1966 - Transition Class - 13 years old.

1966    I was 13 years old.

 

In 1966, I studied only two school terms in Sabah College in Sabah then came to Sarawak to continue the third school term in Kuching High School in Kuching.

Why this transferred?   Well, while in Bridge Class in Sabah College, the government launched a Tuberculosis (TB) skin test (TST) on all students in the school.  I was found positive in the health test.  My parent immediately called me back from Sabah.

During that health service to the schools, a medical assistant came to the school. With an injector, he gave a very shallow injection into the skin in the lower part of the left arm.  The injector has eight tinny needles. The injection was shallow and quick that no one felt any pain.

After couple of days, the health care worker came back to school to look at each of our arms. From the needle marks, the medical staff would know whether the student is TB positive or negative.  A positive TB skin test mean the student has been infected with Tuberculosis (TB) bacteria.

There were two boys in my class shown positive TB skin: a Chinese student and me.

Yes, I was TB Positive, means TB bacteria in my body.

The medical team gave me packages of tablets and instructed me remember to take a tablet each day. No chest x-ray. No clinic visit. No doctor.  Because TB infection does not indicate TB disease.  But it will develop into TB disease if no medication.

So it’s lucky to be able detected earlier before develop into lung disease. The government health authority has done good health care to the schools even back then in 1966.

Few weeks later, my father in Sarawak sends a telegram to Uncle Choi (James) in Sabah with only two words “COMING SOON”

“YOU COMING OR I GOING?” Uncle Choi sent a reply question the very same day.  Uncle Choi was who I stay with that time (in Grandmother’s old wood house).  My father suddenly sent a telegram because I wrote home a letter mentioning the school found out about my TB Positive.  So my parent decided to bring me back from boarding with Grandmother and Uncle Choi.

This explains why I came back to Sarawak again from Sabah.

1966 impression of the old wooden house

1966 impression of the old wooden house where I was born.

I was born inside a wooden house surrounded by rubber trees in 1953. But I did not live and grew up here except a brief period 1964-1966 when my parent send me back to stay at this house with grand mother and uncle James’ family.

I left that wooden house in 1966 to Kuching to continue secondary school. Those who stay in that wooden house also moved out to a new concrete building just several meters above near by.

The house was abandoned and left to slowly decay.  By 2004 I came back with a digital camera, the complete house was gone.

There is not a single photograph on this wooden house. So I sketch the house out with a pencil.  

1965. I was 12 years old.

1965. I was 12 years old.

My primary six was completed in Chung Hwa Primary School, Kota Kinabalu in 1965.

My exam result was grade B and was accepted into Sabah College the next year 1966 to continue secondary education.  I started with a year of Bridge Class before starting Form one. As I came from a Chinese school and now wish to continue in an English school, a year of English training was necessary as according to the Government education system.  Such Bridge Class or Transition Class system still continue till today.

1964 I was 11 years old

1964 I was 11 years old

For 6 years of staying in Simanggang Town, our family only had one photograph session.  A photographer from one of the two (or three) photo shops was invited to come to our Government Quarter to take some family photos.  Normally ordinary family like us could not afford to ask a photographer to come for photo session. We could afford it.  But my parent decided to call for one indicate the occasion was a very important one and must be remember.

True enough, shortly after the photo.  One of the brother and I were send to Kota Kinabalu to stay with the Grandmother.  But another more memorial moment were the narrow escape of dead from XXX illness of Stella.  A young doctor arrive in time to Simamggane Hospital and performed an operation and safe her life from the very critical moment.

This photo was a couple of months after she was discharge healthy after weeks of stay in hospital. My mother plucked a few bunch of flowers for her to hold during the photo taking. Flowers as a symbol of blessing of a second life. One may not remember now how serious this hospitalization was. It was talk of every relative in those years.

And secondly, this family photo was also to welcome the birth of second girl to the family.  Everyone Wong was seen a few months old baby in the family photo.

1960s. My childhood was grew up in a tranquil British Colonial Town Simanggang in Borneo Island.

Family photo taken in 1962 and 1964 at Simanggang Town (Now Sri Aman Town)

 
The 1962 photo was in commemoration of birth of a new family member, the first  girl Stella Wong. My mother looked happy with the first baby girl. Her happiness was right, decades later when she was serious ill, it was the daughters who took care of her (not the sons).
 
The second 1964 photo was a meaningful photo. It commemorate the birth of second daughter Evelyn Wong, it also celebrate the successful operation of Stella, then this is also a farewell photo.

Shortly after this photo, my brother Frankie and I were sent back to Kota Kinabalu to stay with the grandmother for 3 years. And I never return to visit Simanggang until 44 years later in 2008.

My childhood was grew up in a tranquil British Colonial Town Simanggang Town.  My family album do not have  a single photo of how the town looked like in those day. In the 1960s, only those wealthy can afford a camera.

And from the internet there are so few photos of this town that after several searches, I could only find 2 images of Simanggang in the 1960s (from Hugh Blackmer's web site). Then a couple more of the 1970s (from 長屋攝影社 ).

These are the two images:

Looking down toward the bazaar from Fort Alice (at the base of the radio tower)

Simanggang in 1966, from the radio tower

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Lupar River in 1970s. Looking down from Radio Tower on the hill opposite Alice Fort

Simanggang in the 1970s. Looking down from Radio Tower 

In 2012, I draw this 1960s impression of the Club House on the hill with children in front the club welcoming father Christmas Santa Claus descending from the sky (a helicopter).

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Engage with Nature

During my childhood years in Simanggang between 1960 - 1964 there was no TV, no Internet, no Smart phone.  I spend most of my time engage with nature. The three most often things I gazed upon are : Sunset, River and Rainbow

If I ever to go back to Sri Aman again, I will look for these historical things in the town: the Old trees, my Old school and wooden houses.

Old trees, my Old school and wooden houses

1960 December.  I was seven years old

A Christmas party at a Government Staff Quarter just a few houses form our quarter.

Unable to remember any one of them now. But I like to meet up old friends for a last time. If you could help to identify, please drop a few line at the blog comment. My gratitude to you.

1959 I was six years old

1959 We were staying at 117 Batu Lintang Government Quarter. My father Wong Syak Kee was a clerk for the British Colonial Government.

This photo was taken for remembrance of staying in Kuching, because shortly after this photo, our whole family moved to Simanggang Town (Now Sri Aman Town).

Except me, who follow to Simanggang only at the end of the year after the school started the year end holiday.

1959 I was six years old

1959 We were staying at 117 Batu Lintang Government Quarter. My father Wong Syak Kee was a clerk for the British Colonial Government.

This photo was taken for remembrance of staying in Kuching, because shortly after this photo, our whole family moved to Simanggang Town (Now Sri Aman Town).

Except me, who follow to Simanggang only at the end of the year after the school started the year end holiday.

1955-01-02  One and half years old

This was my second photo taken standing on this bench. The first one in 1953.

The most prestige place in my Grandmother’s old wooden house was this long wooden bench in the Veranda (騎樓). When important relatives such as the Phang family came, my Grandmother would invite them to go up to騎樓 (sometime called棚頂)

No sofa, no chair for the guests to sit on, this long wooden bench naturally became the prestige place for guest to sit on.  The other sitting were some wooden stools.  

Below the騎樓 (Veranda) was an empty space suppose to be the “open space sitting room” for social. But it has been used as a store area for fire wood. No gas or electricity those days. Cooking were done by fire wood.

1954  One year old

At Grand mother Phang Len Yin’s house, also the house where my parent stay.  The background in the photo was rubber plantation.  By this time after the Second World War rubber price has drop and the Wong family was gradually dropping rubber taping as side income and seek other job for income.

 I was born at home in this house. Not in the hospital.

And behind me was my mother Liew Soon Tshin.

Hello World

1953 November to December

“Hello world”. This two are my first images. Taken between November and December 1953 at two to three months old.

In these black and white photographs, I was standing, with the help of mother's hands, on the wooden long bench in the balcony of the old wooden house of Grandmother Phang Len Yin, in Jesselton Town (Now Kota Kinabalu City)

I looked joyous as a baby in the photo. But in recalling the words from the elderly, at the time of birth, my father Woing Syak Kee was jobless and my mother was always sick for “lack of blood” according to doctor.   

That difficult time of this young family was so impact on the mind of my mother that decade later when I was already teenager she still nags about those days in front of the children, at that time already seven of them.

“No money to buy milk powder” my mother used to say.

1959 I was six years old

1959 We were staying at 117 Batu Lintang Government Quarter. My father Wong Syak Kee was a clerk for the British Colonial Government.

This photo was taken for remembrance of staying in Kuching, because shortly after this photo, our whole family moved to Simanggang Town (Now Sri Aman Town).

Except me, who follow to Simanggang only at the end of the year after the school started the year end holiday.

1970 St. Thomas Church Chinese Speaking Congregation

1970 The Choirs of St. Thomas Church Chinese Speaking Congregation

賈夢九牧師民國六十四(一九七五年)三月十三日病逝

1970 F&N Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in Kuching

F&N Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in Kuching, Penrissen Road 4.5mile

Fraser & Neave (F&N) is an Malaysian company while Coca-Cola belong to USA.

The Malaysian company bottle and distribute Coca-Cola on behalf of America.

It was during this visit we learn the secret of coca-cola.

The F&N manager show us the ingredient of Coca-Cola - dark liquid in a small bottle he shown us holding in his thumb and index finger. The ingredient is a high concentration. No one knows how to make the ingredient in Malaysia. All the small bottles are imported from Coca-Coca company in America.

A small bottle of " secret" take out each time only when the production line is ready with a big tank of 'raw Coca-Cola' for mixing the two to become the real-Coca-Cola. The machine then started and fill into the glass bottles together with carbonet.

Fraser & Neave started operations at Kuching in 1966 with one production line producing 567,000 cases a year.

All the bottles of secret ingredient are preserved in a big refrigerated room with a big heavydoor. The door was opened for us to see the inside during our visit. Some one joking asked what will happen if by mistake the door is close leaving someone trapped inside. The manager replied that person would be frozen to death.

1970 Form 4 Kuching High School

1970 Form 4 Class of Kuching High School

Miss Ngui (middle, the only teacher in this photo) is the Form Teacher cum English Teacher.

Miss Zahara (Left standing middle row) is the First non-Chinese student in the history of Kuching High School.

Out school principal of that year is Mr. Hsu Kwang Thai (not in photo)

Borneo Biscuit Factory

1970 Kuching High School Members of Science Club visit to Borneo Biscuit Factory.

We all met in the factory compound at the appointed time. Most of us cycle there, the factory is not far from Kuching City center.

The manager (Right corner) of Borneo Biscuit Factory warmly welcomed us and led us from section to section of the production line and explain some of the important process.

The oven that baked the biscuit is a brick concrete room. When come to this section he explained that the brick used to construct this high temperature room is not the ordinary mud brick used for house construction. These bricks are imported and cost several time the local ordinary bricks.

Crispy waffle biscuit is a favorite in Kuching even today. It was exciting to discover how the waffle are made. While other biscuit are assembly line processed, the waffle biscuit are hand processed with waffle iron. Cream also apply by hand piece by piece. Machine only used in slicing the big stack into small piece.