Friday, October 06, 2006

Now & Then

The difference between a primary two boy NOW with his mother at primary two in 1976 THEN.

Adam - 5 pairs of school uniform – none of them is spotless, must have at least one marking of pens or water color, or pure dirt.
Mama - 2 pairs of school uniform – managed to bag the “Best Dressed Student/Cleanest Uniform” award most of the years in primary school.

Adam- 1 pencil last 2 days
Mama- 1 pencil last 1 month

Adam - New box of color pencils every MONTH
Mama - New box of color pencils every YEAR

Adam - Exercise books become “lonyer” by end of first term
Mama - Exercise books in excellent condition till year end

Adam - Sleeps in air-conditioned room, showered with warm water every morning while Mama busily prepares which uniform (ironed by maid) to wear and put tie on.
Mama - Slept in ”kelambu”-clad bed, no fan or air-cond. Showered with ice-cold water, collected the evening before from the perigi near the kubur…and dressed up on her own with uniform ironed by herself.

Adam - Homework done only if Mama asked and checked, under close scrutiny of Mama or aunties.
Mama - Her mother never has to worry about homework – all homework settled by night time.

Adam- Screams and shout for Mama to look for his missing textbooks that Mama has no idea of the whereabouts.
Mama - Books and school things are sacred stuff. Treated with honor and dignity.

Adam - RM 1 duit belanja every day, with bekal air and sometimes bekal of rotikaya, cereal, apples or sausages.
Mama - 20 sen duit belanja, spent on the best nasi lemak daun pisang ever, sold by best friend who came to school with a basket of those to help her mother.

Adam - Sent to school in Papa’s car, came back in neighbor’s car.
Mama - Walked about a km to and from school, with a bunch of friends, sometime de-toured to collect rambutan or rambai by the road side.

Adam - Watched Playhouse Disney Channel and play the videogame. Hands are quick on the remote and joystick. Calories burnt – 200 perhaps.
Mama - Created own game using stuff collected around the house, sticks, boxes, leaves etc...Imagination was wild and high. Calories burnt probably 1000.

Adam - Results: No 32 out of 39…sigh!
Mama - Results: No 1 out of 25, infact no 1 throughout the primary years… :-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Selalunya..duit 20 sen lagi byk masuk tabung, nanti hujung bulan nak beratur kat van POS bergerak. Yeaa..duit dah byk dlm bank.TERKENANG SEMASA DULU...

Anonymous said...

adam tgk mr bean lagi bessss dr wat homework..besides mana ada org kat umah siang2 ari nak paksa wat homework kan..