My Memoirs (Part 2)

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I used to remember Grandma telling us that she had four sons and two daughters. Two eldest sons were taken away during the Japanese occupations to work on the ‘Death Railway’ of the infamous ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’.

Forced labour was used in its construction. About 200,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, around 100,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project. As history goes, my two ‘Ah Pak’ are two of the many Asian labourers perished during that period. (Later, some young man came back alive to report to Grandma – that they had seen her two sons being held at the death railway)

The third son dies of malaria – due to lack of health care between these periods. During the occupation, the Japanese solders came for the ‘chok ching’ (to capture) young men at various part of George Town, and along the Market Lane / Chulia Lane. And at that fortunate time, his fourth son (my dad) was having diarrhea in the toilet and thus ‘miss’ him. Fate or miraculous escape, as you would call it. My dad grew up to become a handsome young man, whom the neighborhood addresses him as ‘Sie Khor’ or the fourth brother.

This fourth brother met up with my mom one fine day – through the introduction of his colleague (an uncle, I now called ‘ah Jeong’). Mom is the younger sister of uncle’s wife (now whom I called ‘tye yee’). And after a whirlwind courtship, both Mom and Dad were married.

I can still vividly remember Mom telling us siblings that on her wedding day during the tea ceremony, one of the ‘ah mah cheh’ suddenly went into trance and started to speak in some strange Cantonese, which later interpreted as one of the ‘Ah Pak’s spirit (Grandma’s other lost sons) desired to adopt the newly wed couples’ offspring as ‘their’ children. ‘They’ even presented her with 3 Russian diamond rings for the tea ceremony. These rings were later found (interpretation from the trance) in one of the hidden drawer at one of the many ancient cupboards. Strange as it may sound but till to this day, I have one of this Russian diamond ring in my possessions. Myths or Facts?

Hence, with the above strange incidents and in the memory of Grandma three lost sons, I and my siblings are taught to call both Mom and Dad as “Ah Sum’ and Ah Shok”. But as time progressed well into our adulthood, we fine tuned into calling Mom and Dad as ‘Lou Mou’ and ‘Lou Tau’ in Cantonese, which literally means Mother and Father in plain language

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My Memoirs (Part 1)

How times flies!

My memory flashes through just like yesterday. It was in the late 1950’s, in my earliest childhood, then staying along Chulia Lane, a row of pre-war houses – sandwiched between Tong Kong coffee shop and the Sin Keng Onn , a Hainanese restaurant. I still remembered pedaling the tin made 4 wheel toy sedan through the corridors on the upper 5-foot way pavement and hooting away the rubber stud horn to all those who stands in my way. It was also during this period, this ‘lang ting tang’ man comes around singing your fortune for a few cents. (Many also known him as Tan Tong Tong)

I guess, I was then 4-5 years of age enjoying my childhood and without a care and worries in this much materialist world. Born in the Independence year, it was during the curfew period where my dad had to bring mama to the maternity hospital for her delivery. I had 3 other siblings. Being second in the family, I had an elder brother and two younger sisters

During this time, Piu Pak (Grandma’s brother-in-law) used to buy toys for brother & 1 almost every other night. Always buy two toys at one go, for if not, brother and I would always fight over for it. Be it a toy wooden sword or a mechanical wind up toy car. To this day, my brother can still vividly remember me crying over the broken toys murmuring ‘mou nan mou need’ (in Cantonese) which virtually translated like ‘not cracked, not broken’.
Our toys buying day’s ends abruptly when Piu Pak announced that he wanted to go over to ‘Park Hoi’ (Butterworth) to look for work and that is the last we heard of him.

Grandma (Dad’s mom) used to sell bananas to vend away her time, pushing her 4 wheel wooden cart to the near by Central Market at the Carnarvon Street and Campbell Street junctions. Her favorite site is in front of Ghee Heong, the dim sum shop, by the road side (Campbell Street) just opposite the Market. As a kid, I like to trot along together with her to the Market. And many a times we used to ‘chow kwei’ to get away from the council officers who came running after the traders and Grandma, being considered an obstruction traders along the ever busy market place.. In the afternoon, Grandma would shift to another site down the road near the Boon Wah textile shop. At night, she would sell her fruits along Chulia Street, which is the main road. Those days, I can still remember, the City Council bus (Tram) still run on rail by Double Decker which later evolves to free driving by single Decker bus.
Grandma, being illiterates would show the same exact amount of coins to the passing sailors, who asked ‘how much’ when pointing to the bunch of bananas they wish to buy.

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