Tuesday, October 03, 2006

history lesson

Sunday was special because I actually managed to have a conversation with my parents for longer than 5 minutes without me getting into a fight with them, or them getting into a fight with themselves. Somehow conversation drifted to what Singapore was like when they were growing up and for the first time in a long long long long time I found myself fascinated.

My mom talked about how my Ah Gong used to give her 20 cents a day to eat and she'd skip all the laksa and char kway teow sellers for the ice balls, sweets and candies resulting in her losing a bunch of her teeth to decay when she was relatively young. She's been wearing dentures for as long as I can remember but I never did know the reason. She talked about how hawkers those days couldn't afford to buy eggs and cai dao kway was an eggless affair with loads and loads of black sweet sauce. If you wanted an egg thrown in you'd have to bring one of your own and they'd cook it for you for no extra cost. How you could lower a basket with money in it from the window of your flat and bring it back up with whatever goodies the hawker downstairs was selling. And of course she made some comments that nearly sparked a big fight but we managed to hold our tongues and let her be.

My dad went on about what it was like for his family during the Japanese Occupation. He was born after that was over but my eldest uncles and aunties had all been present. In fact I might have one more uncle today if it wasn't for the occupation. Seems he got sick after eating or drinking something and died soon after. He talked about how my paternal grandfather had to go out fishing and prawning in the river when there wasn't enough food and how he'd have to bring my eldest uncles along to help. How they'd have to bear with the sight of decomposing bodies floating in the river because that was where all the prawns and fish gathered. How they'd have to put it out of their minds that the food on the table had been feasting on human flesh just a while ago. My dad was really lucky I guess. Well relatively lucky anyway. Up till that day, I'd had no idea, no inkling of what my paternal grandfather had been like or what he'd looked like. No photos, no stories no nothing.

They told me about what it was like going to school and getting sent back home in a hurry during the racial riots and how my mom had been scared out of her wits. Singapore's come so far now I just can't imagine the streets empty and policemen at every other junction. At that time, going out on the streets was akin to a deathwish.

Some things never really change though. My dad told us about how a platoon from 1 SIR got badly mauled by Indonesian troops during the Konfrontasi because they'd found a nice clearing beside a stream to relax and then kena ambushed. HAhaha that just sounds exactly like what Singaporean soldiers would do today. Except now they'd be arguing about who gets the curry flavour and who gets the prawn flavour maggi mee too. Well ok at least my platoon would've been like that.

Ok guess I'd better get to class already. History class ironically. You can learn a lot in school, but the most poignant classes happen at home..

5 Comments:

Blogger noelbynature said...

Hi there. This is a nice reflection of "life back then". May I link to this post on yesterday.sg?

9:21 PM  
Blogger isaac! said...

yeah go ahead. its on the net anyway.

10:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Loved this post. The WWII separated my grandma from my grandpa for quite a while. She was constantly running away from the Japanese soldiers for fear of getting raped.

People born generations after the war can never fathom the horror of those years.

5:20 PM  
Blogger Eddie G. said...

Heck the only thing I know about war now is that every time you get killed, you'll respawn in a drop zone in about 5 seconds. A dangerous mentality to bring onto the battlefield indeed.

1:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post. I'm fascinated with events @ WWII.... any bit of information goes a long way.
Thanks noelbynature too for posting in on yesterday.sg.. Thatz how I got here.

8:26 AM  

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