My Childhood

I pity the children nowadays for not having the chance of knowing or playing 'konda-kondi', hide and seek, playing 'police and theif', playing 'gasing' or 'guli', 'galah panjang', 'teng-teng' , 'rounders' and other games that I have played with my friends before.

Teng-teng

During my childhood I lived in Sungai Way, Petaling Jaya. My backyard and my neighbours backyard were our playground. There are no fence or any border to our world. Usually my friends will come over to my house because my backyard is bigger. Our routine everyday are playing whatever games that came accross our mind at that moment but before playing I have to do my school homeworks and my chores at home such as washing dishes, washing clothes( no washing machine in my house), sweeping the floor or running an errand to the 'kedai Apek' buying some groceries for my mother several times because she always forget to buy something when I reach home. Luckily 'kedai Apek' is just around the corner. The 'Apek' children played with us too and they speak very fluent Bahasa Melayu that they sounded like a malay.

We love playing hide and seek and sometimes having a hard time because the friend we were looking went home to have their lunch or Ah Chong have to take care of the shop for his father ( the 'Apek' ) who will take a nap. When we were thirsty we just went to the nearest tap that we can find to drink from it. There is no worries of getting sick after drinking the unboiled water. Sometimes we played in the rain too and rarely get fever or cold. I guess because the world is not so contiminated and polluted like the world today.

After having dinner my friends and I will recite the Quran with Pak Cik Din. Usually before teaching us we have to do some chores helping his wife like folding clothes ( pile of clothes because he had 8 children). That is how we repay him because he did not take any payment for his service. We don't have to go for tuisyen like kids nowadays. Some times we take the chance to play hide and seek after that but we usually will be running home after someone yells we will be hid by the 'hantu tetek' (a type of ghost believe to hid children under her big boob).

My family and I usually watch tv at night. I love to watch cowboys series like The High Chapparral or The Lone Ranger. Six Million Dollar Man is a popular tv series during my childhood time and my brother did not miss it. During that time all the tv series are in black and white.

We are still lucky because some of my friends parent could not afford to buy a tv set.

During school holidays, I usually went to my aunty's house in Telok Gong, Pelabuhan Klang to explore the kampung life. I love cycling along the coconut trees, climbing all the fruit trees which bare fruits on it like the monkeys, swimming in the stream, running after goats or looking for fighting fish with my cousin brothers. My aunty have 7 children, six of them are boys.

My father sometimes will take us to the cinema to watch the Indonesian movies or Bruce Lee movies. I remembered one Indonesian movie with a title 'Pendekar dari Gua Hantu' translation 'A warrior from the Ghost Cave'.

The seats are made from solid wood that my father have to hinge it with his hip to avoid me and my brother from plunging into it................we usually do....ha..ha..ha.....Sometimes we were sweating in the cinema because the air condition is not cold at all. When the movie ends, the sound of the seat retrieving are so noisy and irritating to my ears.

On weekend, sometimes my father brought my brother and I to the Merdeka Stadium to watch football games especially when Selangor team or Malaysian team are playing. We have the late Mokhtar Dahari, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, James Wong, Hassan Sani and others. I knew all the Malaysian footballers. I am sorry to say, I hardly knew today's Malaysian footballers except recently when we won the Suzuki Cup. I knew Khairul Fahmi Che Mat because he reminded me of our late goalkeeper the 'Spiderman' Arumugam.

Kids nowadays only play virtual games in the computer or the play station which they played only with their two fingers on the jolly stick. They don't sweat at all. They just went to school comes back going for Agama school then going for tuisyen class doing their homeworks and revision. On weekend attending tuisyen class again, Al-Quran class, ballet class, piano class or violin class set by their parents. Do the children have any choices?? .....the world have change and so have the parents life styles. Do the parents have choices?

I don't have the answer because I have to answer that to my children too.......