Monday, October 1, 2007

My Childhood Memories

"Jik Lang Jik Puah, Gum Qing Buey Suah
Jik Lang Jik Su Ku, Gum Qing Jia Eh Gooh.."

This Hokkien song was played in FM93.3 a few of days ago, and I don't know why, I keep humming it to myself till today. I guess the lyrics are pretty catchy though I have never really fancied Hokkien songs. Just in case you do not understand Hokkien, it means "if each takes half, our relationship would not split. If each takes a quarter, our relationship would last long". Haha.. very the "or bit" and my Hokkien is "puah tang zui" (meaning not good) so pardon me if my translation isn't accurate. Ahem, afterall, I am a Teochew..

Now I shall dedicate this song to my beloved brother (he called himself "choo hood" as he's the only son in my family... very precious one. Just like when we open up a durian, he's that only one big seed). Haha... why I dedicated this song to him because he felt that he was always dragged into "hot soup" whenever I cried during our childhood days. Hmm...frankly speaking, I don't remember those incidents though.

Of course, there are some childhood memories which I have kept with me. Some examples would be those when Mum went after me with a cane. Find these memories hilarious whenever I recall them. Once, I hid inside the toilet when my mum armed with the cane and came charging towards us after a quarrel broke up between my siblings and I. Thinking that toilet is the safest place (because I locked the toilet door), I relaxed myself by sitting on the toilet bowl, humming songs and waiting for the commotion outside to die down. I had a shock when Mum managed to kick open the toilet door...aiyo! Imagine the shocked face I wore when I saw Mum standing outside the toilet with the cane still in her hands, huffing and puffing away after the door was knocked down. Mum made sure that she found all of us and gave us our rightful dessert.

There was another time when I hid under the table but I pee-ed because I was so afraid. And yes, that brings me to another funny incident. Rina and I used to have our pretend play in a big, brown cupboard. We were pretending to take a bus ride because there was a pole over our heads in the cupboard. We would open the cupboard door when there were "bus-stops" and close the door when the bus moved on. Mum hated us play this game partly because she's concerned that we might get ourselves suffocated in the cupboard with the door closed I think. Once we heard Mum shouting for us, and the two of us were so scared that we quickly closed the door. Mum found us hiding in the cupboard and needless to say, she caned us. The two of us were crying away and at the same time, laughed about it because we felt that we have "da1 cuo4 che1" (taken the wrong vehicle). I still remember there was this popular show by "SuRui" called "Da Cuo Che" then. Heeheehee.

Thinking back, these moments seemed fun but quite "dangerous". Fun because it's like playing "hide and seek" with Mum! Haha. I guess Mum probably didn't enjoy such fun! Pa wasn't the disciplinarian in the family. Most of the time, he would only threaten us with the cane, but I still remember he gave Raymond a tight slap on his face once. I think Pa must have felt quite hurt after that because I know he's someone who hardly lays his fingers on us. Come to think of it, Mum was usually generous with her cane strokes, but strangely I didn't remember her caning any of her grandchildren before.. How nice if the "time out" method is introduced earlier! Haha..

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

in most of those incidents, ma came charging at us because she heard u cry. u were otherwise known as the "cry baby". just calling u cry baby also makes u cry, if u can still remember. Trust u to hide in the toilet to hear the rest of us getting caned.

anyway, i don't remember Pa ever slapping me before. u sure or not? I only remember ma beat pearl up with a long black charcoal after she copied her homework from her classmates and failed her tests later. I swear Pa never slapped me la. He is such a gentleman.

Mummy Barney said...

Pa and Ma always never have the heart to beat choo hood la. Ma will always cane us first and when its choo hood's turn, she would just stop there. So unfair lo!!

Marina said...

I don't remember ma only caned us just because she heard me cry hor... you cannot put all the blame on me only ok...

Yes. I remembered pa slapping you because it happened right before my eyes. I was taken aback then too! Think we were in the living room and it had got something to do with TV. You were so upset that you ran into your room and refused to talk for a few days. I still remembered Pa was infuriated (though distressed) and then Ma was chiding him for raising his hands on their "choo hood". Aiyo..maybe you suppressed this memory lah...I couldn't erased that moment in my mind because I could see the hurt in Pa's eyes..

Marina said...

i absolutely agree with Mummy Barney..even when we played cards and if raymond cheated, Pa and Ma also sided him... where got fair like that...

Mummy Barney said...

Maybe ry didnt know that Pa and Ma had done lots of things for him cos they always hide the truth from him lo. Still remember there was once when Ma didnt want ry to pay for dinner and insisted that I pay on behalf of her 1st lo. When I refused, she was so angry with me and I was also upset that we refused to talk to each other for days. Think it happened just before her diagnosis, during the period when she was always down with fever.