Back to School (CsH) - Pasir Panjang Primary School - No. 1

When you reach the magic age of 60 and beyond your past begins to catch up on you. For me, it's the other way round. I start searching for my past. It's like an archaeological excavation searching through boxes and cases of flotsam and jetsam of my life. They consist of books, photographs, magazines, newspaper cuttings, lecture notes, school badges, school ties, letters, library cards, student cards and umpteen loads of junk.

Two days ago, I discovered our Pasir Panjang Primary School magazine named The Co-Ed. I spent the best part of 2 days turning through the pages and it was like travelling through a time tunnel. To me at least it was like a historical document of the school system in Singapore during the 1950s. I recall studying our Educational System during Teachers' Training and the examinations we had to pass. I can only remember how dreadfully boring it was, regurgitating all those Education Acts. I began to think about how fascinating it would be to compile an oral history of education from our (my sister's and brothers') school magazines. I'm not one for school or College or University Reunions but this compilation would be an interesting journey.

One must not live in the past. But I do regret not knowing much about my father's and mother's childhood and their youth. We were just not interested. My ole mum loved to talk about her younger days and I would in my head mutter , "Oh no, here we go again." I was a fool and it's too late now.

So this is for Hamid's grandchildren via your ma'ngah. You won't be given a test at the end, so sit back and enjoy and have a good laugh on us.

Above is the cover of our school magazine. Note the name on the cover. We were all very possessive then. " This is mine - so get your grubby fingers off my property." How did I manage to pilfer this one? "It's not my fault - it just got into my house ha ha" We used to write this on the inside front cover of our books. Black is the raven, black is the rook. But blacker the person, who steals this book. Today the Politically Correct Brigade would have had us on the rack for harbouring such colourful ideas.

I have a wee problem sorting out the location of picture and text. I can't 'paste' it to where I want it to be, next to the text. So it will be jumbled. Anyway I'm very proud to display my artwork above. It was good enough to be published in the Co-Ed but I did wonder why I got thrown out of Art Class during secondary school. Philistines!!