At 7 years old I can remember things already. This is because at this age, I already went to school to learn and remember what have been taught by my teachers. This year (1965) was the first year that I have heard and learned so many new things in my life. The new things that I have learned such as the faces of my teachers look alike, the boring and fade up face of my father sitting outside of the classroom waiting for me, the sound of my class mates crying in echo and the first letter I've wrote in my life are those things I can still remember today.
Disciplines were very important those days. Must be in school compound before 7.30 am, and no excuse whatsoever for any late arrival. Punishment is painful, a hard stroke with the headmaster's cane on the palm, for the first offence. You will remember it forever and dare not to have it twice for second offence. Do not try to beg sympathy from your parents....because they will punish you some more for being undisciplined at school. Nowadays, if pupil got punished by a discipline teacher, the parents will attack the school as soon as they knew about the punishment. Nowadays, it is the parents who are late in sending their kids to school, not the kids. They give thousands of excuses and the most popular one is.....traffic jam.
I remember my father woke me up at 6.00am every day and by 7.15am I was already in class. Pupils also scared of their teachers, not because of the fierce faces for some of them but, because of respect and obedience taught by the parents at home. When being punished for making big mistakes such as being undisciplined, we did not protest or show dissatisfaction. Nowadays, pupils and parents challenge the school policies and lodged report to the Police and to the District Educational Office for punishment executed by discipline teacher.....even though their kids were guilty of being undisciplined, for example smoking cigars or drugs miss used.
Those days, we were loyal and obeyed to our parents' advices. After finishing our classes at school , we went home straight away in the afternoon, have lunch and bath. Then, performed afternoon prayer and joined Koran reading class after that. About 3.30pm, we should have finished that class.
After that compulsory daily routines, we have had ample times to play around. We played traditional games such as baling botol ( trowing tennis ball to a bottle as a target from a distance ), tol or main sorok-sorok( a run, chase an capture game in various types ), bola katok or pukul bola ( similar game like baseball but using tennis ball ), chongkak ( traditional Malay game ), play kites, football and much much more exciting events that we ever had. But, be sure to get ready for evening prayer called Asar or your parents will search for you and twisted your ears for failing to go home and perform such prayer.
After performing the Asar you are free for one more occasion and we will take this opportunity to play football. If not enough player, we will quit. Next choice is a race to the rice fields to play kites and fishing.
Must be at home at least before the bilal of the mosque calls for another evening prayer called Maghrib.
If not, your parents will not let you in to the house for the whole night!
Those days, our house were made from woods with the roof made from nipah leaves or coconut leaves. When there was heavy rain or downfalls, the roof leaks every where and I used to find something such as bowls or pails to catch the dropping water. My mother used dirty clothes to capture the rain drops.
Our house also have poles or pillars made from strong woods like Chengals set upright or vertically on the ground to support the floor of the house. The height of the floor will depend on the height of those vertical poles. Some may reach up to 12 feet, like my grandfather's house or just 4 feet high like my parent's house.
All houses were made of quality woods and built by traditional carpenters or by the owner himself, like what my father did. His wooden house is still standing strongly and safely occupied by my niece. But, the roof of the house was being replaced with asbestos roof and had ceiling underneath.
I also remember when we used to play hide and seek under the moonlight.....which we called it 'Polis Senteri'. It was a hard game and consuming lot of energies, speeds and braveness. Must search and catch your enemies and at the same time guard your jailed enemies promptly. This games needed at least 4 players, 2 for the police and 2 for the offenders. More players, the better was the game.
