Childhood Fun and Games

It was more than a month ago since I last update my ‘Blog’. But being forgettable, I forget my username and of course my password. After frantically looking for it, at last I found it in my last year’s diary. It was not a difficult password to remember and yet my forgetfulness got the better of me. To make matters worse I even forgot my eldest son’s birthday.

Last month was August, 2006. It was Malaysia’s 49^th years of independence. It was a month of celebrations. Malaysia gained it’s independence from the British on August 31^st,1957. I was still a teenager then and still in school.

Prior to independence, there were some activities in our area. In the absence of any public hall those days, public activities are held in open areas; such as school fields or surau (small mosque).

We children, usually got very excited when we see a white giant screen in the middle of our school field. A van, with dark green color with white stripe will go round our kampung, calling the people to gather at the field near our house tonight.

These mobile announcements or broadcasts, got us all really excited as it meant free entertainments such as music and movies. Normally, it was not even a movie but some documentary films produced by Malayan film Unit or black and white movies from Hollywood. This does not stop us from enjoying ourselves. We would bring our own mats and drinks and booked our places in front of the big white screen. This will be our night out under the clear blue shies. A night to count the stars.

This is also the time for children to play and run around and have fun at night, which otherwise would be forbidden. Children are never out after Maghrib prayers!

In between the shows, there will be people talking using laud speakers from the van. But we would not be interested in listening to whatever the people were saying. We just wanted to have fun on the field and enjoy the freedom of running around in the open field at night with our friends.

Playing marbles and rubber band with the boys.

There are a few other memorable games I played during childhood. Among others, are the marble and rubber band game. I used to follow the boys around our kampong, to play this two challenging games. I sometimes challenged the boys to play marbles with me. I would smash their marbles on the head and send their marbles flying away from the holes. My strike would mean the boys would not be able to push their marbles into the holes. There would normally be between three to five holes in which they have to aim into, before they could be declared a winner. I would normally beat the boys with my smash and win lots and lots of marbles this way.

Playing marbles is very challenging. I would compare playing marbles to the present day games of golf.

In order to win this game, we have to have certain strategies. We have to know the right angle and which part of the marble to be given the strikes, which can give the biggest impact, before striking the blow.

Planning the attack needs lot of concentration. We have to stand in the correct positions, our arms, hands and legs had to be well poise, before attacking our opponents with the force of our fingers, I hardly see children playing marbles these days. I think none of my children knew the game existed. I do not blame them. They were born in the computer technology era and are all IT savvy and hardly go out of the house.

We also played rubber bands by moving the rubber band little by little until it reaches our opponents rubber by our sheer blowing power. If we can push or move our rubber bands on top of our opponents’ then the rubber is ours. I won a lot of rubber band this way. After that, we would tie all the rubber band together into a rope and used that as a skipping rope. This will lead us to another challenging games such as skipping and swinging games.

These games teach us to work as a team. A team of two to four player, is needed to play this game. There will be two players for each side of the team. The first team will be given the responsibility, to swing the rope, while the opponent team will take turn to skip inside the swinging rope.

Each player will hold one end of the rope and begin to swing together in circular motion. This encourages full corporation and understanding from both the player. The longer the rope, the higher will be the swing and the more difficult to control.

The other team member will have to skip and jump inside the swinging rope. Each of them will take turn to skip and jump while at the same time trying to avoid touching the rope. If the rope touches the body, then the game had to stop and the other team member will take over. As the game proceeded, the rope will be tightened by the swinger and will become shorter and shorter and the jump will be more brisk and fast. The team who can skip longest will be the winner.

Another popular game I played with my friends is ‘Kapal Terbang’or aeroplane. It is called ‘Kapal Terbang’ because of the shape drawn on the ground. The rules are quite similar to the present day ‘Hop scotch’.

Other interesting games are ‘Main Selambut’ and ‘Main Congkak’. I am glad to know that up until today, children still play these games. Thanks to the initiative taken by the local authorities to revive some of our traditional games.