Childhood Memories – Part 24

Read the series here

(The grand daddy of all radio and even entertainment devices – the one that ruled long before we had satellite TV and one good source for news)

I was watching TV a couple nights ago when my wife asked me to “update” her MP3 files in her thumb drive. She heard her favorite song on my car MP3 player and she wanted the same for her car. My son interjected and asked for a specific song from one of the latest Tamil movies. I was kind of speechless – it is kind of interesting how we have moved from radio station only to cassette to CDs to MP3 files these days.

Do you still remember the good old days when you had none of this and you had the good old radio (and that too with a handful of channels available)? I still remember the old radio in one of my relative’s house and I still remember that it was still working and I still remember that there was no cassette player in that old radio.

(Not the same model that we had in my grandma’s house but something similar – it is a premium player. Just imagine 2 huge speakers sticking to this player and you get the idea)

The radio in my grandma’s house was a bit more sophisticated. It only had one cassette player which also came with a radio receiver and something new called “Dolby NR” and it had several dials for bass, treble and balance. For some kids like us, it was akin to driving a space ship. It had huge speakers and for long, it is only used when my uncles were around – it looked too complicated at first but soon we get to know how to work the player, we often use it to listen to music or the news on the radio.

And when we know that it can also record music from the radio, we hunted for old cassettes which were lying in the store-room and inside some of the drawers. We did not know back then but we did override a good number of ever-green and classical Tamil songs. It something we regret of doing now but back then, we did not have cash to buy new empty cassettes and seeing all that cassettes collecting dust in the storeroom and lockers, we decided to reuse them to record songs from the radio. Thankfully, none of it belonged to my uncles’ favorite collection, otherwise we would have been skinned alive.

Back then, we did not have THR Raaga or 20 plus radio stations but we had Radio FM Stereo (in addition to the sole Tamil radio channel) and in particular, it’s “Pilihan Bersama” radio program (still remember it?). It was my favorite because you get the best songs here and in FM stereo too (a rather new piece of technology back then). I recall recording the songs on the same cassettes several times over several nights – not all songs were played in complete and marking initial “BRC” on the cover to mark those cassettes that I have recorded.

(Portable, low powered and often found in many of the kitchens – providing music and news for the ladies of the house. Low tech and cheap simple speaker – it is hardly the loud music machine one would expect it to be)

That is when I am at grandma’s house. Back at home we only had a small cheap radio transistor which came with one cassette player (which we did not use much because we did not enough cassettes and also because the recordings was bad) and with one speaker. But since we listened to the radio more, the cassette player was rarely used. That radio stayed with us for a couple of years until one day it simply went broke.

(The almost exact model that my Dad bought for the house with just a small difference – this model seems to have a couple extra buttons and this time we had a real high tech machine with 2 cassette decks, removable speakers, separate bass booster, equalizers and digital radio station search. It would have been perfect if my Dad had bought the one that came with CD player as well but it was OK – this model was more than enough for us)

It was time for another radio and by now, CD players were making the headlines and I knew that I had convinced my Dad to buy one with a CD player if he decides to replace the broken radio with a newer one. I was away when my Dad went with my brother to buy a new radio so it was not a big surprise when they came back with a model that did not come with any CD player. Damn! That was my initial reaction – I guess our first encounter with a CD player had to wait for now (CDs back then were too expensive anyway). But the new radio – a Panasonic came with 2 cassette players (which meant I can copy cassette from another with ease), equalizers, a whole load of automation and good 4 speakers. We really handled the radio with great care – it was new and we knew that my Dad paid for it in installments and with a hole in his pockets.

(Sony brand Walkmans was expensive but we always had cheaper alternatives and Aiwa brand was one of them and you can get from a range of the cheapest of all with simple mechanism, low tech and all the way to expensive high tech models. You won’t find Aiwa brand these days, it almost went bankrupt and was acquired by Sony in 2002)

In between, we were introduced to something called Walkman – at first, by borrowing from well-to-do relatives and later, by collecting money to buy one our own, I bought one – my first portable radio many years later. It was an Aiwa brand and it was good and was helpful when I was doing my studies at home. My brother found a broken radio, took out it from the shell, found an old speaker and managed to get it work and we often hear it late at night – in particular Casey Kasem’s American’s Top 40 and another (I can’t recall the name) where the DJ reads listeners’ problems and then provide the relevant advises.

One fine day, we got a call from our uncle – he said he had something for us and will be dropping by to pass it to us. It was a radio but there was a built-in CD player. Apparently his friend was moving out and decided to pass his radio to my uncle. My uncle who already had a radio on his own decided to pass it to us. We were excited and immediately hooked up the radio and tested the CD player (the funny thing was we tried to do that at first without any CDs – it was dumb of us). So, after inspecting the player for some time, we decided that we need to have a CD to test and see if it is working or not. We then decided to ride to Brickfields to the many of music shops to go and buy a CD. At the shop, we realised that we are buying our own first CD – a minor history in the making – we were finally moving from cassettes to CDs – from analogue to digital. Out of the many hundred CDs in the music shop, we hunted for the one CD that we want to buy and bring back to test the player.

(I kind of miss them especially the premium TDK brand where the magnetic strip is in bluish in color. The non premium ones was brownish in color and often reproduced low quality sound)

We found a CD that contains the evergreen from the 70s – it was not cheap (it cost RM15) but thankfully we brought enough to buy it. We bought the CD and eagerly rushed back home to play the CD on the new player. It started to play but it was not long before it went dead. A couple more experiments, cleaning of the lenses and even shifting the player to a different place but nothing worked. The player was busted and we had an expensive CD without a player to play it on. Sadly we went back to cassettes but were determined to buy a good CD player when time permits. That time came, in several years later when I started to work and slowly had enough to buy a proper player – Aiwa that had 3 CD decks and can even play VCDs. It was not long before we had mp3 files to share – at first to be burned into CD as audio file and then later without any conversion to be played on mp3 player or car player or laptops by simply sticking a thumb drive on the USD port.

One thing we did not have in our “arsenal” all these year is a record player but I did encounter it only once and that too during a wedding. Someone had brought in the record player but did not have the right records but not for long. Someone dashed to his house and came back with a record which has a picture of a bald head on its cover.

(Image sources: http://www.alamodestuffblog.com, http://sarawakianaii.blogspot.com/, http://analogburners.com/, http://www.radiokmcity.cz, http://auldies.euweb.cz/ & http://www.audiokarma.org)

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Childhood Memories – Part 23

(Before this series gathers more dusts…)

Read the series here

Still remember the very first shoes that you wore to school?

Early this year, my wife and I went for shopping…for school shoes for the Big Boss. We had bought new uniform, bag, socks and shoes several weeks earlier but we had to buy another pair as the shoes “mysteriously” gets dirty within a day. As I walked past several racks of shoes, I was looking at the various “models” of shoes on display. One stood out – Bata – the one that most, if not all Malaysians would know from the early stage of their life. That brought back the memory when I was small and had to content with my own school shoes.

(The shoe box was a thing to see – the shoe’s features was akin to a car’s specs back then. Badminton Master 2000 – Image source: http://mohdfitri.blogspot.com/)

Our first preference when it comes to school shoes has always been Bata. There were no Bata shops nearby, the “nearest” would be the one near the Old Market (an ordinary shoe shop that also sold Bata brand shoes) and there is another shop in Brickfields – either way, we had to take the bus to the shop. In the early years, we did not opt for any specific Bata brands as long as it was one of the cheapest around (in those days even though it was cheap but it was very durable as well).

Then one day we saw an advertisement from Bata showing a new line of shoes – Badminton Master 2000. Back then, we never knew why they used 2000 but we gathered that it was a shoe of the future. And somehow we always thought that if we wear the shoe, we can run faster, jump higher and be active longer – ya, we saw the advertisement on TV. How silly we were!

(Simple and well made Fung Keong shoes. The only problem with these shoes was that there was more area to do the washing and whitening – Image source: http://boonchert.blogspot.com/)

As I was growing up and getting to know the rock culture of the 1980s – 1990s, my preference of shoe was changing as well.

Bata seemed to be made for well dressed, polite and good mannered school boys. Not for me – and wearing “well made for basket ball”, “not suited to run”, the heavier shoe seemed to be fashion of the day for any young rockers. Its high placed pad seemed ideal for cycling too. It was cheap and durable and despite the name, it had a long history to back it up (Fung Keong shoes have been made locally since 1939) – it was good brand indeed.

After sometime dwelling with the “rebel without cause” Fung Keong shoes, I was back to a more tamed designed shoe. Bata was alright but there was another “player” in the market back then – Pallas. There was Aliph too but they were more famous for their sports shoes. But more often, it was Bata.

Whilst we liked the shopping for new shoes especially when there are new designs out there, there is one thing we truly dislike when it comes to school shoes – washing and whitening them. And we had hard times back then. We had to wash all our shoes on the weekends and me sometimes doing extra, washing my younger siblings’ shoes as well. A situation my son is not facing at the moment, although we are trying to get him used to do the whitening of his shoes himself.

Childhood Memories – Part 22

Read the series here

(The old neighborhood – today Institut Megatech stands on it’s ground and the uncle’s barber shop used to be where Intec College now stands.  The only thing that have not changed in the last 40 years is the Shell Petrol Station. It has been there as far as I can remember.  It is a big surprise to see the houses that used to stand between the main road and the river is no longer there. Image source: Google Map)

Still remember your very first neighbors or your old neighborhood?

In the late 1970s – mid 1980s, we were living in a single storey, single bedroom rented house along Old Klang Road. The neighborhood was closely knitted one, mainly because we all shared electricity and water. The landlord paid for the water and electricity to the authorities and then charges us for the utilities in the rent (RM30 monthly but it was big money back then). We had to divide the time among ourselves when it comes to getting water for the house. The main pipe runs along one of the houses and we had to take turn changing the connecting pipe to our houses (my Dad put up 2 huge oil drums in the bathroom to store the water and a smaller plastic container in the kitchen for drinking water – no water filter of any kind). Disputes among our neighbors are very, very rare but I have seen some minor skirmishes when one of the neighbors bypasses others to get their turn of the water.

Our house was part of a several houses connected long house style – so interaction with the neighbors was quite close. There was another row of units in front of us before the main road.

Left

Immediately to our left, the house was empty but we can see some suspicious characters staying in the house occasionally. My dad said that they were drug addicts but I never seen them coming in and out and despite being drug addicts, they always kept low profile and never disturb the neighbors (nothing got stolen the whole time we stayed here).

Thereafter to the left, I don’t recall who the neighbor was but soon after that was a Chinese uncle who drives taxi for living. His wife was a housewife and they had about 3 – 4 quite rough, kids (I think so) – we used play badminton with them but they were too rough for us, the smaller kids.

The last house to the left had different neighbors at different times. At one point, a Eurasian family was staying in the last house – I still recall their 2 pretty daughters (who I met again several years after we shifted out). Later an Indian couple stayed in that house – the aunty used to sell nasi lemak in the morning. We however did not interact that close with them. Somehow, we kept looking to the right for closer interactions.

Right

Immediately to our right, the house was occupied by workers who worked in a noodle factory (which happened to be at the front row houses). There was couple of them stayed there – working all day long and only coming in at night for shower and dinner. And after that, they will stand outside our window if we had the television on. And they don’t mind if we were watching classic Tamil movies – our television seems to be their only entertainment back then. Immediately after that, I don’t recall who the neighbors were but at a later point of time, an Indian family stayed there but we did not get along well with them.

Thereafter was an Indian family who were we were quite close – the uncle was a barber (who had the shop on the other side of the main road and who is the one who cuts all the male’s hairs in the neighborhood. My dad was very close to him). The aunty (big sized lady) was a housewife and they had 4 kids – 2 boys and 2 girls (their house was unique – it had staircase to the attic where the boys slept). The 2 boys, who we call big brothers often, take care of us whenever we go out with them or when we were forced to do revisions. The eldest boy (his name was Mogan) was highly educated and later studied to be a lawyer. My dad often uses him as an example for us to excel in our examinations.

The second boy (we call him Karna Anne) excelled more in sports (he was a good runner) – we often follow him to sports meets. He is also the one who take us to the National Palace during the open house for Hari Raya. He will come over to our house and talk to my parents on letting me and my siblings to follow him to the National Palace. My parents usually do not hesitate to give their approval when the request comes from Karna Anne (he is very responsible and know how to take all of us). The daughters (big sister Gomathi and another – the younger one, I can’t recall the name) were not that close to us, the boys but we join them in games in the evenings.

At the very end, was another Indian family – the uncle had a small truck and the aunty was a housewife. Their kids – 1 boy (Babu) and 1 girl was quite close to us (in fact I was almost the same age with Babu and went to the same school but with different sessions).

Front

At the row, at the very right, the lot was used by a furniture shop owner to keep his old stock – the stock must have been very old, it was full of dust and rust and you can find huge lizards in it. Immediately next to it was a old uncle who was an electrician and his homely wife and their only son. Their house was quite unique as it was roomier and their front door is often left wide open. It looked fun too. They often leave the front door open for one good reason – there is a big menacing dog standing guard tied to side.

Their neighbor is the noodle factory – another open area so we can see how they make the noodles. The noodle factory owner and this electrician would often get into big argument on condition of the drain in front of their premises. The electrician often claims that the left-over noodles often cause the drain to get clogged whilst the other party would claim that the dog’s waste is the main cause.

At the very left, the house was much bigger – it was a double storey and it belonged to the grand lady of the area (the grandmother of the landlord). We don’t see her often but she did look very grand and elegant but hardly smiled. One of my uncles when got married, rented one of the rooms with his wife whilst they looked for a more permanent house, I got the chance to go into the house couple of time. It was clean but everything looks so 1950’s.

The other end, quite detached from our housing area was another grand house – this one was an old bungalow (I gather had about 6 rooms) and had its own garden (where we often played almost every evening and when the area was demolished many years later, was found to be the home of a large python and a large cobra!). I have never ventured into this large house but used to go and stand at the main door to purchase numbers (ya, they were 4D bookies). And if we venture to the back portion of the house, the ground was full of shells and small snakes! Great place for small adventures!

The only regret is we did not take enough photos of the old neighborhood whilst we had the chance but then again, a camera was a luxury thing back then (it can pay several months of rent).

Childhood Memories – Part 21

Read the rest of the series here

Lately I have been watching M*A*S*H (the series) – last seen on national TV in the 1980s (or earlier, I can’t recall) and I must say that I almost missed something rather brilliant. Then again, I was too young to understand the double meaning jokes in M*A*S*H. Now it makes sense to me.

Still remember the other shows back in 1970s & 1980s?

(The dependable Sergeant Saunders. Image source : http://www.crazyabouttv.com/)

Combat!

It was THE World War 2 TV series back then. Who can forget Vic Morrow as the no-nonsense Sergeant Chip Saunders? As far as my Dad was concern, Combat! was the baseline from which all other World War 2 movies are judged. Whenever we see some World War 2 movies on TV, my Dad will always say – Combat! was better. That is until he watched Saving Private Ryan and was blown away with the realism of the massacre on the beach. The story of Combat! was re-told again in another well made TV war series – Tour of Duty (instead of World War 2, it is Vietnam War and Terence Knox played the role of the no-nonsense Sergeant Clayton ‘Zeke’ Anderson).

High Chaparral

One of the main attractions of this Western show is the opening theme. We had plenty of Western movies in the early 1980s but this was the series to watch for. My favorite character was Manolito – the kind of uncle that every nephew should have – wild, loose cannon, good with the ladies but always there to back you up any time of the day.

(Ponch and his trusted retro looking Kawasaki police bike, flagging down a motorist. Image source: http://media.monstersandcritics.com/)

ChiPs

The show that got me attracted to police bikes and me wanting to be traffic policemen too. Interestingly the CHiPs was using Kawasaki Police bike which looked somewhat similar to our PDRM’s Honda police bikes. There was not much “traffic policising” in the series which was a big disappointment to us. We would be sitting in anticipation when Officer Francis Poncherello and Officer Jonathan Baker would fire up their bikes and speed along the highway to catch some bad guys or to attend some emergencies. The power of the Kawasakis was awesome!

MacGyver

All can do but no violence please, hero and one who introduced the concept of “macgyverism”. It was interesting to see what one can do with a little application of knowledge of science, technology and common sense. Reading into MacGyver Handbook many years later, I realised not all quick fix by MacGyver was workable – it was only made for the fun of the series.

(The truck that started the love for huge trucks. Image source: http://www.hollywood-diecast.com)

BJ and the Bear

Watching this series – I wished the long trailers in Malaysia were as beautiful as those in the US. Most of the long haul trucks in Malaysia were too bland. Most does not even have a separate cabin for the drivers. The best colored long haul truck that I had ever seen was a lonely Goodyear truck in Taiping. It was a standard Mercedes Benz truck (the usual ones that plies down Malaysian roads) but the paint work was brilliant.

(I had always thought the short guy was kind of creepy. Image source: http://www.youaintrock.com)

Fantasy Island

“The plane, the plane” was the call sign of the day in an island where one’s fantasies comes true (including one I recall, to be assassinated by a professional hit man). Interesting part of this series was the storyline – there is no limit to one’s fantasies, so content wise, it was not so boring. There is always something refreshing every week. I guess the short guy was the main attraction of the show although when we were still small kids, the short guy looked kind of creepy.

A-Team

Very similar to MacGyver but there is more of them here and this time, they are loaded with heavy weapons to the teeth. Memorable characters – scared to fly Mr T, the crazy Murdoch and the black themed van. Incidentally a newer version of the A-Team is soon coming to the big screens, starring Liam Neeson as the team leader, Hannibal. That should make the movie more interesting.

Of course, there were more – Stingray, Thunderbirds, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in 21st Century, Star Trek (starred William Shatner), Hawaii-Five O, The Equaliser, TJ Hooker, Dallas, Dynasty, Magnum PI, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Love Boat, Three’s a Company, The Jeffersons, The Cosby Show, Different Strokes and more (too many to be listed here)

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Childhood Memories – Part 20

Read the rest of the series here

(The kind of sleep that every one of us longing for. Image source: http://photopostsblog.com)

I must admit that I have been feeling very sleepy at work for the past few weeks ever since I was back from overseas.

At first, I thought that I could recover from the jet lag and difference in sleeping time but things have not improved for the better. There is not enough time in the day for a comfortable 8 hours sleep and as age catches up, it looks like I cannot afford to sleep for 5 hours like I used to do.

When I was in my “college age”, I can afford to sleep for less than 5 hours everyday and can still be active, energetic and sharp thinking from morning to night. When I started to work to pay for my studies, things just got worse. 5 days of work, 2 days of classes and daily revision hours took most of my “wake hours”. Such careless deprivation of sleep however comes at a price and I know that I must, somehow, have to repay my sleep debts. Sunday was my off day and it is in a literal sense – it was time for me to shut down my body and go to sleep.

But sleeping at home was a bad idea for my Mom expects us to wake up at the usual time and spent time cleaning up the house or helping out on the cooking or help to buy sundry items. There is no such thing as sleeping and waking up late at home. But because we have been so busy during the weekdays with lack of sleep, my Mom affords us to take afternoon nap but that’s it – she does expect us to wake up in time for our bath and dinner.

But it was not enough for me to repay back my sleep debts. So, it was time to make my way to my Grandma’s house where I am treated like a King and no one bothers me with household work. After my college on Saturdays, instead of coming back home, I would make the long trip to Puduraya to catch the bus to my Grandma’s house. By the time I reach her house, it will be late in the evening, just the right time for me to take shower and an early dinner.

Quick shower, quick dinner and a short watch of TV and once done, it was time for me to hit the soft comfortable bed and seconds after that; I am already in the la-la land. Actually not much of a difference with home but the difference comes the next day.

The next day, I would open my eyes and see a dark bedroom. I wondered what is the time. Looking at the dark room, I would gather that it would probably be between 10 am to 11 am but then again I could be wrong. Still feeling sleepy, I would try to hear whether I could hear any sound on the outside. It will be pin drop silence, as if everyone else was still sleeping but I know they were not. The household rules that my Mom enforces at home – she actually learned it from her Mom. So, it is not a big surprise that my Grandma also enforce the same kind of strict rules at home. I of course was the only exception to that strict rule. When I was sleeping, the bedroom is made more comfortable, the bedroom is darkened, the fan switched on and my noisy cousins (who also lived in the house) are asked to be hush-hush so that no other noise wakes me up.

Getting bored with sleeping (the only time I gets bored with sleeping is when I am at Grandma’s house), I slowly wake and force myself from the bed. I open the door, still feeling drowsy (to the point I sometimes wondered where I am) and walk to the living room. I look at the clock on the wall and realised that the time is about 3 pm. Wow, I have been sleeping for more than 20 hours! I gathered that it should have been more than enough to repay the outstanding sleep debt (my record is 24 hours – weeks before the exams).

As I go off to take my shower (and to brush my teeth), I realised that breakfast or rather lunch waiting for me. And after lunch, I would be lazing around, watching TV or join my cousins in their activities (which I must say worth joining). By 5 pm in the evening, it was time to go back home – so it was another long and tiring journey before work the next day. But at least, I still arrive at home still feeling refreshed and no sign of any sleepiness.

Monday, it was back to routine and losing sleep over the weekdays. That is until Sunday when it was time to go back to my Grandma’s house for a good night sleep.

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