Thanks for the Memories

I had thought of blogging on something “serious”(to me at least) like Elections and Voters’ choices until I chanced upon the article on the Alleycats in Nuance, weekly magazine of Sunday Times. Then it happened, that deep feeling of nostalgia for the sixties and early seventies and I ended up with this blog.

I know somebody will be gloating reading this blog after all that I have told him about blogs of a personal nature as opposed to ones on issues. But it’s a fact of life that we, senior citizens, are excused our indulgence once in a while. So, here it goes.

Home was Pantai Valley in the Sixties, first at MTC (Malaysian Teachers’ College, KL) and later at 2nd. College in UM. Then after graduation, at the dawn of the Seventies, it was in Jalan Kelang Lama. Ah, those carefree days of sleep, lectures/study, play, sleep and later sleep, work, play, sleep.

Music was primarily “rock” in its various variations - folk rock, Latin rock and hard rock (the heavy metal of today). Of course pop and ballads were welcomed, especially in more intimate moments. From the Mersyside groups like the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers to the Rolling Stones and Bee Jees. The heavies like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to the Latin rock of Santana. The Mamas and the Papas with their folksy approach to rock and not forgetting the “protest” songs of Bob Dylan. And then there were the Woodstock (Woodstock Rock Festival 1969, USA) stars, people like Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendricks.

Locals we listened to were the Grim Preachers, the Hunters, the Strollers and Singapore groups October Cherries, the Quest and the late Susan Lim and the Crescendos.

Saturdays were “sacred”. In those days, when there was no EPL telecast, Saturdays were reserved for a different ball game - the weekly “Ball” at the Great Hall, Experimental Theatre or the Residential Halls of UM (though at MTC it was not so often). For the current price of a plate of Char Kway Teow or roti chanai, you can dance the night away with live music complete with strobe lights and all. Of course, the smokers and the beer guzzlers among us would have to dig further into the ever-dwindling monthly allowance (courtesy of our parents or the government).

Having tasted la dolce vita of the campus type, it was hard to forgo this lifestyle after graduating in 1970. So Saturday was still “sacred”. Compulsory visits this time was to the “Cellar” (a sort of disco of those days with life music alternating with recorded ones and minus the “scratching’) located at what is now the basement of Thrifty Supermarket in Jalan Yong Shok Lin, PJ. At times it was to the Hut, the “disco” of Shah Motel in the same vicinity.

And depite all the music listening and dancing, we never lost sight of what was happening in our country and the world. We were basically Left leaning in our politics. So we participate in demonstrations to protest against the Establishment’s perceived injustice to the “peasants” and in rallies to promote the socialist agenda. In world affairs we were anti-war, the Vietnam War. I remembered there was a makeshift shrine to President Ho Chin Minh in one of the blocks in the college building.

At that age (in our twenties) we were all idealistic and we thought we could change the world.

But the thing I MISSED MOST was the Malaysia I know then (May 13, 1969 notwithstanding). Good vibes all around generally, without the distractions of racial polarization, religious extremism and the other ills we know now. And the tolerance and broad-mindedness that emerged, as a consequence, was so conducive to interacting with one another.

Indran, Swee Lim, Shaharin, Sen, Pauline, Anisah, Kee Ek, Henry, Zainul, my other equally good friends at MTC and UM, Iris, Patrick …… and the lady from Singapore who chose to settle down with me, if you happen to read this blog – Thanks for the Memories.