masterwordsmith-unplugged

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 ice kachang.

Diabetes was rare. Aspirin/panadol cured all illness.

We bicycled to school.

The poorer ones walked. The richer ones were chauffeured driven.

Prefects were a fearful lot. Detention class was like going to prison for a day.

We had "public caning" in school.

No one ever won the big prizes on "Tikam".

It was a scam but it did not stop us coming back for more.

Motorbikes were ridden without helmets.

It was rare to ride a private taxi. Taking a bus was luxury

- We cycled or walked everywhere.

We drank water from the tap and NOT from bottles.

We spent hours under the sun, playing football or flying kites, without worrying about UV rays. It did not affect us.

We roamed free, catched spiders and did not worry about Aedes mosquitoes.

We kept our spiders in match boxes.

With 5 pebbles, girls played endless games.

With a tennis ball, boys ran like crazy for hours.

When it rained, we swam the drains & canals to catch "ikan keli".

We shared one bottle of soft drink with friends. NO ONE worried about catching anything.

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 watched over us. We were always safe.

There were no handphones to bug us. We walked over to friends’ house and yelled for them!

There were no Playstations, X-boxes, Nintendo's.

No cable TV, no surround sound, no personal computers, no Internet.

We had friends.


We did not have birthdays parties until we were 21. Only then, did we start taking notice of girls.

We had not heard of the word "Bumiputra".

We knew our friends by names. Their parents were Pak Cik and Mak Cik or Uncle and Aunty.

In Badminton, regardless of how many feathers were left in the shuttlecock, our game continued. Our rackets were made of planks, but still Wong Peng Soon and Punch Gunalan made us proud.

Morris Minor and VW beetle were on our roads...driven alongside Kingswood, Vauxhall, Opel and Chrysler. Taxis were Benz.

There were no traffic lights. We had roundabouts.

The whole kampung 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.

Malay weddings had joget sessions at night. It was the only time to ask the Malay ladies for a dance.

Favourite local performer was Rose Chan.

Sunday’s Cheap Matinees were 25 cent per show.

Susu lembu was delivered to houses on bicycle.

All jagas were tame and few ever got robbed.

We made our own kites & glass glued threads.

We made our own wooden guns. Seeds from plants served as bullets.

Kang Kong was free. Kembong" was 30 cents a "kati" and nobody wanted "ikan pari".
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 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!

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,

and we learned how to deal with them all !!


And if YOU are one of them born in the 1940's to 1060's….Congratulations !

Thanks to Angela who sent me this post.