Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Yester Years I

During my days, there were no shopping complexes in IPOH town, but we had only two (2) Emporiums, ie the IPOH and Perak Emporium. Most of our groceries were purchased from sundry shops. But now both the emporiums had already "disintegrated" and sundry shops too are slowly fading away....

I cannot help talking about my younger days... When I think back, how did we survive, it was a great achievement....kudos to my parents....My father being the sole bread winner, worked 2 jobs to bring home RM150.00 per month to feed and bring up 6 children and special award to my mum who was a good finance and home minister, for being so wise in the budget as well as in the upbringing...

All of us were brought up in one last room in the town house with a balcony overlooking the backlane. How did we sleep in such a small room? Nowadays whenever we talked about our younger days, we would laugh at how we survived then, with all the 'inconveniences' and the fear of cockroaches at night.

As far as I can remember, The man of the house, ie my father and my 2 brothers would sleep on the bed, my mum, me and my youngest sister would sleep on the floor mat and..... my 2 elder sisters would sleep outside at the corridor leading to the balcony. Stunned or not? haha.. Thank goodness for mosquito net, the lizards, cockroaches or at times rats were given no entry. :)

Anyway, that was only the sleeping part, there are so much to tell... endless.. I wanted to write all these down, slowly..... hopefully, one day, my kids, my kids' kids and great grandkids will be able to imagine how our childhood days were like...
and how blessed they are now.....



having the time of their life...with whatever they want....

24 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the little part of your story with us! Nice reading your post :)

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  2. Your family seem happy and indeed blessed.

    Gratefulness to God is a very important part of life which we often neglect.

    Thanks for reminding.

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  3. wow "RM150.00 per month" i oso wan tat leh =P

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  4. Hi Reanaclare, all the young girls your daughters?
    Reana, I read twice your veey interesting post of old days. Keep on bringing them back.

    I remember I too slept on the floor or tikar, with that goldfish mosquito coil burning.
    Come to think of it, it sure was bad breathing those fumes, but the skeeters don't take prisoners.

    And yes, I remember Ipoh of the old days...no supermarkets yet. I was staying alone in Canning gardens, had a matured maid and Saturdays would take her marketing at Foo Choo Choon wet market.
    Then she and me go for bak kut teh or dim sum at a nearby coffee shop. I still remember they had those round polished marble or granite tables.

    We got our gas for cooking from that gas dealer Lau Guan Seng, near the market,I think.

    When we returned and stayed in Ipoh in 2002, went to Super Kinta, pusing like gila can't find parking, ha ha.

    But I sure love Ipoh and Penang...I think more Penang as I love the sea.

    Hey, how come your brothers slept on beds, you girls on the floor? Ha ha.
    I still have in-laws, relatives around Ipoh.
    Reana, you keep well and have a nice Merdeka holiday, Lee.

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  5. you made me smile today c: c: c:

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  6. btw who are these beautiful ladies posing or playing their instruments? c: are they cool or what?! c:

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  7. All of you deserve the title "survivor" (based on Survivor reality show)

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  8. those are my girls' frens... they r having fun playing with the musical instruments...that was why i said they r blessed nowadays..compared to my old days, when we didnt even have a house phone.. haha..

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  9. They are indeed blessed....Like you, I grew up struggling but God has been so good for blessing me and my family...my parents are hardworking that they did all their best to give us the best education....

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  10. You have a nice life story...;)

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  11. hey you guys really rock c: thanx for answering dear c:

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  12. Yes, i remember the Ipoh and Perak Emporiums - they were THE places to go shopping in. Another one is the Beauty emporium - i used to work there as a salesgirl during my long school holidays!

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  13. oh yeah..i forgot about beauty emporium..haha.. i think that was later.. cresendo also came out during the 70s but closed off too.. remember orchid..and new tide? all have disintergrated..

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  14. aiyoh....i'm feeling so like grandpa la....hv to remember those good old days...only the ladies remember the shopping places...hahahaha.
    tongts

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  15. aiyoh....i'm feeling so like grandpa la....hv to remember those good old days...only the ladies remember the shopping places...hahahaha.
    tongts

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  16. i remember Wisma Angel and its attractions of video games, not forgetting jubillee park.

    err..can't remember u guys slept like dat, maybe i was not born yet then.

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  17. got la..then father made a double decker bed on top of his..after that, no more sleeping on the corridor ..we girls were 'promoted' to the double decker on top of the men sleeping at the lower deck..i bet u were at the lower deck or on the floor mat with tai yee..

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  18. ow its a natural pic.i like the picture.its charlie angels now hehehehe :D

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  19. My family plant and sell veg. I remember that my childhood was quite tough also. Perhaps, one day I will also blog about it. It brought back nice memories whenever I thought about it.
    My parents have 11 children and being almost the youngest, life for me was quite good compared to them.

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  20. William, that was i posted earlier that most families during the early years have at least 6 children and more, a dozen was not surprising those days. Now only it dwindled to 1, 2 or 3.. yes, I believe most families those days faced tougher times but nevertheless, we had a happy, innocent and yet glorious childhood that will always be treasured.
    Kudos to our parents.. all credit goes to them...

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