Childhood-from the Past

I was chatting with a friend of mine and out of sudden, we're on a very interesting topic which inspired me to write. I don't know how we were driven to this particular topic when we were actually talking about ghost stories. Childhood - a meaningful past in everyone's life. Childhood memories might affect who we're today but as long as we were let to grow up as children,at least as the way children suppose to be, we are all still very lucky. And, it is weird but it is so true that children from different era differs from children from another era. I would like to refresh the memories of the so-called 80's born kids. We were raised up in the era of 80's-90's. I think we had a very special and memorable childhood which we would always like to share to our children and grandchildren.

Our era was just so different than the current era. Everything was different. The food, the clothes, the toys and simply us the children too. We were never as bold as brats from this era. We were scared of 'rotan' when current kids scare off the teachers with laws and human rights. Our childhood toys didn't had anything much electronic or computerized. We played simple toys, as simple as 'batu seremban', using pebbles collected from the roadside. Life was never so complicated. We never knew friendster or facebook when we suppose to be exploring the real world. Our real world consisted of real kids, real toys and real pets instead of the visual ones available in current era.

We don't use sexual terms in our conversation and in fact i believe many of us don't even heard them before. We grew up innocent. Our four letter words were like 'bodoh' , 'babi', 'gila' and etc. Yeah, I admit it is very annoying but it always had its invisible limits. Kids were kids, and we never actually crossed the playful border. Even for those words, some of us had successfully earned a slap or a pinch. We fight with each other, but our revenge had hardly grown into a serious social problem. Even the greatest school bully those days weren't so aggressive. An average revenge would be so-called 'don't want to be friend anymore'.

Apart from real world, we had another world too. And that was the television. Those days 'Astro' was non-existent. So, let's forget about 'Disney, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Channel'. We had fantastic TV1, TV2 and TV3. Even NTV7 was only available pretty much later. Cartoons were so precious that time and it is like a train, that you could just cannot miss. So cartoons were played as early as 8 am and guess what, we children woke up early just to catch it on time. In comparison, children nowadays can even watch cartoon at midnight! Of course we don't know Spongebob or Upin Ipin. We watched 'Popeye, Little Lulu, Ultraman, Ninja Turtle, Power Rangers, Sesame's Street, Keluang man, Along, Barney, Usop Sontorian and whatever the tv plays. Sometimes, our parents rented or bought the videotape of those cartoons. They were no CDs or DVDs. I think VCR player should have became antique in this new era.

Our food was very cheap, and our pocket money was just around Rm1-2 per day. We indulged in junk foods, of course all kids still do. Some of this brands are still in market today but arrgggh the taste is no more the same. Our favourite ice creams never exceeds few cents, I just could not forget the red bean ice cream potong which cost only 20 cents those days and now I have to buy the modernized version for Rm 1. Ice-pop, anybody remembers that? Now that was a must after school during the hot weather. Buy one, break half, symbol of true childhood friendship.

Even our dressing was so different. We didn't have youngsters with 'squirrels' on their head, claiming to be punk. No young boys or girls color their hair. Form 1 girls are suppose to be revising 'Sejarah' at home instead of getting their hair permed and straightened. Our love was not that extreme, most of it does not end up in bedroom. Our love was sweet, I wonder if some of you still keeps the handwritten love letters. Yeah, it was simple, but I always loved the innocence in it. I never found the same in SMS or chat.

Kids of the new era are spoilt. Sweet childhood is tranforming into violence. Parents are one of the main cause. Nowadays, parents are either giving too much freedom or put too much control on their children. Both aren't for good. I think every kids should be given a chance to explore the world, but moderate restriction shall alway be placed on their activities. For example, kids can use internet, but parents should bear the responsibility to activate the family filter to prevent unnecessary social addiction. Let them mingle with real kids, otherwise don't be suprised if they're exchanging contacts with total strangers on the social network.

Sophy misses the past but I know that the golden ear will never repeat. Childhood is everyone's treasure. I offer prayers to those kids who are missing their childhood moments due to sickness, war, abuse and harrassment. Sai Ram!