Photographs And Memories
Coke Is It?
A 30 year old woman in NZ ate little and drank some 33 cans of Coca-Cola a day which eventually led to her death. Was Coke, the Real Thing responsible? Another argument was that even if you overdosed on water, you can get into trouble. Probably a combination of many things. Simply, extreme are always dangerous. If you have pictures of old Coke bottles, you'll get fond memories. Better still for those who remember, Green Spot, Kickapoo, Sinalco, F&N, even a Royal Crown Cola.
Extremes Are Dangerous
Talking about "extreme", do you think the recent media coverage on our very own sex scandal went overboard? A 17-year old whom people described as hardcore pro remains anonymous and protected by the law while countless people were being charged. Rightly, these people should be charged for any wrongs but they have not been proven guilty yet and their careers are already in ruins. Divorces will probably soon follow and families will split but the families are innocent. What are we trying to achieve?
Many more could have been charged but on those days, she may have been fully booked so some got away? If you are one of them, it should change your life now that you have a second chance. Now, people, here is the lesson - you do something wrong, when no one was watching, it seemed so safe and yet now your innocent family is suffering. Think of the consequences and others in your life not just yourself.
I read with interest when Lauretta Alabons, a former radio disc jockey, TV presenter, who currently owns an events/concerts/logistics company said about the demise of Rediffusion with something like, "she will not walk down memory lane and just move on" or something to this effect. Nothing wrong, everyone has an opinion. This is the danger facing Singapore. She was from Rediffusion but maybe she didn't think Rediffusion played a part in her life.
Singapore is what she is today because our early generation gave of themselves with sacrifices made. Do not think that any part of our life may be an useless phase no matter how humble. It was a necessary part to progress from. Do not underestimate the little things.
Photographs And Memories
It is always good to look back and wonder. A simple and effective way to do it is to pick up some old photo albums and give it a once over. Satisfaction is guaranteed here. Any bad day or moody blues will dissipate as fond memories of days gone by will enshroud you filling your heart with warmth yet bringing a few tears as bitter sweet memories overwhelm you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48o5rCFFxh8 (Jim Croce)
If you have older photographs, take a closer look. I can guarantee you that you will see skinny people who dressed funny and all standing ramrod straight. Fast forward to today and you will see people making all kinds of funny poses on facebook and other digital media. Is it more fun today than in the old days? Perhaps and people have less fun and were poorer but the ultimate clincher that caused that was because if you were to go to a photo shop (not the photo shop software we have today) the photographer would say to everyone: "Kia tik tik" (stand straight). Even your relatives and friends would say that having learned from the photographer. This was how straight we stood! You throw a bowling ball and you will get a strike! Let me share with you these precious gems that mum has kept meticulously all these years. They are priceless! (My elder sister, two cousins and me). You can see the potential guru?
A 30 year old woman in NZ ate little and drank some 33 cans of Coca-Cola a day which eventually led to her death. Was Coke, the Real Thing responsible? Another argument was that even if you overdosed on water, you can get into trouble. Probably a combination of many things. Simply, extreme are always dangerous. If you have pictures of old Coke bottles, you'll get fond memories. Better still for those who remember, Green Spot, Kickapoo, Sinalco, F&N, even a Royal Crown Cola.
Extremes Are Dangerous
Talking about "extreme", do you think the recent media coverage on our very own sex scandal went overboard? A 17-year old whom people described as hardcore pro remains anonymous and protected by the law while countless people were being charged. Rightly, these people should be charged for any wrongs but they have not been proven guilty yet and their careers are already in ruins. Divorces will probably soon follow and families will split but the families are innocent. What are we trying to achieve?
Many more could have been charged but on those days, she may have been fully booked so some got away? If you are one of them, it should change your life now that you have a second chance. Now, people, here is the lesson - you do something wrong, when no one was watching, it seemed so safe and yet now your innocent family is suffering. Think of the consequences and others in your life not just yourself.
I read with interest when Lauretta Alabons, a former radio disc jockey, TV presenter, who currently owns an events/concerts/logistics company said about the demise of Rediffusion with something like, "she will not walk down memory lane and just move on" or something to this effect. Nothing wrong, everyone has an opinion. This is the danger facing Singapore. She was from Rediffusion but maybe she didn't think Rediffusion played a part in her life.
Singapore is what she is today because our early generation gave of themselves with sacrifices made. Do not think that any part of our life may be an useless phase no matter how humble. It was a necessary part to progress from. Do not underestimate the little things.
Photographs And Memories
It is always good to look back and wonder. A simple and effective way to do it is to pick up some old photo albums and give it a once over. Satisfaction is guaranteed here. Any bad day or moody blues will dissipate as fond memories of days gone by will enshroud you filling your heart with warmth yet bringing a few tears as bitter sweet memories overwhelm you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48o5rCFFxh8 (Jim Croce)
If you have older photographs, take a closer look. I can guarantee you that you will see skinny people who dressed funny and all standing ramrod straight. Fast forward to today and you will see people making all kinds of funny poses on facebook and other digital media. Is it more fun today than in the old days? Perhaps and people have less fun and were poorer but the ultimate clincher that caused that was because if you were to go to a photo shop (not the photo shop software we have today) the photographer would say to everyone: "Kia tik tik" (stand straight). Even your relatives and friends would say that having learned from the photographer. This was how straight we stood! You throw a bowling ball and you will get a strike! Let me share with you these precious gems that mum has kept meticulously all these years. They are priceless! (My elder sister, two cousins and me). You can see the potential guru?
That's me in the corner, my aunt, elder sis and cousin Robbie? Hope I'm right. Kia tik tik!
Even my beloved uncles did that way before but the youngest one was a bit more rebellious? He turned another way with hands in pockets. Cool! (L-R uncles Peng Hong, Peng Gek, Peng Chye and Steven). Uncle Peng Hong and aunt Evelyn brought us to many places like the seaside, fro swim, etc. Uncle Peng Gek was quite a joker and he loves to sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWPBZj2t7F4. Uncle Peng Chye was the one who carried me up when I fell down a flight of stairs and a good cook especially his mee goreng. Uncles Steven was talented, many of us got our haircut from him on lazy Sunday afternoons. He played the guitar, did gymnast and loves to sing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdvCqUguIh8.
When you look back, you will also find that even your best dressed clothes at the time will most probably be not what you once thought they were. You may have spent much time, effort or money on them but overtime it did not amount to much. You may even have fought for and over them. This demonstrates to us that we do not need a lot of things. Things that we thought the world of would be reduced to nought over a span of time.
Things that seem to matter so much now will be just another passing fad. Your A-go-go bell-bottomed pants that you got angry with the tailor for making the bell-bottom 22 inches instead of 24 inches has now transformed to something where when you visit the toilet you have difficulty getting it down to your ankle. It is still basically the same pair of trousers. Listen, rust and moths will come and take all away. These are not our treasures.
This means that what we will fight for at one time becomes something meaningless at another time but people continue the same way none the wiser. Then like colour TV, they started giving you coloured films. Weren't all of us excited? At one time you could even choose it to be developed as shiny or matt, 3R or 4R and when we have too much of the same thing we wanted to go back. We wanted black and white again because we always yearn for what we do not have, get it? Your youth and what is in the current are the things you won't get back. So bask in all things current before time comes to rob us. Here was dad as a very young man. Handsome right?
Things that seem to matter so much now will be just another passing fad. Your A-go-go bell-bottomed pants that you got angry with the tailor for making the bell-bottom 22 inches instead of 24 inches has now transformed to something where when you visit the toilet you have difficulty getting it down to your ankle. It is still basically the same pair of trousers. Listen, rust and moths will come and take all away. These are not our treasures.
This means that what we will fight for at one time becomes something meaningless at another time but people continue the same way none the wiser. Then like colour TV, they started giving you coloured films. Weren't all of us excited? At one time you could even choose it to be developed as shiny or matt, 3R or 4R and when we have too much of the same thing we wanted to go back. We wanted black and white again because we always yearn for what we do not have, get it? Your youth and what is in the current are the things you won't get back. So bask in all things current before time comes to rob us. Here was dad as a very young man. Handsome right?
My maternal grandma was a very good cook and all her daughters took after her. The one on the right I was told was my maternal great-grandma. Grandmothers are always the best because they doted on all their grandchildren. If you are younger now do not complain about your children's grandparents. Why? Because you have not become grandparents yet. When you do, you'll in all probability be like them, maybe worse. Trust me.
I mentioned grandmothers because I never knew my grandfathers. I may have seen them and were doted on and later told stories about them but I was too small to remember. I was probably just a baby. Dad is second from the right and mum in the middle (back row). Pretty right?
My late paternal granny in her younger days with aunts, mum (far right), late uncle Eric (left) and uncle Chua carrying my elder sis.
That's me in the spotlight with my late grandma. In fact, I missed all the people who featured in my life at some point but are no longer around. We had better treasure all those who still are.
A simple birthday celebration. We should pose again today for a shot just like this pix and you will find how quickly we have lost to time.
A family photo before my younger sis was born. Did you see a potential guru?
Sis, mum, granny, eldest aunt and uncle Eric. They came on my NS passing out parade. Me, garbed as Guard-of-Honour. Eric brought me to cowboy movies during his off day when I was young and made me my first pair of long pants after PSLE.
This is the aunt who has sometimes brought me to the movies. My ears were quite huge and would turn cold and she would like to grab my "dumbo" ears to keep them warm. Here, she was in disbelief as she felt the girth of the updated mid-riff. Recently, there was an article about good looking people and some of them claimed they have few friends because others are jealous. No wonder I have so few friends! I hope the press keeps a tab on these good looking people and take their pictures and interview them again in 20 years time and see if they are still in good shape while we wait. Ha! I have seen it happened to the best, some are beyond belief as time claimed its victims. Hopefully, by then they have a few friends.
If we have been to a school excursion or outings with friends or family, what do you normally do? You take pictures with your camera and what was the first thing you do when you got back? You go to a photoshop to get them developed then you wrote down some numbers on the yellow envelope to developed some others to pass them to your relatives or friends.
Talking about excursions, you wouldn't believe that we visited a brick factory in Jurong when in primary school. Yes, we made bricks once. When I started work, I soaked in all the smoke, smell, sights and sounds at the port or on board vessels and when I visited factories. I was curious that when you drop a few grains of sugar you will get ants on the trail quite soon but when I visited a sugar factory, the entire place was piled up with sugar all day long but not an ant in sight.
Why? To find the answer, please subscribe to my ....just kidding. The mountain of sugar emits too strong a smell for the ants' liking. It's like when you are already high and I give you more beer, you'll puke. Today's world is one where people may not even see things like that. They go straight into the job and become keyboard warriors. How will people learn, understand and empathise?
Today, few people keep photo albums. Digital is the rage now. They just store in their hard drive, an external drive or flip their tablets or cell phones and people hardly print them out. Do folks out there still print and decorate their homes with photographs? A Malaysian man has just invented a camera that allows you to shoot first and talk later, er I mean adjust the focus later.
I am working on a golf club with such a platform. Shoot first then adjust - trajectory, flight and distance like a computer game and then you can record a video of it. Do you think it will sell?
Back to photographs - digital pictures are convenient but somehow it is not the same. If you still have all the old photographs, do no throw them away. Keep them even if you thought you looked ugly. Anyway, we can't be much better looking now but the memories of the good times and the bad are priceless.
I still like my good old newspapers like The Straits Times. You can bring it along to the toilet. If two persons need it at the same time, you can pull out and share them. Even the karung guni (rag and bone) man do not want them now. Just use it to clean windows and oh please do not ask the domestic helper unless you are living at ground level. It is the same as books for me. It may not have occurred to you but not all modern things are good or better. Those who have squatted doing your business before have strong legs. You were actually practising pilates or yoga stance.
Go look for your old photo albums, beat the dusts off their back and start to reminisce. I still have elephant memory. Elephants never forget. I remember those who came and went before me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aiOjPVxNqY (Gene Coton 1977).
I need to find photographs of friends during those days and feature it another time. Those were my "Seasons In The Sun", still one of my favourite songs by Terry Jacks in 1974. Here goes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd_Fdly3rX8&feature=related
Talking about excursions, you wouldn't believe that we visited a brick factory in Jurong when in primary school. Yes, we made bricks once. When I started work, I soaked in all the smoke, smell, sights and sounds at the port or on board vessels and when I visited factories. I was curious that when you drop a few grains of sugar you will get ants on the trail quite soon but when I visited a sugar factory, the entire place was piled up with sugar all day long but not an ant in sight.
Why? To find the answer, please subscribe to my ....just kidding. The mountain of sugar emits too strong a smell for the ants' liking. It's like when you are already high and I give you more beer, you'll puke. Today's world is one where people may not even see things like that. They go straight into the job and become keyboard warriors. How will people learn, understand and empathise?
Today, few people keep photo albums. Digital is the rage now. They just store in their hard drive, an external drive or flip their tablets or cell phones and people hardly print them out. Do folks out there still print and decorate their homes with photographs? A Malaysian man has just invented a camera that allows you to shoot first and talk later, er I mean adjust the focus later.
I am working on a golf club with such a platform. Shoot first then adjust - trajectory, flight and distance like a computer game and then you can record a video of it. Do you think it will sell?
Back to photographs - digital pictures are convenient but somehow it is not the same. If you still have all the old photographs, do no throw them away. Keep them even if you thought you looked ugly. Anyway, we can't be much better looking now but the memories of the good times and the bad are priceless.
I still like my good old newspapers like The Straits Times. You can bring it along to the toilet. If two persons need it at the same time, you can pull out and share them. Even the karung guni (rag and bone) man do not want them now. Just use it to clean windows and oh please do not ask the domestic helper unless you are living at ground level. It is the same as books for me. It may not have occurred to you but not all modern things are good or better. Those who have squatted doing your business before have strong legs. You were actually practising pilates or yoga stance.
Go look for your old photo albums, beat the dusts off their back and start to reminisce. I still have elephant memory. Elephants never forget. I remember those who came and went before me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aiOjPVxNqY (Gene Coton 1977).
I need to find photographs of friends during those days and feature it another time. Those were my "Seasons In The Sun", still one of my favourite songs by Terry Jacks in 1974. Here goes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd_Fdly3rX8&feature=related
To all the uncles, aunts and cousins whom I have not featured more prominently now, I'll be back with more as it takes considerable resources and energy to dig out treasure troves from distant memories and I have to think of something that connected be it food or a song.
Watch this space!
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