Kyels wrote about childhood memories which gave my old mind a jumpstart to write this. Had been telling my kids on and off stuffs like, “When I was your age…..”
COCONUT LEAVES TENT
I lived in a kampong and hence, surrounded by coconut trees. Once a month, a group of Indian men will come to our kampung to cut down the coconuts and chopped off some leaves. Whenever they arrived, we had to hide in the house or risk breaking our heads because coconuts fell everywhere.
I would built a tent with the coconut leaves. Put some of the leaves and make a floor. It was really fun because I would then be lost in reading Enid Blytons in my little green home.
MASAK-MASAK
Kampong kids like us did not play with lame, pink plastic plates for masak-masak. (OK lah, we were too poor to buy them.) We played with rusty plates, real fire, real herbs and cook real (but unedible) stuffs.
We also play ‘market’ by picking flowers, herbs and stuffs to sell. For money, we use cockles shells.
PAPER DOLLS
Self-drawn paper doll made from hard cardboard. A one-dimension toy yet it brought out kids creativeness. Then, we designed dresses, handbags, shoes for the paper dolls. Who needs Barbie, huh? Check out MG’s blog for online paper dolls. Nice!
MARBLES AND PEBBLES
Batu tujuh, comprising 7 small stones and we need to throw one up in the air, catch one, two, three (in that sequence) pebbles from the ground. And another variation is 4 pebbles with one marble.
KALITUI and MARBLES
I can’t explain Kalitui and the other type of marble games. It is available, with picture someore on KS Tangs’s blog.
CLIMB TREES, CATCH MONITOR LIZARDS AND PADDY FROGS FOR FOOD, WATCH MAGGOTS EATING DEAD ANIMAL CORPSE
Maybe I will elaborate these next time.
Oh ya, I also used to smoke out moles from their holes. Give them lots of fire and they will have to crawl out of their holes, sooner or later. Never fail one.
Any of these games familiar to you? I bet not.
This post must be against me. Wah, u CATCH biawak and i had to call in the fire brigade hoh…. i’m calling my lawyers….
Samm – You should have called me. I can make a nice meal out of it. Abuden, last time, biawaks live on trees and roam freely eating our little chicks. Not hiding in sewage. Hey, seriously, I had skinned a biawak before, you know?
ewww, you… you…. you…. dont come near me…. you must have sunned the skin and made it into a coin-pouch too, right? i must be right…. i must be….
marbles..that’s a familiar one. i used to play with saga seeds, too!
Kalitui! my favourite. Teringat main kat SXI sebelum kelas start and during recess. Any Kalitui Kaki? I I’m not mistaken, the Malays call it ‘Galah Panjang’
my favourite game is congkak!!
I also like to play 5 stones. But all my friends like jump robe(the selfmade with rubberband type) but i prefer to be holding it for them to jump cos i suck at it.
Yes, it’s familiar to me! I played that too! To add on, I played in dirty drain, small river, and eat “kaisi guo” on top of the roof!
When I was a budak back then,use to play… police and theif, badminton, football, catch frogs, catch fish, catch girls, paper plane competition, bicycle competition, tree climbing, dog chasin…or chase by dog, lego wars, toy wars, hide n seek, classic boardgames, card games, sandal sliding, rubberband shooting…err, lost count. Nah never played paper dolls, got play He-man figures, bwhahahaha. Cheers!
I can definitely remember masak-masak and paper dolls..
I used to play with all these too, but never smoke the biawak before.
Remember catching longkang fish and tadpoles etc etc.
Kids nowaday spend so much time in door staring at the square box, TV, computer.
But it’s also because it’s no longer safe for them to roam the street like we used to. Aigh.. poor them.
u know what? we hv quite similar play things when we were both young, too bad we didn’t play together! š
Lol. You must had a wonderful time back then!! I was the only child (my sis is much older)I never had the chance to play with all these things. Back then, I read alot. Not English books lar, the ‘loong fu mun’ HK comics! Furthermore can draw also. lol
Helen – Dun play-play wei. I can skin a person too. Hahaha. Oh ya, I can kill chickens by slicing their throats. And catching earthworms plus dig termites hill to feed ducklings. Gee, I was such a tomboy. And proud of it.
Kak lilian!
I pernah main all those games (except maybe itu kalitui– ape ahh??? and tangkap lizards… iskkk geli…)..panjat pokok pon kurang sikit… always been fat hehehe…
Whee… Lilian, great to hear about your childhood.. Hehe.
š
*hugs*
Hey~! awwww… my childhood memories~! not all i reconigze but the pebbles and marbles i think they call it now batu seremban? used to love that game when i was in primary school… it’s a small “kancung” filled with either rice or sand… i rmb that it was a BIG hit last time..lolz
galah panjang i know… it’s like some sort of defence game right? where the oppenent will jaga the team by putting a couple of stage for them to cross? then the term panjang tangan, ibu masuk free (haha!) and lelong also got..heh
Used to play masak-masak using leaves, sand, rocks and uh… dried flowers, dead ants, grass..lol
Ah Chee Lok or Mata Chart, “S”, Kham Buck Chew… hehe
Even catching Black Ants and Spiders and let them fight.
Acilok, Galah Panjang, longkang fish and all the rest… Aiyah, plink LauEah wei!
Anyone remember Hop&Run?
Like, those games are soo alien to me hehe…Never heard/played those games before. Eh you really skinned a biawak?? I heard that those biawak tastes like chicken hehe..And how’s the idea of stir fry paddy frog with soy sauce sounds?
Yes, I played some of the games. I was brought up in the kampung and I remember falling into bufallo dung and using a bamboo raft to cross the river. Those were the days…