Those Were The Days (AL's Story)

Feast on Rambutans & Durians while Growing Up In a Fruit Plantation
I was also a kampong girl brought up in a rambutan cum durian plantation owned by my late grandmother. I can vividly remember my childhood days as having lots of rambutan, durian and mangosteen to eat during the fruit seasons. I also went catching guppies in the stream behind my house.

Shared Same School Transport with Poh Gek (Pr2 to Pr6 )
It was a private car (orange mercedes) owned by a coffee shop towkay. To fully reap benefit from his expensive asset, he collected $5 to $10 per child and packed us like sardine in his car. On one trip he could pack as many as 10 kids or more. Sometimes he would make two rounds and that explained why I was either late or too early for school as we were at his mercy. On some occasions his car would be hired as bridal car and he would give us each 5 to 10 cents to take public transport for that day. He even had the chick to tell us not to report to our parents about the temporary arrangement.


School Field
I remember our school field was full of thorns dropped from those giant trees planted near the fence, especially the part near the main road. We used to do our long jumps along that part. Remember I was pricked several times by the thorns because we were made to run bare-footed during PE and house practices. During our Pr1 sports day, Krishna Veni was very angry with me because I dropped one bean bag and had to run back to pick which caused us to lose the match.


The Unforgettable Sim Cheng Huat Again

Georgie Porgie

The boys may have better impression and opinion of him but definitely not the girls. To us, he was like a Georgie Porgie. I didn't like him because he was always ogling and teasing the girls and not paying attention to the teachers. Thank goodness he wasn't in my class in P5 and P6 except for Chinese lessons in P6. I remember him sitting sideway to look at Gek Lee instead of looking in front where the blackboard was. Poor Gek Lee, she must have been distracted. In one incident, there was an Indian boy who was always bottom in my class.( Kim Chuan could remember his name as Sangaran) He would complained to Ms Goh about what Sim Cheng Huat said to him (@#$%^&*). Ms Goh brushed him off by saying it was bad enough to say it once and worse for him to repeat it. Poor Ms Goh, but she was witty enough not to be caught between the two nuisance.

Amused by Secret Admirer
Sorry don't have puppy love stories to tell. First love was only in later part of life. But have secret admirer story to share.... After school year closed in Pr 6, two boys wrote to me. One asked me to wait at a bus-stop (didn't say which bus stop) and scribbled his name. So can't make out who. Another (or maybe the same boy) asked me to send him photos. I didn't reply and he sent me several stamps to lure me to reply. Of course I didn't as I wasn't sure what he was going to do with my photo (especially my grandma would tell us tales of black magic using photo, hair nails,etc). My father was very strict with us then, so can you imagine how securely I hid those letters away that I myself could not even remember where I kept them. It's quite amusing, come to think of it......Those were the days.

AL