nostalgia

Catatan di bawah ini dipetik dari email-group Kelab xllN, yang rata-rata sudah menjangkau umur emas mereka... Diulang-siar (kerana mungkin pernah terbaca sebelum) ke sini untuk tatapan mereka yang tergolong dalam kategori yang dimaksudkan (lahir dalam tahun-tahun 1940an-60an).

Juga, nostalgia tersebut untuk dibayangkan oleh mereka-mereka yang berusia di bawah 30an... seperti juga bayangan filem-filem hidustan yang kini melanda blog di antaranya uncleJ, Kasawari dan Kassim Selamat...
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Those Were The Days,

TO ALL THOSE CHAMPIONS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 1950's, 1960's and maybe some who were born in the early 1970's, Happy and Blessed 2008

First, we survived with our mothers who had no maids to help around. They cooked /cleaned while taking care of us at the same time.

They took aspirins, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrup and diabetes was rare.
Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles – often the whole family of 4 or 5 people would go on one motorcycle alone.
Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.
Our taxi had not air-condition and so riding with windows open is just pure fun – wind in our hairs

We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.

When it rained, we had our free shower. We had bathed with well water and we felt really well.

When it flooded, we helped push stalled cars for money.

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our kites, hitting each other with small hard ball, without worrying about UV rays which never seem to affect us.

We went into the jungle to catch spiders without worries of mosquitoes or malaria.

With merely 5 pebbles (stones), we had endless fun playing. Later we made our own 5 triangular tiny bags to play.

With a rubber ball (tennis ball best) we boys would run like crazy for hours (game called choppin).

We caught guppies in drains / canals and when it rained we swam there.

We caught bats with a net attached to a long bamboo stick'

We made our own razor-sharp kite strings by coating the string with crushed glass.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one glass bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygienic.

We bought one ice-ball for a few cents and asked the uncle to cut in half so that we can share with our best friend.

We could squat by the drain and ate our bowl of prawn noodles. No problem about hygiene.

At that time we were not so rich and 10 cents per day as pocket money was a BONUS!

We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies, breads and real butter and drank very sweet soft drinks, sweet coffee/ tea, ice kachang, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. BUT WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and look for them!

With one wooden stick, we were able to fly it like a plane, use it like a sword, push it and it would become a car. Our imagination was rich and we had fun.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

We never had birthday parties till we were 21,

We rode our bikes everywhere. When we had no bike, we walked or ran to school.

We had no mobile phones, we just walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

Our kampong used only one big black phone that belonged to the only provision store there.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Our parents caned us but none of us become psychotic or mass-murderers.

We studied with gasoline lamps or a single light yellow light bulb.

We did not speak English until we were 7 or 8 years old – that was when we went to Primary school.

We spoke four or five dialects, Malay, Mandarin and even Tamil because we did not know that we were not supposed to do that.

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 - 60 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM ALL!

If YOU are one of these TOUGH WINNERS…CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who are just like you – having the privilege of growing up tough!

You may also want to forward this to some whining kids of yours who complain and complain and complain about small inconveniences.

BTW, we use such big fonts for this message because after so many years of having fun, our eyes have failed us.

Mind you, we are not OLD we are just THOROUGHLY SEASONED. We are TOUGH WINNERS and we are CHAMPIONS...