Apart from several sojourn to the nearest malls with friends and us, my daughters have been pretty much cooped up in the house. And most of the time, they are surfing the Net. Doing what teenagers are supposed to be doing online... you know chatting, downloading, uploading and lots of myspace-related activities.
Which bring my equally restless mind back to yesteryears when I was at their age. However, try as I might, I only have vague recollections of my school holidays. God! I‘m old. Either that or I led a very uneventful life.
But one thing for sure, most of the stuff that we did during our school holidays were outdoor activities. And more often than not, it can be seasonal too.
For instance, when Mohamad Ali and Joe Bugner came to KL to box in 1975, most of our holiday activities were.. well.. boxing related. I remember my late father even bought us a boxing glove. Unfortunately, he only bought a pair. So my brother and I had to be resourceful and we boxed with only one hand (it helped that I’m a right hand person while he’s a left-hand person). Oooh! Now I geddit, perhaps that’s the reason why Bapak bought only a pair in the first place!!!!!! Jimat!!
A year later, it was badminton fever siang dan malam. The reason? The nation’s 1976 Thomas Cup emerged first runner up to Indonesia in Bangkok. And the whole country went wild (never mind that we were trashed 9-0 by Rudy Hartono and Co) with excitement. Don’t ask me why?
But suddenly make-shift badminton courts sprouted up all over the country. Including one in our own backyard. So like many others we played badminton. Luckily, this time Bapak bought two rackets!!!
But our activities were not necessarily events-related. But somehow, one major activity was usually preferred over the others. Like one holiday season, everybody (and I mean everybody) would be playing galah panjang and when the next holiday season rolled by, it’s police and thief (I called it polis entry, don't ask) fever.
And sometimes, in my household, our activities can be influenced by the most popular TV shows of the day. Case in point, when Vic Morrow and his Combat team ruled the airwaves, my brothers and I became soldiers and ... err.. communists (once my elder brother and I got into a huge fight as both wanted to be a communist. Why? Because to our young ears, communist sounded so much more sophisticated than soldier.
Luckily, I don’t have a sister. I firmly believe that if I had one, we would definitely become Donny and Marie... hehehehe.
11 comments:
Salam ABG MIOR AZHAR,
Interesting story! But one thing that i do not know (never knew or heard about it before) i.e. the so-called GALAH PANJANG! Is it a game which kids play with a galah? Pity me...how come i do not know about this game? May be bcoz most of my childhood days were in New Delhi...huhuhu! Abg, i think u should make an n3 about GALAH PANJANG la...just a suggestion,not an order...hehehe;-)
Mior!
Sama lah kita! I still remember, my Dad buat badminton court kat depan rumah we all. He used minyak tar to make the lines on the grass. And of course, us being budak kampung - main badminton kaki ayam. So you can imagine how mengamuk my Mom when all of us went into the house dengan selambanya right after each game with minyak tar all over our feet!
And police and thief (or police sentry?), and galah panjang (or in Taiping we called it "mellom"?). Those were the days... Seronoknya, when life was so much simpler and so much fun :)
Ish,
Alamak, sudah lupa la galah panjang punya rules and regulations. Anyway, dulu-dulu kalau saya main selalu main tipu pun. I think ada English word for galah panjang... nanti saya siasat dulu (wah siasat ...jgn main2... heheheh)
Shana,
Exactly. Those were the good old days. Those days kalau cuti sekolah we jarang complain boring (unlike my daughters yang hari2 kata boring cuti sekolah ni) sebab we have lots of activities kat luar rumah jer. Tak payah gi vacation pun, right?
hahaha! i oso called it police entry n when i got older, it nvr made sense to me why i call that. in fact, through wan yone's blog la br tau ape name betul dia.
where is ayah lang mase time ni? dia x join main jgk ka?
Kakak,
He was there too, but he came late into the picture sebab he was like five years younger than me. So early on it was always your abah and ayah ngah jer dulu. Once ayah lang joined in, he almost always ganged up with your abah againts me. Ingatkan later on your arwah ayah chu will join me but.. alas ... that wasn't meant to be...
yeah dats what i heard from opah la. dats why i was kinda weirded out nape ayah lang xde in the story. ala biase la, dis is a typical case of adik nk kiss-up kt abang sulung tho i have nvr experience this kind of thing. instead my 3 adik band 2gether to go agaisnt me.
Sala Mior,
Cuti masih la lagi. Kalau nak pergi tour Europe pun sempat lagi. Hehehe... Saya mampu ke Sumatera je baru2 ni.
abang a'a...
yeah i remember how colorful school holidays were. and i remember teh badminton season "rashid sidek" was the in-thing at that time. i even lost my shoes when we joined the crowd sambut dia at komtar..sanggup tuu...
galah panjang is called "toi" in penang, or at least by all of us the relatives. :-)
i miss my childhood...
Salam Pak zabs,
Ya saya ada baca di blog Pak. seronok ya.. tapi walau satu rumpun ada juga bedanya ya?
Yah,
Masa Rashid and co menang Thomas Cup, Abg aa dah kerja.. dah tak dan nak buat court sendiri dah... b ut it was another momentuos occasion nevertheless..
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