The Times They are A Changing

There was a time when Bell Bottom trousers were so hip and when you go to a tailor you are not discussing what style but how big the bell bottom ought to be. Some opted for 20 inches and others up to 24 inches or more. Fashions are cyclical and cannot last but style never goes out of fashion. So keep those bell bottoms and wait for the next wave of retro. They'll run out of ideas and come back to square one. Just like art mimicking life mimicking art. From the womb to the tomb or cradle to the grave.

Once, I drove an old Honda Accord with round headlights and when colleagues and friends badgered me for a change of vehicles, they wouldn't understand that it was not my priority or as if I had the dole so I told them that I am waiting for round-shaped lights to come back in fashion and so it did in the form of the Mercedes Benz E class. My next retort was ready and it was that I had wanted a BMW or Benz but only in hatchback version (they didn't have that at the time). Today, my friends, both luxury marques heard me and have that.

They wouldn't even allow you to go into the toilet with 10 cents these days at certain places. If you ordered "char kway teow" and you bring along your own eggs, the guy may curse your ancestors. Not all old practises are bad. Didn't we bring along our own plates or bowls and containers when we bought our lunch or dinner at nearby coffee shops? That was earth-saving tactics! We used banana leaves for our nasi lemak, mee goreng and "opeh" leaves for hor fun. They are not only environmentally friendly but kept the food warm longer and it smelt better too. We didn't use plastic bags, containers, styrofoam boxes or plastic utensils.

Cinemas have ushers, Shaw Brothers have them wearing all white and the torchlight they carried was their weapon in the dark so going to the movies late was no problem as they would lead you to their seats in no time. The ticketing aunties were usually matron-like and if you wait too long to choose your seats you may be in for rough time. The way she scribbled the seat numbers on the tickets could only be understood by ushers and nothing they have taught you in school would have prepared you to read that. But then ushers were a special breed. They carried large torchlights that if used to smash you in the head, one would be left in a hospital for weeks. They would walk you near to your seat and shine the light at it. If there were more than one of you, say four, he would point the light at the first seat and zig-zag his light very professionally to the last. There were no mobile phones to irritate you but the people who knock on or place the legs on the back of your seats were already there. The "kueh chee" chomping crowd always made their presence felt due to the cracking sound and when you stepped onto the ground, you have a sense of the cleaners' burden. Its was a good thing that they banned the sales of chewing gum as cinema seats were often stucked with some who may think it was funny to have people having used gums stuck to their pants.

Come 1 January 2009, you can't even smoke within five metres from any main building's entrance. Before this, they first segregate restaurants into smoking and non-smoking sections. It moved on to become a ban on all office buidlings and shopping centres and open air coffee-shops has tables designated for smokers with demarcation within a yellow box on the ground. Then they ban it in hotels and the pubs, discos, etc. You wouldn't believe it when in the old days, smoking was perfectly normal and allowed in buses, tour coaches, airplanes and yes, even in cinemas. Touching the toilet curtains would make your hands smell like you have just dug into an ashtray.

Printed shirts, big hairdos came and went. But the hawkers that came along whenever there were "wayangs" have become a disappearing act. Remember the bird nest drinks they served?

Not the genuine stuff of course. Even the materials, contours and designs of your bottles that hold your Cocoa Cola and F & N have all changed. The landscape in our tiny, little red dot is ever-changing. If you haven't been to a place or at least driven past there for a couple of months, you are likely to miss a turn or two because the physical landscape would have changed.

Music has changed completely. From the simple and innocent lyrics to the beat and melody. Today's music is like a constant pounding (electro) , an adrenalin rush, a trance (repetitive) and full of angst. as Bob Dlan sang: "The Times They Are A Changing". But music often goes retro too. People always refer to the good old days. I guess it is just cyclical. 20-30 years from now, today's songs may be deemed too slow by tomorrow's youth and may be appreciated as retro.

I could only reminisce. Treasure each moment. It is all about time and space.