Back To Good Old Time

It's a long Hari Raya Puasa weekend. It's sorta "show support" event that I needed to be present at a fund raising event sponsored by my relative. Yeah, I fully truly support such activity as Chinese schools in this BullehLand always need to self sustain and acquire financial support from the society, for a better education environment for our next generations. I am not rich enough to donate so one of the ways is to show support to someone who is capable, for "motivation and encouragement" perhaps. Further, it's my primary school!

SJK (C) Kong Hoe 共和学校. The place that bred and famed me to become an idol of others, as early as I was standard six. Hehe... Before I continue talking cock, let's see how my primary school looked like X years ago...

Ha! It's my class photo many "centuries" ago! The only photo I had with my school as background! What to do, that time wasn't the digital era yet, no digital camera. Hehe... And I am not a "photo guy" and hate to keep things i.e. memories in paper, I never house keep my paper photos in albums nicely, they are all dumped in a big envelope, which I had not touched for years! That's the reason why this post was delayed for 2 weeks since Hari Raya, I needed to search in the mess.

And this is how it looks like now...

Grand huh? A wooden shed transformed to a solid concrete academy building! Thanks to those ladies and gentlemen who generously donated and hardworked their efforts to make the dream came true.

While waiting for the ceremony, I walked into one of the classrooms...

Nice chairs and tables. My generation was only using wooden chairs and tables. I remember you gotta make sure you get a chair with single plank surface, not a multiple planks one, else prepare to be clamped by the chair when seated and your fleshy butt moved into the gap between planks.

I walked into the grand hall...

A huge air conditioned hall that can easily fit in 100 tables for 10. You can book for your wedding dinner here then :) So where's the old hall during my time? Ok, scroll to the top of this post and look at the class photo. The place we stood for photo is the "old hall". Yeah, it's the open area for our weekly assembly! My generation was studying in a hall-less school! Imagine standing under the hot sun for hours and look at the grand hall, how lucky the kids nowadays.

Somebody's giving speech already, let's go to the ceremony...

This gentleman should be busy with 1010 EGM now.

Now all the big sponsors. Say cheese...

And finally the balloons rose...

And may be I should sing the school anthem together...

东亚之南 我共和学校
顶天立地 雄志远昭
良师益友 远志共抱... ...

I still remember how to sing! ;)

Now let's continue the junk story. How did I become an idol? Long story cut short, it was once I pushed and punched the English teacher (3rd teacher from the left in class photo) whom was hated by everyone in the school. Ya, real punch on her hand when she pulled me harshly. I was chased out of the classroom and she thought I would be quailed outside. I obeyed her, I walked out from the classroom and did her a better favor, I also walked out from the school, walked to the bus terminal nearby, paid 15 cents and took the bus back to my house. I took my bath, cooked my Maggi and finally went to my slumberland happily. Till my parents rushed home, I only realized the seriousness. The next day when I returned to school, I was told the whole school was panic, discipline master continuously announced through PA system paging for me, the class was almost abandoned to look for me around the school compound, my class teacher ran to check the registration database for my parents' contact (not a mobile phone era yet), headmaster called my dad to report my disappearance and my parents rushed home to look for me. At the end, I wasn't convicted as I was brutally treated by that teacher before I caused the havoc. Well, I had the whole class witnessed the incident and my class teacher backed me up. Since then, that teacher dared not "touch" me, or rather she didn't bother to teach me anymore. Everyone got excited, even the "enemies" of mine crowned me as "tai kor". I met my class teacher couple years ago, I seem to become the classical that no student from top class 6A had ever done such thing throughout her tenure. Hehe... An old kiddie story.

If you happen to be my classmate and stumbled to this post, no worries on privacy, I don't think anyone can recognize you on the street by this blurry photo, except the teachers and headmaster in the photo. If you manage to recall this kiddie story from memory, be it my schoolmate or teacher, welcome to buzz me at blog [at] jacko [dot] my, so we can chat in private. ;) And one last thing, can find me in the photo? Hehe...