My Memoirs (Part 4)

Continue from My Memoirs (Part 3)

Those days, my siblings and I like to enjoy our ride in Dad’s Hillman. I can still recall the smell of heated leather from the seat cushion. In the sixties, Cars were not installed with air conditioning then. The best comfort we have to make do is with a blowing fan – fitted onto the middle of the dash panel. And as time progressed, these seat materials would slowly evolves to other fabrics, such as vinyl and synthetic leather which do not usually emits the kind of aroma smell of the seasoned leather of the yesteryears.

Speaking of the aroma of smell, I could still vividly remember the smell of complete freshly fried chicken, which elder brother had won as a consolation prize at the fun fair. The fun fair was an annual affair held at the Pesta Stadium along the Perak Road at that time. Our whole family has had a fantastic meal that evening. At today standard, these meals are nothing to shout about. But during those days, having a whole fried chicken for meal is a rarity, which is only served on special occasion.

The shout of ‘koay ta lum’ (dessert made from pandan leaves, coconut milk and flour) and smell of ‘assam laksa’ always linger in memory during my younger days. These are the two signature desserts, that vendors carry and balance their wares on a long bamboo stick, who ply their trades on the five foot ways. They ply their trade by wearing a sort of ‘turban’ (head cloth) and use it to balance a big basket over their head and with a long bamboo stick over their shoulder to carry one pot of ‘laksa’ soup burning over a small stove at one end while the other end carries 3-4 layers of bamboo basket containing varieties of dessert. You cannot miss them for one can smell the appetizing aroma blocks away.

In the sixties, ten cents (10cts) can still buy you a big chunk of ‘koay ta lum’ and a bowl of ‘assam laksa’. As time progressed into the present age, that piece of one ‘koay ta lum’ and a bowl of ‘assam laksa’ takes approximately sixty cents (60cts) and three dollars (RM3.00) respectively. Nowadays, these vendors peddles their wares on a three wheel scooter and instead of shouting the traditional way, they would honk out their sales. However, one could hardly had a chance to enjoy these desserts nowadays as you would probably missed these vendors as they would be miles away by the time you come out of the five foot way. Sadly, this is the disadvantage of evolution. Nowadays, these desserts are sold under their actual names as ‘char-koa’ and can be found selling at ‘pasar malam’ or the night market.

Other vendors, like the ‘hum-chin peng’ (fried flour dumpling) man together with his ‘hong-tau sar’ (signature red bean dessert) is a must try in those days. He used to sell his stuff as he pushes his four wheel wooden cart all along the narrow streets of Georgetown. Those who are now in their 50’s and 60’s could still remember him. We actually miss his ‘hum-chin peng’ when we shift away from Chulia Lane.

Another must try street hawking stall in those days is the ‘lor-bak’ and ‘hei-si’ (minced meat in roll and fried prawn cracker in mixture with flour). This man is more up to-date, as he plies his stuff on a tricycle stall. So as he fried the prawn cracker, the aroma from this prawn mixture flour will sure entice your appetizer. And also with the sleight of his hand, he can cleanly cut a century year egg (fermented egg) into six equal pieces. Being young and native, we were curious as to how he could perform this magic. Later we found out that this vendor had hidden a tough thread (cloth string for slicing through the eggs) in between the utensils for this purposes.

As for ‘junk’ food, we have had our fair shared of ‘ting-ting dong’ (hard rock candies), where the vendor would chip away with his small hammer and chisel like tool to ‘cut’ away your cents worth of candies. Usually, this same vendor also sells the ‘mug-ah tong’ (maltose honey slurps) where a thick bamboo stick is dipped into a clayed jar of honey slurp and twirled around to scoop up your five cents worth of portion. So as brother and I had a total of ten cents (10 cents) between us, we would buy both and shared the items altogether. And yes, we sometimes fought over on who will get a bigger portion.

As much as our mouth water and yearn for all the above simple savory food at that young ages, we could not bring ourselves to sample these food often, as our budgets or so called allowances were limited to five cents (5 cents) on a well behaved day and nil when we play taunt.

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My Memoirs (Part 3)

Continue from My Memoirs (Part 2)

Grandma’s two daughters, where the elder one, whom I called Ku-cheh (elder aunty) had a string of failed courtship which left her a very depressed person. As she always keeps to herself, communication breakdown was the norm, especially towards her immediate families. However, she was kind and helpful to most strangers who drop by to chat with her. She spent the later part of her life at the family house along Chulia Lane.

The younger daughter, Lai-ku (younger aunty) marries her sweetheart who lives next door. Lai-ku has 3 off spring of her own. While her children, lou-piu, (my cousins) are in constant contact with us now, lou-piu’s children could now hardly recognize us or vice-versa. And this is so-called generation gaps.

Dad, being a young mechanic in those days, used to repair and trade used cars for a living and he would sometimes drive a Hillman or a Chevrolet home, the ones that has protruding tail lights. Being young and native, my brother and I called them the ‘Fei kei’ car

Dad used to drive the family to the ‘kow-mar tou’ the Esplanade, at the Fort Cornwallis and the ‘san-mar tou’ at the Gurney Drive, where we used to enjoy the ride on the ‘merry-go-round’ carrousel, the swing and the ‘ king-kong pan’ (see-saw)
A type of horizontal platform with centre pivoted and balanced, where each person sits at both end, with own legs to push up and down, making ‘king kong’ noises when platform’s end touches the ground
Mind you, I believe this is the only place where you can find such a playground in those days.

At the age of five, I remembered shifting house, away from Chulia Lane, away from Grandma, away from the neighbor hood buddies where we had our fair share of playing games together. Brother and I missed our favorite games of glass marbles, top spinning, water gun battles, green unripe berry (for bullet projectile by elastic band) on wooden gun battles, hide and seek (where you can even hide blocks away) and yes, flying kites.

We stayed put for a year at the corner house situated at the end at Counter Hall which connected the Terengganu Road (just a stone throw away from the now framed P. Ramlees’ house). In front of the house is a small little steam where the children from the neighbor hood spend their time catching ‘peacork fish’ (guppy fish) with their bare hands.
Of course, there are a lot of greenies in the ‘san deng’ area, which gives us another pastime – catching fighting spider. We would carefully ‘scan’ through the wild berry hedges that usually grown along the fences surrounding the house. We would pick up and consume those wild but red ripen berries! How native we will then, without considering the facts that these wild fruits could be poisonous. But we lived through.

Those days, as Counter Hall is consider ‘out-of–town ‘area or ‘san deng’ (small village), was also a flood prone area.. Coming down town from the ‘san deng’ in those days, one must always drive through the big hump along the Perak Road which is just in front of the Penang Stadium. Only then after the big hump, the area would only consider as down town. (At least, this is what dad told us).

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