EARLY YEARS, MY CHILDHOOD, Part 1

Play, play and more play. If you do not harbour this thought or experience it, 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. 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 just to follow him along and watched him play with his friends. When my older brother included me in his activities, it makes me proud and truly privileged. 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 ‘gasing’, a Malay game. Most of the games primarily predicated on the principle of knocking out the opponent position, such as marble and ‘gasing’. Sometimes with a good marble, a good hit can even shattered opponent marble into pieces.

Flying Kites

Kite flying with my neighbours 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 go into spiral back to earth. You need to tied the kite accurately and balance the kite with tail for stability. I have succeeded in flying my own home made kite. I was never involved with kite fighting. That will involve lacing the string with pounded glass and glue.

During the school holiday, my mum will allow me to stay with one of my richer uncles living in a landed property. There I will play snakes and ladder, draught and other board games. I normally stay over a week. It must be my parent way of giving us something they could not afford. How innovative. My mum too reciprocated with big kampong chicken. Our rambutans were ‘eat and take all you can’.


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