Remembering the good old days ...
- From: fairplay <fairplay@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:58:00 -0500
Remembering the good old days ...
"In the old days, a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Baru took a good 10 hours along the two-lane trunk road. One had to use the ferries at Muar and Batu Pahat before heading to Air Hitam en route to the Johor capital.
Today, the journey takes about four hours - no ferries, no hindrances - just a drive along a highway. We have come a long way from those days ...." This was one of the many scripts penned for a series of Merdeka snippets for a radio station about eight years ago.
The others included areas of education, the economy and communications.
Sitting back as the nation celebrates its 48th birthday, I can't help but recollect what is often billed as the "good" old days.
Remember the days when rice was sold in brown paper bags in chupak and gantang and not in polythene bags under fancy brand names?
In the market, fish and vegetables were weighed in kati and tahil, and roadmarkers were in miles; you ran the 100 yards "flat race" and cleared five feet in the high jump event.
You played marbles and kept fighting fish for a hobby, and the only brands of undergarments you knew were Hings or Clubman.
We learnt that 20 pence made a shilling and 12 shillings made a (sterling) pound. And the Malayan dollar (as it was then known) was equivalent to two shillings and four pence. Some of our judges will tell you that they bought one (sterling) pound for $8, when they were reading law in England.
Ikan kembong and ikan bulus formed part of our daily diet. For between 30 and 40 cents, one could get a kati, and until it became a favourite, the mems used these species of fish for their pet dogs and cats! The return fare from Kuala Lumpur to Klang was $1.20 on the KL-Klang Omnibus Company.
These days, the same sum will not be able to get you from one part of KL to another.
The place where Kota Raya stands used to be called Foch Avenue, and a bus ride to the Lido theatre in Brickfields cost just 10 cents.
In school, we learnt about Ah Chong the vegetable farmer in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Awang the fisherman from Beserah, and Ramasamy the dock worker in the Singapore port.
In Standard Four, they taught us about Parameswara founding Malacca, Tengku Muzaffar Shah, Princess Hang Li Poh, Admiral Cheng Ho and the legendary Hang Tuah and his four comrades.
In our Standard Six exams, we were asked to give one-word answers on the exploits of Drake, Magellan, Columbus, Gandhi, Jinnah and Sun Yat Sen.
Every year, we had a Bulan Bahasa Kebangsaan, where non-Malay students were encouraged to take part in debates, elocution and essay writing competitions.
We had Indian Muslims and Pakistanis fervently arguing that they should be classified as "non-Malays" to compete alongside us.
The culmination of your primary school education was the annual school concert, and if you're selected to act in one of the many plays, it was an achievement of sorts.
Then in lower secondary, you read King Solomon's Mines, Treasure Island and The Crocodile Dies Twice, and for Senior Cambridge exams, you read Twelfth Night or Merchant of Venice for the literature paper.
Twice a week after school, you could attend POL - pupil's own language classes, which many offered as a subject in their examinations.
There was no bitumen track or turf wicket on the school field. It was used for everything from athletics to rugby.
When inter-school matches were played, there was always a full turnout. And when Klang High School beat the (famed) Victoria Institution at cricket, all the players were called up before the assembly and applauded by the rest of the pupils.
The inter-school debates were lively affairs, especially when you're pitted against the girls (in those days, we never heard of co-ed schools).
A bowl of cendol was five or 10 cents according to size, and for those who enjoyed a puff or two after school, Gold Leaf was 20 cents for five, and the "up-market" State Express was five cents a stick.
You had brands called Life, Matterhorn, Capstan and Players.
Beer was 80 cents a small bottle and you got a five-cent refund if you returned the empty.
Banana leaf rice with meat (eat as much as you like) was just a dollar, roti canai and teh tarik were 10 cents each and the simple nasi lemak packet cost the same.
Fried kway teow was 30 cents and for another 10, an egg would be thrown in.
It would be an exercise in futility to compare then and now. It has been a long, long time.
And its nice remember the old days ... oops, the good old days.
Updated: 10:15AM Wed, 31 Aug 2005
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