There was Kamal and Sharif @ Yape, at the start of the road, Hussain (this guy actually looked like a young Paul MacCartney!) and Nordin, across the road, in front of our house, the twins Dorai and Thava living next door to Kamal and Norman and Gee further round the bend and there was Kasi too, close to where my brother, Georgie and I lived. And during the school holidays my cousins, Benny and Martin, from Pokok Assam, will join us. We were all, the below 15 group, then.
At any point of time or day, anyone of us could walk into anyone of our neighbour's houses,( we never had any use for fences or gates or locked doors !!) help ourselves to the food in the kitchen, 'lepak' with the rest of the brothers or sisters, greet uncle or aunty in english (everyone spoke english back then !) and then head to the 'padang' to play football or kite or gasing or shoot with our "lastick" or catapult ( mind you, we made our own "lastick" and gasing (tops), from the, now near extinction, "tebusu tree") or marbles or just ran like mad kids all over, then when tired-out, head back home to bathe, eat, study (very little) and drop-off to sleep (hardly any family could afford a television set back then- remember we were kids of government servants !).
Not one of us actually noticed or emphasised our religious or ethnic background ! In short no one was even questioned or spoken to of our religious beliefs. But every family had an unspoken care and respect for all the kids on Maxwell Road.
It was a typical road, housing families whose parents worked with the government, and that was where I was brought up, in the formative years of my life, back in the 60's. The boys would be playing together, the girls will meet every day in the evenings to talk. And there were different groups doing different things together, not by race but by the age group they belonged !
Most of us walked to school together and we were never taught anything about unity in school because there was never a need to do so. Unity was ours for FREE ! We were all, only taught "moral" in our school !
At any point of time or day, anyone of us could walk into anyone of our neighbour's houses,( we never had any use for fences or gates or locked doors !!) help ourselves to the food in the kitchen, 'lepak' with the rest of the brothers or sisters, greet uncle or aunty in english (everyone spoke english back then !) and then head to the 'padang' to play football or kite or gasing or shoot with our "lastick" or catapult ( mind you, we made our own "lastick" and gasing (tops), from the, now near extinction, "tebusu tree") or marbles or just ran like mad kids all over, then when tired-out, head back home to bathe, eat, study (very little) and drop-off to sleep (hardly any family could afford a television set back then- remember we were kids of government servants !).
Not one of us actually noticed or emphasised our religious or ethnic background ! In short no one was even questioned or spoken to of our religious beliefs. But every family had an unspoken care and respect for all the kids on Maxwell Road.
It was a typical road, housing families whose parents worked with the government, and that was where I was brought up, in the formative years of my life, back in the 60's. The boys would be playing together, the girls will meet every day in the evenings to talk. And there were different groups doing different things together, not by race but by the age group they belonged !
Most of us walked to school together and we were never taught anything about unity in school because there was never a need to do so. Unity was ours for FREE ! We were all, only taught "moral" in our school !
Wherever you are, God bless the guys who lived and played on Maxwell Road !
8 comments:
One Taiping guy saying hello to another Taiping guy. Hope we'll bump into each other in Taiping.
p/s: Have you noticed the char kuew teoy in Taiping (Cashew market and Yu Li, near KE) jatuh standard edi la. Sigh!
to the man who sold the world,
It's nice to know a fellow blogger and Taipingian, and yes it is true the standard of our 'firsts' and famous "everything" has dropped a little, but bro it is still the best char kueh teow in the world man !These days when ever I visit Taiping, there are still a few good places I eat at, especially at the Eden Restaurant along Jalan Kamunting! Owner is a fellow Georgian lah bro. Good 'inchi kabin' and the price hmmm... dirt cheap lah compared to KL.
But then again anywhere the food is cheaper and better then KL.
For me Taiping will always be my "kampong".
Cheers bro !
If only we can unwind time . . .
I experienced the same back in the early 70's. . .
So RM25million, going to our kris waving friend to intergrate races. . .how nice!
Dear Stephen , if we, the other generation, would live with others of other races, why are we teaching our kids otherwise? Just wondering...
Hail all Taipingites. I lived in Jalan Pauh, Assam Kumbang. My pals were Kamal(Melayu)Sonny & Boy (Chinese Brothers) Chandra "Rat" and his brother Kicik (Indians)Govt. houses no fence, we ate and slept in each others house, peeped at neighbourhood girls bathing ...corek holes in the wooden plank walls.Spear-fished ikan bedukang to barbeque and stole my grand-uncles rambutans. Such friendship those days. Zorro.
Taiping like other places changed a lot but it was a slow and steady change. Our Lake garden is stikk the same( tapi a lot of one way street).The markets are still there and wet and dirty as usual. My brother told me Taipingites still flock the 'Markit Babi' at noon to predict when the first drop of rain will fall.And they still do betting for that!
The Rail station is still the same.I hope they won't change it to a modern building)
Stephen it will post photos of lake garden soon in my blog(took during Christmas hols)
Thava passed away after retiring from army/ Both the twins served army. Dorai after retiring trried his hands in business and failed. No I heard he is woring in a security firm in Penang. I know oth the twins well. I grew up i my aunty's house for some time in the 60's. The house was in Jalan Hale next to the first bridge. We during those days use to wonder in the jungle near the airport hunting for birds with catapult.
Those wonderful days where the pasumbor man would come around late night and the half tauhu filled with shreded cucumber, sungkuang and taugeh spreaded with pasumbor kuah would only cost five cents. Can we get back that bygond days? Malays, Chinese and Indians lived in peace together. In my auhty's house a Malay family was renting in a room and were very friendly. They would participate in our festivites and eat the food without question. Such free minded people those Assam Kumbang folks. late Duncan [Malacca Portugese] famous for climbing coconut trees was considered a tough man. His sibilings would sell goreng pisang in the evening. I miss those wonderful time and wish I can go back to that care free days.
Hi Barney,
I've just signed into your address book and would like to once again say "thanks for the memories".
Thank you too for dropping by my blog and hope to meet more of old Taipingians !
Cheers !
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