Imaging the dim past ---- hindsight
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Back in those days, we, the siblings, numbered nine in all. Unfortunately one passed away when she was very young. Mum looked after the six of us and the number grew from six to seven and then eight as the children reached school age. We managed with the limited space we had. Mum looked after us well and on hindsight I am proud and full of admiration for her as well as dad. We are grateful and we would like to thank them belatedly, especially mum, for their love, devotion and dedication. We never missed a meal throughout the difficult times. We were well clothed and whenever any opportunity arose we were sent to school to learn and to equip ourselves with knowledge.
Assisting mum was Florence. She turned out to be a good cook as well as being handy on the sewing machine. Mum had her fair share of free time to visit her friends and to indulge occasionally on her card game called ‘chi kee’. She even managed to travel to Penang on several occassions to visit her adopted sister and family at Dato Kramat.
We all helped with the different household chores such as cutting wood keeping the yard clean making the beds, sweeping the house, etc. Bailing water from the well was a my main job.
The yard was our play area. Since we were not far from the school we would go there for games such as football or badminton.
Actually before we moved to the coconut grove we lived right opposite St Patrick School. The house was small and rested on stilts. I remember clearly what happened to me one day when I stepped on a four inch nail. I was in severe pain. When mum discovered what had happened she decided to make sure I would not contract tetanus. She got a neighbour , an Indian lady, to hold me down and she poured hot boiling oil on to the wound. You can imagine how painful it was and I yelled and screamed. I was fourteen then.
Next door to the house was a tobacco factory and we used to work part time in the afternoon to tear off the veins of the tobacco leaves for the rolling of cigars.
We loved Koey Teow (fried rice noodle). There was a stall in front of the cinema in town that produced the best fried noodle . We would ask the girl in charge to fry koey teow with the egg we had brought with us and to make sure it was done with lots of chilly. I still love the taste of it.
We loved cowboy films. Allan Ladd and John Wayne were my favourite stars. We enjoyed going to the movies and we would queue at the door of the cinema and as soon as the lights dimmed we would pass a twenty cent coin on to the ticket collector’s hand and slip into the dark hall to enjoy the show. All we wanted to see was the main feature , we didn’t bother much with the coming attractions and when the show started the whole audience would cheer and clap their hands in great excitement. During a fight we would cheer for the good guy to win. It was good fun .
Another favourite of mine was Tarzan. ‘Me Tarzan you Jane‘. I would repeat to myself.
I could drive at sixteen. Learnt it from a school buddy who was about my age. We used to go out in his van to install electrical wires in homes in the weekends. His older brother owned an electrical store. I remember helping him to wire part of an old cinema at Lunas about five miles (8km ) away from Kulim.
We had a few close friends. On one occasion we went to Taiping, Perak, for a short break. The next morning we attended mass at the local church. At collection time I dropped all the money I had in my pocket into the collection box and soon realized I had no money left to travel home. I was quite depressed. While walking along a street we met someone who happened to be on his way back to Kulim . He agreed to take me home after hearing my plight. Thus my so called generous deed was well rewarded.
My brother and I did well at school. I had two double promotions. Since St. Patrick’s did not have a form five I had to travel daily by bus to attend school at Bukit Mertajam. 1951 was the year I prepared myself for my Oversea’s School Certificate Examination. That same year I won a scholarship of 100 ringgit From the Penang Eurasian Association. I used that for traveling to Singapore for a holiday with mum and her relatives.