The wonder years..part 1

The Fantastic 4 minus 1

During one of the usual Hari Raya Gatherings a few years back (Pre-marriage era) .. my siblings, a cousin and my uncle ( a year older than me ) was sitting around catching up as one would together with my darling Gran whom I call Mama.. gatherings being gatherings it was loud.. especially with my little cousins ages 5 to hmm.. mayb 3-4 years old screaming running and tearing the place down.. we sometimes just had to stop talking and look at them in amazement. My gran had this to say when we stopped talking .. "kanak -kanak ani banarr.. kamu masa damit-damit dulu macam malaikat" ( these kids! when you lot were smaller you were like angels) hahaha.. and this remark after the antics we get up to .. I shudder to think if lil D is as ermm "angelic" as us. Immediately upon hearing this remark my cousin (the addition to the Fantastic 4 making it Fantastic 5 later on) started gesturing and making an invincible halo sign above his head with a stupid grin on his face that just cracked us up . That was when the "remember when" stories of yesteryears began.

Don't you just love reminiscing .. well I do anyway.. it helps to preserve the memory and you get such an enjoyment listening to the stories over and over again especially when you have not met one another for yonks. Let me begin by introducing the Fantastic 4 . My uncle H (one year older than me) and I are on first name basis as we were basically brought up like brother and sister rather than niece and uncle hence my calling my gran, Mama. We go to the same high school go to the same Uni etc. H is Fantastic no.1 (since he is the oldest)..my brother E was born two years after me , making Fantastic no.2 and Brother P a year later making Fantastic no.4 that made us the fantastic 4 (I am Fantastic no.2 lah heheh..).

None of my other uncles/aunts were married at that time so we were the only kids. We amused ourselves with erm .. creative stuff ya lah at the time no canggih manggih video games what..so we had to use a lot of our imagination . Note that I was the only girl in the group.. damn annoying at times because certain games are for BOYS only.. like playing combat..football or whatever game they deem unfit for a girl! they will rope me in if they need extras however especially when we play Combat! ( a tv show).. I am always in the German army (the bad guys) not the American army(the good guys) that should tell you the era of my childhood heheh.. its actually a 60's show but aired in Malaysia a decade and more later .. wanna know more about the TV Show, go google or youtube "Combat" starring Vic Morrow .

Fantastic 1 was the ultimate Boss.. since he was the oldest of the lot, what he says goes . Me being me was the stubborn one who, although timid would always have something to say if I have to. Most times we are in agreement and when we are we get up to a lot of things.

"Creative activity"

1. Play masak-masak by the sea - we lived by the sea ( now its more like a lagoon after they decided to put a coastal way there. That is me..the guys would normally gather "food" in the form of leaves, twigs sea water etc etc. while I do the cooking (erm make believe ok..). we had buah pokok aru and those leaves you get by the seas for" lunch" .

2. "Mandi Laut" when the elders have their nap . In general we are allowed to go to the beach if we tell someone older and absolutely not allowed to go into the waters alone.. yes all very sensible rules but kids being kids we always throw caution to the win and enjoy the warm waters and play sandcastles until my Granma screams from the verandah or the maids come courtesy of bapa (grandad) to get out of the water and take our behinds back to the house to shower pronto. Mind you we normally mandi laut when we are in our holiday house . At the time about 4 hours away by gravelled road from where we lived. Now it takes half the time with the advent of good roads. I loved it there and always look forward to going when its school holidays, the sea was clean and prestine and we used to have a hut where we will lay mats on and bring our pillows and nap or play boardgames with the wind blowing through.. the proverbial laidback and fancy free.

3. If you have ever encountered pokok Aru (its rive at beaches) you will know that it does not have leaves but nettles . Each nettle has segments which you can pull out and put together again..We would do that and take turns to guess where the broken segment was . I swear sometime you can't tell!

4. We were not allowed sweets .. my mom absolutely forbade it except during special occasions..so when the sweet tooth craves sweets we will sneak into the kitchen open a tin of milo and put them in a glass and mix em with milk powder no water no sugar.. eat "as is" damn sedappp I tell you. This was forbidden on account that it may cause cavities on the pearly whites and constipation! .. I can tell you that did not deter us we can just eat Banana's dutifully after meals to our hearts content later to un-constipate heheh!

5. If the sweet tooth needs more attention and theres not enough milo we will normally attack my Grandad's Susu cap junjung which he normally eats with his jacobs biscuits.. pour the condense milk on a piece of white bread and sprinkle some milo on top sooo yummmmyyyyyyy! At this point my great granma would normally come into the kitchen to shoo us off.. "baik keluar dari dapor skarang kalau tak aku ketuk ngan senduk nasi biar jadi beruk " ( my great granma hailed from Singapore hence the dialect). At that point we will be running out and hiding behind next doors laundry room and savor our forbidden treat. We love driving her up the wall but oh she does make the most wonderful dishes.. I regret that I have never learnt the secret ingredience to her most delish Soto and Lontong, what we have now is good but not as good as hers.

6. If it rains and we can't play outside we will play in the carpet room, my grandad used to throw loads of functions requiring new carpets laid, if not in use its stored in this room that has huge cupboards where carpets are piled on top of another in or outside the cupboards.. we used to imagine we were on mountains but what the room was great for was to play hide and seek in ,so many nooks and crany .. FUN! on hindsight I wonder how we can tolerate the stuffy room with carpet dusts and what nots in the air!

7. "main hantu"- oh great fun to play at night.. we alway have the protoganist to scare the crap out of us and someones kain pelikat (my grandad's or one of my uncles) will be used.. if not the beds throwover or blankets.. the room would be in shambles by the time we are done!

8. "cerita hantu" - another favorite past time especially when we dont feel like running and for some reason this exchange of stories are always told "malam Jumaat" . Somehow it was drummed into us that this night ghouls comes out for a bit of fun.. all the better to tell stories of ghostly in nature on. Nevermind that when we sleep my siblings and I would argue who gets to sleep in the middle as the position is more "secure" that the ones on the sides. At one point one of the uncles would say .. the first person to get disturbed by "hantu" would be the one sleeping in the middle.. why do we scare the crap of each other and put ourselves through that? well its fun! adrenaline junkies of rollercoaster proportions hehe..

9. Play "police and thief", main galah, hopscotch, play rounders, football (when i am allowed), bike riding you name it we did it.

10. Once my Grandad had a driver who came from Indonesia . He was such a nice man , he came with a wife and 2 kids . They later became fast friends with the fantastic 4 ..once when we played combat (imaginary war combat akin to the tv show) one of the younger indo kids (maman) joined and of course he was in the German army ( the bad guys) he hid behind some bushes and was ready to jump into action when he saw one of the Fantastics and while brandishing an imaginary machine gun he shouted.. AMELITANAAAAAAAA!!! (thats how the army would shout in the Combat show only it wasnt "Amelitana" it was "Americana") he then proceeded to make shooting sounds so thick with the javanese accent that it became "te dus te dus" . Everyone stopped on their tracks and started laughing..yes the Americana's lost that day heheh... so funny lah at the time. We really had a nice time playing with them. I wonder what ever become of them.. Pamol and Maman I still remember their names.

To be continued...