EARLY YEARS, MY CHILDHOOD, Part 1

Sunday, August 10, 2008

EARLY YEARS, MY CHILDHOOD, Part 1

Play, play and more play. During the 60s, if you do not had such experience, you probably missed your childhood. Although I did very well in studies, I never miss a moment of play.





Following my Brother


With Mum and Bobby

My elder brother is 5 years older, younger brother is 5 year younger than me. My sister was one year younger. The age gap was incompatible for meaningful child play among brothers. Most of the time, I have to find space and thing to play alone. My elder brother, sometimes took me along, I was delighted to follow him and watched him play with his friends. They played basketball and table-tennis. I felt happy and previleged when my older brother included me in his activities. My younger brother was just too young to play with me. And my sister wouldn’t play my games and that was understandable

Play in School

In primary school, mostly during the period from Pri 4 to 6, I was most playful. We played catching, ‘hantum bola’, marbles and miniature plastics toys call ‘kutis’. I was especially good at tops or kasing’, a Malay game. Most of the games like marble or 'kasing' primary objective was to knock out the opponent position. Sometimes with a good marble, a good hit can even shattered  the opponent marble into pieces.

Flying Kites

Kite flying with my neighbour was another memorable play. I have the ability make my own kites. It not as simple as one thinks. With poor aerodynamics the kite will never get airborne and even if it did, it will probably spiral back to earth. You need to tie the kite accurately and fixed a tail for stability. I have succeeded in flying my own home made kites any times.. I was never involved with kite fighting  normally played by the rougher kids. That involved lacing the string with pounded glass and glue.

During the school holiday, my mum allowed me to stay with one of my richer uncles living in a landed property. There I can played snakes and ladder, draught and other board games. I normally stay over for a week. It must be my parents way of giving us a treat we could not afford. Looking back, that was truly a loving gesture. My mum too reciprocated with big kampong chicken. Our fresh rambutans were ‘eat and take all you can’.




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