Stephen O'Shea
1977 - 1979
Email: adventurer@y7mail.com
The day would start at Bagan Ajam in Butterworth. From our vantage point, we could see Penang across the waves and the beach where a strange, yet wonderous, carnival would mysteriously appear and then vanish, not frequently enough for my liking, and the rangelands of the king crabs where we would track, but never take any of the residents.
I liked there being a body of water separating the community from the school. Not becuase I didn't like school, far from it, but because the bus and ferry trip to and from school, meant that at the end of the day you really left school behind - the day's worries were washed away as we left the island for the mainland. Our attentions were diverted as we were much more concerned with the future of the hundreds of jelly fish that appeared to disappear under our ferries as were travelled 'over the water'. We never saw them re-emerge on the other side in the wash of the engines.
Each morning we would wait for the school bus to pick us up and start the journey by road and water and road again to school. As we waited for the bus, we exchanged comics from the man who would ply his trade of buying and selling comics house-to-house (we could often track favourite comics that we swapped as they moved from one house to another), and the similarly mobile breadman and shoe repairman whose bikes we would often see around the community. There was something reassuring about them being around. The journey to school was always the same, but never boring - as we passed shops broadcasting the summer of Boney M or teen sensations from North America like Sean Cassidy and Leif Garrett. Cassettes from these artists would be in overabundant supply as we would have access to five different pirated versions of the one album released in the States. We would pass the time by talking about their new albums or the latest showing at the Astra like the continuing exploits of Inspector Clouseau, spotted cartoon dogs or one of our dinosaurs being missing, or some of the blockbusters from the big cinemas 'over the water' in Penang, like the latest James Bond(starring Roger Moore of course) or Star Wars release.
At school, I always remember seeing the comforting sight of the brown thatched roofs, blue doors and the blue and white awnings of our classrooms. Block F always called the loudest to me. For some reason I seem to remember climbing 15 steps from the courtyard to the classroom - don't ask me why. The things you remember as a child. I also remember casting an uneasy eye as we passed the dentist building and the library which I didn't visit as much as I could have, and from which I first discovered the wonders of Bahasa. I can still count to ten thanks to time spent in the library and could probably make my way around an airport. Getting to and from the airport and wanting anything more than ten of something could be present some difficulties. From the library you could see the assembly area where we would sing the school song - some of the words of which still come back to me at the strangest of times, and the way that we used to change some of the words for a laugh.
But it was the playground and the sports field behind the old white weather-board buildings that I remember most vividly. I probably could not describe them in a way that most would remember, but rather picture it as it was to us primary kids. The oval was full of different territories and cultural homelands - I can still remember the colours and taboos areas today - with the Bedyes down one end near the older pupils classrooms and the Five Stars down the other end. Contestants from each tribe would sometimes meet around the soccer goals for a heated game of winner takes all. The potted walk ways too were significant. They were not really walk ways at all, but battle scarred arenas where we won and lost our most prized possessions, our marbles. I knew every inch of ground behind those buildings - the lay of the land - not that it helped my performances though. I would always leave school each day with less marbles than when I arrived, but would always come back for more. There were so many sharks that saw me coming.
Now a new century, but the memories remain...
Best wishes
Steve