Once upon a time, back in Nov 1957, three boys (Thomas Lee, Johnny Chiew & Dad) went off on a cycling trip to Seremban after completing their LCE exams. They started their journey from Klang at 7 AM and arrived at PJ at 8 AM to have breakfast at Edward Jalleh’s place. He was their primary school teacher.
The three boys were well-prepared for any contingency. Their emergency kit consisted of air pump, inner tube, spare patches, sand-paper and rubber glue, in case of any mishap to their bicycle tyres.
Then off they went to Cheras Mile 14, and had lunch with Thomas’s relatives. At 4.30 PM, they arrived at Seremban. Although they were caught in the rain, their belongings were safe and dry as they had packed properly. The three of them stayed for 3 nights at Dad’s pen-pal’s place, located at Jalan Templer. Upon further questioning it was revealed that the pen-pal was a female. She took the three visitors on a sight-seeing tour of Seremban, including a trip to Lake Gardens.
No further details were forth-coming regarding the female pen-pal apart from the fact that she has eight siblings of seven sisters and one brother. Was there blossoming romance between this pen-pal and one of the three boys ? We shall never know. The secret remains safe between the four of them.
After three days at Seremban, the three boys cycled back to Klang, with just one stop at Cheras Mile 14 for lunch.
Dad was in the school basketball team from 1957 to 1959. The school team made use of their school bus for their home and away matches with Victoria Institution KL, another all boys school.
For the first-term school holiday of 1958, there was another cycling adventure to Morib for camping. This time the trio consisted of Uncle Arthur, Dad and Tan Sim Boh, their senior at Klang High School.
One third of a trapaulin was laid on the ground and the remaining two thirds formed a water-proof roof. They stayed for 2 nights. They had brought along their swimming trucks and canned food for survival. Dad said that was the first time he tasted Campbell mushroom soup.
To keep the sand flies away, a fire was lit at night. There were no mosquitos to contend with and the weather was kind as well. They were not caught in the rain.
On Sunday, another schoolmate, Mohd Salleh bin Pateh Akhir and his family joined the three boys. They brought along food and provided lunch for the three hungry boys.
In December of 1958, the boys were at the Scout camping site at their school ground of Klang High School, for 2 nights. Listening to the transistor radio on Saturday night, the boys learnt of the disapointing news of Malaya’s lost in the Thomas Cup finals, for the first time ever, to Denmark.
In those days, Dad had a valve GEC radio, the main source of entertainment. In the year of 1958, the whole family was staying at the school hostel of Pin Hwa primary school as Grandpa was a teacher in this school.
Grandma was a self-sufficient lady. One day, she went into labour and delivered in the morning, all by herself. She only requested for a basin of hot water, Dettol, a pair of scissors, and a length of thread. The hot water was used to wash the baby, the Dettol to sterilise the scissors, which was used to cut off the umbilical cord. The thread was used for tying up the umbilical cord. Within half an hour of the delivery, she was up and about, washing dishes and doing the normal housework.
Two years after graduation, in 1961, Liong Ah Nai went off to UK to study quantity surveying. The boys from the class of 59 had a farewell party for Ah Nai and had their photo taken for the occasion.
Sitting : Yeoh Cheok Siew (second from left), Liong Ah Nai (in the middle, with his jacket)
Standing (L-R): Yew Hong Yan, Arthur Lim Thiam Leong (fourth from left). To his right is Chua Kow Eng. Dad (seventh from left), Leow Peng Ann, Soh Ai Kiat, Toh Swee Teong, Chang Ooi Teck (deceased)
The boys must have been full of hope and dreams of what the future held for them. They had been working for two years, and now one of their buddies is going away half-way across the globe. They had gathered to wish him luck and to catch up with each other.
Each one of them must have been wondering, as they looked in the camera, will they achieve their dreams if they work hard ? Will they be happy ? Will they be successful ? Only time will tell.
