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Sunday, July 27, 2008

'sesaons' of games

· 'sesaons' of games during childhood
· making 'glass on strings' to do kite fighting
· a walk down Desker Rd and the side / back lanes where one could get a lay for $5.60...
· school canteen ( tuckshop ) : fried noodles, soup noobles, mee siam, laksa, Indian rojakall at 20cents per order
· for 50cents one gets curry chicken or beef rice...
· bottle of plain or flavoured Cold Storage milk for 20c...done on a weekly order basis thro the teachers...then we get a daily coupon...i remember selling them off - even at discount to get cash for other things...
· we come back from recess all sweaty from playing catching & 'police & thieves'... got so many shirts torn playing these games that my mum went to school to enquire what's wrong we me...fights ending up with cuts, bruises & black eyes...had to bullshit about 'accidents'...
· we were probably 10 or 11 years old then... and if you're stupid enof to want to steal from an indian ! well, we were up this rambutan tree, busily plucking & stuffing our mouths full...when she discovered us .. oh oh !she was waiting at the bottom of the tree cursing us in Tamil...waiting won't understand if vulgarities were used... and she had her moments whacking us with a rubber slipper when we slided down and made a hasty retreat... can't remember the details, there were at least 2 of us... so she didn't zero on juz one...we probably had a fair share in taking the beatings ! we took note to stay well away from that particular hut ever since... hahahaha !
· another time, outside some junction near Mckenzie Rd... i was rammed by a motorbike... it was in those days when the gangsters were not wiped out yet...the guy fell, got up yelling in hokkien vulgarities... the main point was " " knn aye ning peh mng si hor larng lai aye ah ! " ( fu jian ) literally, " !@#* your father here is not a good person ah ! "i was in my early teens and was quite shaken up... can't remember if he was full of tattoos or not...but he certainly behaved the part, even if he was acting ! luckily, Eric Fong's house was nearby...i had to go borrow a few bucks to placate this self-acclaimed gangster ! i think it was $5...nevermind that i was merely riding a bicycle AND that he ran into me on a motorbike ! bloody 'ell...i guess we know when to roll & when to fold !!! sheesh...dam ! but we live to fight another day... hahahaha those were the days my friend...
· hantam bola on that small patch of grassey slope in front of the clock tower...
· we used to target the 'barisan socialis' with extra venom : yourself, Seow Pong, Poh Huat, i think maybe Hei Pin & Hwei Yin ( i think ) becoz your mandarin was better than ours ! hahahaha !
· and directly under the tower clock - inside... we played football with a ball made from paper and rubber bands. the 2 goal posts were the 2 alcoves on each end of the hall - on the same side, beside the main entrance... it was actually, foot brawl... often ending with frayed tempers and fights - whether ' chi kek' or punch outs... double recess usually spelt double trouble... those were the Sec 1 & 2 days... hahahaha !
· bought some Hacks the other day from the asian grocer wholesaler there's the original black cough drop the chief competitor to which was Hudsons later came the honey lemon one in a white & yellow wrapper i bought both cough drops / lozenges or to us as kids, simply sweets during teenage days, we ate it to :
o refresh our taste after smoking, in order to smoke some more or
o to camouflage the smell of our smoking - probably fooling only ourselves..
a sweet in one's mouth does bring back memories... memories of childood & adolecence long gone by...
- marbles x 2- kah seng- layang- catapult- catchin fish- catchin spiders- kacheng- kuti kuti- pic cards- cycling- wrestling- football- badminton- basketball- eels- frogs- worms- coconuts- rambutans. mangoes, chikus, sugar cane, guava, jumboo, durians, mangosteens- fighting- temples / festivals / wayangs- evening classes- tuition- hikes, poaching at reservoirs- buah cherry guns- sling shots from vines- bird traps- pets- free range chicken / eggs- chicken slaughtering- mediums- 4-D, samsu, 12 nos

2 comments:

  1. - remember Hudson's Eumethol Jujubes that were hot and bit the tongue? Got more recently, but in dry climate and low humidity they tend to dry out and harden. Turns out the hot taste came from the Capsicum Tincture.
    - will try to find the ingredients list so we can figure out what else is in there.

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  2. Actually the chicken curry rice was 30 cents and you could sub char siew instead but still get the curry gravy for the same price. If you stayed after school for "extra curricula" activities, you could ask for fried rice. 50 cents will get you rice friend in char siew with an egg! Then during the Vietnam War when that country became a rice importer instead of exporting, we had a big rice crisis since Singaporeans wouldn't eat Bangladeshi rice. We are exhorted to eat wheat, so on Fridays, you could buy chicken curry on bread cubes instead.

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