My 'Kampong' life.

Blogging about the past started me thinking of my childhood days living with my maternal grandparents (during most weekends & school holidays). A small kampong called Pedas, approximately 13miles from Seremban where I resided for 35 years. I cherish my childhood memories and would love to share it with you (also for my own benefit when I'm much older).  

My grandpa owned a huge 1 1/2 double storey corner shoplot, still in existence today. At the rear of the shops (1 for rubber trading & the 1/2 selling household items, apparels, etc), it has two rooms with a huge opened air-well kitchen, living, dining and a huge 4 car garage plus a toilet and bathroom as well as a 5x10x10 feet reservoir at the rear of the shophouse. Upstairs, there's a huge living room, 5 big bedrooms & a store room. We loved playing hide & seek in this enormous house. I have many fond memories:

• my grandpa owned a few properties in Pedas. When I was older i.e. still a young teenager, I was assigned to collect rental from his tenants. He would give me the invoices and I was to collect the rents. 1 shop unit was 20-30 Dollars per month. (FYI, Malaysian currency changed to Ringgit and Sen in 1975). So, you can imagine how much my grandpa trusted me....ahem, how else can I not be his favourite grandchild then.... I was his first grandkid and I was the apple of his eye.
• Every Sunday, my grandma would ask me and my uncle Alex (I am 5 days older. He is my grandma's nephew) to clean the entire house. Can you imagine? Two tiny tots carrying 3/4 pail of water (several times) upstairs and we have to mop the entire upstairs (wooden floors) on our knees with two pieces of rags? We have to do it not once but twice because my grandma was a clean freak! Not only that, we also have to wipe each staircase steps and the balustrade. And there were two staircases!!! On top of that, we had to wash the entire ground floor using pails and pails of water from the rear reservoir and having to dry the floor with 'lidi' i.e. coconut leaf's stem! Hah! If there were a child abuse center call line, I would certainly call up for grandchild abuse!!! hehehehe....
• My grandpa was quite well to do. He drove a Mercedes Benz! He was also the first in the kampong to install a telephone & owned a television set. The phone number had only 3 digits. Each call made or received had to go through the operator :) The entire kampung would utilise the phone as if it were a public phone! Many a times, we had to run some 10 minutes to get the person to come to the house & wait for their son/daughter/relative to call again. One day, grandpa put a stop to it. Boy was I glad it was all over....felt like an unpaid, errand girl! Well, its true, not paid but merely doing a favour and good deed for the neighbours! And the TV....our house was like a miniature theatre every evening with kids coming over.
• I was also the weekend paper delivery girl. Boy, my granny sure does know how to 'use' me. I hated being awaken at the break of dawn, waiting for the bus to drop the stacks of newspapers and then sort out the papers for door to door delivery. Couldn't carry many, so had to make many trips.
• Not only that, I was also needed to help oversee granny's shop selling apparels, shoes, household items, etc. See, I was already an enterprising entrepreneur at a very young age. Thanks to granny. Muaks!
• We (my uncles, aunts & friends - all similar ages) would go swimming in the rivers only in our underwears!! We stopped swimming half naked after we reached puberty....shy, mah!! That's how I learned to swim ~ kampong style.
• I also had to learn how to cross the river on a coconut trunk! It was awesome. And if we fell....we get drenched! So, we learned fast.
• We would dig for earthworms & then go fishing in the river & catch tadpoles in the padi fields. Not forgetting feeding the leeches in the process. We used salt on them leeches so that it will drop off, smart eh?
• We stole fruits from the villagers' home grown fruit trees...those low hanging fruits...oooohhh...so tempting and irresistible... rambai, langsat, rambutans, mangoes and even coconuts. It was so fun! We would run helter-skelter when caught..the villagers would shout first before chasing us...oooohh such thrills and risks we take just to have fruits.
• I learned how to cycle on a bicycle. After many scars & wounds later...I could finally cycle. Due to my height and size (petite then), I had to cycle under the horizontal bars...Despite the hassle, I persisted. Sometimes, I sat at the back (carrier below the seat) when I am tired of peddling from the side but I had to strain myself as it was difficult to peddle on short legs from the rear of a huge bicycle ....Alas, poooooor me!



Photo credit : motorbyclying.com

• I was also taught how to ride the 70cc 'kapcai' aka Honda/Yamaha motorcycle by my uncles (of same age). I recall having only to stop whenever there is a rock or a huge boulder so that I can rest my short legs!!! Errr...How else did you expect me to stop then?? DUH!!!
• We would go swimming in the waterfalls & small dams for padi field irrigation. We would bring our bottles of Kickapoo / 7UP / Green Spot and place them inside those cold waterfalls water....Viola! Chilled bottled drinks after half an hour! Kickapoo and Green Spot was my favourite drink. So, eco-friendly.



Old Green Spot. Photo credits : Mudah.my

• We also ate hard-boiled eggs cooked from the hot springs at the Pedas Hot Springs...now a recreation/entertainment water park. Those days it was just a well. It was much more fun then.  
• We made household utensils from clay taken from the river banks, built a 'home' from branches, twigs & could spend entire day playing HOUSE in the woods. We "cook" berries, hibiscus, etc and 'ate' them for meals. 
• We caught spiders in the wild and then would put them to 'fight' in matchboxes / bowls. I love catching dragonflies...I catch them in assorted colors and place them in a jar with punctured holes on the lids so that they can breathe. I would feed the spiders and dragonflies leaves collected from the woods....well...at that age, I wouldn't know what was their diet!!! Now, would you? I also love catching cicadas and love squeezing their behinds just so to hear them 'crick with the buzzing sound'

Oooh...I missed those carefree days. Life was so much fun, so carefree, and we would spent hours outdoors without having to worry about sunblock, what SPF +++ to put on.We played from sunrise to sun set, only to go home for meals. Best of all, no adults supervising our every move.

I'm glad Rocker57 and I let our kids live their childhood with minimum restrictions & supervision. We never stressed on them bringing straight A's home but we were more concerned on raising them to be good & all rounder adults. 

Unfortunately, I can't say much for this & next generations....sadly, these days, people are too competitive, too bogged down with results, too focus on being the best in this and that but not focusing on bringing out the best in their kids' ability, capabilities and characters.

Bring back them good old days...let kids be kids. Don't let them grow before their time and rob them off their childhood!