All those Born in 1940's,
50's , 60's
Without any maids, our mothers cooked, cleaned and
took care of the whole family. They still had time to chat with neighbours.
Everyone had candy floss, fizzy drinks and shaved ice
with syrups. Diabetes were rare and aspirin/panadol cured all illness.
We rode adult's bicycle to school, the richer ones
had their own mini-bikes. Ironically, we all had problems with our brakes, and
after running into the bushes a few times, we learned how to solve the problem.
Prefects were a fearful lot ...more fearful than the
teachers. Detention class was like going to prison for a day. We had
"public canning" in schools.
NO ONE ever won the big prices on "Tikam".
It was a scam but it did not stop us coming back for more.
Motorbikes were rode without helmets. It was rare to
ride a private taxi. Taking a bus was luxury - we either cycled or walked everywhere.
We drank water from the tap and NOT from bottles.
We spend hours in fields under the sun, playing
football or flying kites, without worrying about UV ray. It did not affect us.
We roamed free catching spiders and did not worry of
Aedes mosquitoes.
With mere 5 pebbles, girls played endless games and
with a tennis ball, boys ran like crazy for hours.
When it rained, we swam the drains and canals to catch "ikan keli", none of us
were dissolved in rain.
We shared one bottle of soft drink with friends, NO
ONE actually worried about catching anything.
We ate salty, sweet and oily foods, bread had real
butter and sometimes condensed milk. We enjoyed very sweet coffee, tea, and
"ice kacang" but we were not obese because....... WE WERE OUT PLAYING
ALL THE TIME!!
We left home in the morning and played all day till
hunger drove us back home. When needed, our parents knew how to find us. NO ONE
actually watched over us and WE WERE ALWAYS SAFE.
WE DID NOT HAVE HANDPHONES BUGGING US. We rode bikes
or walked over to a friend's house and just yelled for them!
We did not have Playstations, X-boxes, Nintendo's,
multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no
personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found
them! Our TV was black and white.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
and we still continued the stunts.
We have not heard of the word "Bumiputra".
We only knew our friends by names. Their parents were Pak Cik and Mak Cik or
Uncle and Aunty.
In badminton, we did not change the shuttle as long
as it was in flight. Regardless of how many feathers were left in the shuttle,
our game continued... but still Wong Peng Soon and Punch Gunalan made us proud
in Badminton.
Regardless of whether we could afford one, we always
knew Maths tuition was $10.00 a month.
We felt pleased to see a policeman and we were always
eager to tell police everything we saw.
Morris Minor and Volkswagen beetle were on our
roads...driven alongside Kingswood, Vauxhall, Opel and Chyrsler. Executives of
companies drove Peugeot 504. Japanese cars were considered
"inferior". There were no traffic lights only roundabouts.
The whole kampong came together during kenduris and
all took turns to "kacau dodol". Chinese, Indians and Malays were all
part of kenduris and all of us spoke Malay.
Our favourite local performer was Rose Chan and the
Beatles were the most popular band. John Wayne's westerns on Sunday Cheap
Matinees were 25 cent per show.
Malay weddings had joget sessions in the night, it
was the only time to ask a Malay lady for a dance.
Ketupat were NEVER plastic wrapped.
Football was played barefooted in torn-filled
"padangs", rain or shine... but still Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Ann and
Mokhtar Dahari made us proud, we actually beat South Korea in football.
JPJ testers instill fear and were highly respected ...
Susu lembu was delivered to our house by our big,
friendly and strong "Bai" on his bicycle. All "jagas" were
"Bai" and no place got robbed.
"Laksa" and "Putu Mayam" man came
peddling. "Kacang Puteh" man walked balancing on his head top, 6
compartments of different type of murukus.
We played "gasing", made our own kites and had kite fighting with glass glued threads and made wooden guns and used seeds from plants for bullets.
Kangkong was free and easily harvested by riverside.
"Kembong" was 30 cents a "kati" and nobody wanted
"ikan pari".
When the Circus came to town, everybody went to see
it. It was the best LIVE show I ever saw.
Usually we did not have to BUY fruits, they were self
planted or given by neighbours or friends.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we broke the
law was unheard of. Our parents actually sided with the law! Nobody knew about
child psychology! Yet this generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 40 years have been an explosion of
innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned ......HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
Sharing this with others who have had
the luck to grow up with such freedom before the government 'regulated' our lives for good !!
And with the kids so
they will know how brave their parents were.
P/S - Big font are used because of long-sightedness or hyperopia at our age.
hahahaha.....
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