When I was a Kid (Part 2)

We all have to help out at home. There was a duty roster; prepare the table for dinner, do the dishes, wipe the table, sweep the floor, help do the laundry, hang up clothes for drying and folding. Boys and girls shares the same responsibilities.

There was no TV. We kept ourselves entertained by playing board games, listened to radio, reading books and comic, doing homework and entertaining each other.

We did things together as a family. We ate together at the table. We shared whatever we had.

Our early music exposure came from radio and gramophone. There was no CD or tape recorder. Music was recorded on Vinyl disc. We played the vinyl disc on the gramophone by Matt Munro, Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Johnny Tillitson, Jim Reeves, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Neil Sedaka, Engelbert Humperdink, Tom Jones and Louis Armstrong. Get this, Mum listens to Pavarotti on the Redifusion. How cool is that. We swapped or loan Vinyl disc from our friends to hear our favourite songs.

I remember we can buy song book printed in HongKong with musical score on all the latest songs for a cool 50 cents. Copyrights? Hahahaha.

The weekend we hang outside in the corner of our street with our neighbour kids with guitars and sing our heart out. Parents will then yell at us to shut up and come home after 10pm.

Cars? It was a luxury. We went around on foot, bicycle or by bus. I do remember I used to walk from Merdeka Stadium to home in Sentul approx 8.5 miles. I thought it was cool because I get to see everything. It was much cooler, then. Streets were lined with trees.

We lived under the threat of communism. America was fighting in South Vietnam to stop them advancing. There was this fear of The Domino Theory; if South Vietnam falls; Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore will fall too.

Phone was scare. Still we manage to keep in touch and get the latest gossips.

We don’t have to make appointment to visit our relatives, friends or neighbours. We just dropped in and are always welcome.

We don’t knock on door at our friends place. We just yell their name and if they are at home they will come out. If not we went on our way.

Our neighbours know us by name and we know our neighbours by name. Neighbours help keep an eye on each other kid.

I remember Mum used to buy fresh vegetable, fish and meat from a roving vendor. He was to become our family friends. It was a hand on lessons how to identify and recognize fresh vegetables, fish and meats.

Fast food? Unheard of. To survive we have to learn how to cook.

There was no computer to assist us in our homework or play computer games. Our games were mostly outdoor games; hop cross, five stones, roundness, badminton, Quanda Quandi, card swapping, collecting cigarette boxes; Camel, Craven A, Rough Rider, Benson & Hedges, Lucky strike, 555 to name a few, flying kites, cycling and catching little fishes in the stream.

We catch spiders as pets and use them as fighting machine against each other. Using the stem of long grass we dipped into ant holes in the ground and fished them out. We removed their feeler and have them fight each other to keep ourselves entertained.

Our doses of Vitamin C came from ours and the neighbours’ fruit trees.