I always want to write something about my father and so I created a blog many years ago. Writing is always not my special skill especially when you realise that the post is going to be exposed to the public's scrutiny. So, the intimating feeling has delayed my writing. The procrastination has also taken the better part of me.
My father may not have been given any honorary award or recognition by any institution for his outstanding achievement in bringing up seven children, but deep in my heart and also my the other six siblings, his treatment and instruction dished out to us are some things which we could never forget.
I did mention in another post about family outing to Singapore. This is the gentle facade of my father. On some occasion, when he shows his volte- face, you better run for your life.
The first part of this post illustrates some of the ramifications when my father is angry.
My father has no affinity for animals. On the contrary, my mother keeps pets as though the house is a mini zoo. When they quarreled, my father would throw the gold fish into the drain outside the house. Of course, my mother is never short of back-up. To mollify my mother, we would secretly purchase gold fish and soon the empty aquarium tank was inhabited again. We were the accomplice in the act.
Few years back, a friend of mine presented me a sulphur crested cockatoo, not knowing what to do with it, I consulted my mother and she immediately agreed to adopt it. The introduction of cockatoo into the house was met with much resistance from my father. He would complain day in day out, dispensing out his "cons" that the bird might bring in all kind of diseases.
By and by, my father adopts a reversal attitude and takes a shine to "ah boy", a nickname given to the cockatoo. He will make sure that I diligently renew the Permit from Wild Life Department every year. He also communicates with "Ah Boy" quite regularly as part of his daily chore. "Ah Boy" has also picked up few human phrases like "Hello, Tauke, ....."
I was never good in my study during my primary and secondary education. I remembered I was ratcheted down from A class to B class when going from Form IV to Form V. Due to my poor performance in school, I had to constantly carry the shame of cane-scar on my legs inflicted by my father, his caning was carried out with military precision that it always landed on the hind sides of the legs. I had no way to cover the multiple horizontal wounds as my school uniform consisted only a white shirt and short pant.
It was the end of Form V, so some smart dudes organised a dance party to celebrate the final chapter of secondary school. Looking at my report card which had more red than blue, there was no way that my father would allow me to attend the party. My slight cleverness but unsophisticated prompted me to doctor the report card. So when it was shown to my father, he had a cursory look at it and did not veto my attendance to the party.
Without knowing what was afoot, my father already waited for me with cane in his hand. He discovered that I had cheated him with the mark alteration. How did he know? I was adept in the alteration job. It was perfect. On the hindsight, I forgot that he had an abacus. He did a sum total of the marks of individual subject and found that there was a variance between his findings and the figure shown in the report card. I changed the marks but forgot to alter the sum total of all subjects.
The introduction of television by Singapore had drastically altered my childhood's life style. At that time, the only entertainments available were the live "opera" stage shows and movies. Sporadically, the British Brass Band would perform at the football field. Some of my friends got the privileged invitation to board a helicopter. My father did not buy the television set immediately. However, he also could not resist the temptation and eventually gave way, hence a black and white Phillips 21" TV was proudly displayed in the hall.
My father believed in doing many things himself. He bought a long water metal pipe to host the tv aerial. It was an no easy task to erect the water pipe at the roof top of a two-storey building. He made a careful study and designed the pipe support system. I could only help him with hole drilling. Eventually, the TV aerial was installed but the TV set was faulty. It was another week of waiting before the TV set was replaced.
Watching TV was a luxury to me at that time. Due to the addictiveness of TV programme, my father set out the precept of time table for watching TV. The extra illegal time slot that we were allowed to watch was when my parent went for movie.
It was this particular night, father and mother decided to go for a movie. We relished this moment as we could watch TV while they were inside the theatre.
Lest than half an hour later, my father stormed into the hall with a glass bottle in his hand. We were in a state of shock and retrograded when he flunged the bottle at the TV screen, magically the TV screen was still intact. He did it because he was angry that we did not do our home work.
This incidence somehow elated my father. He would always like to relate this drama of TV-smashing to his friends, elucidating the toughness of the TV screen.
Up to this point, I should write some of my father's outstanding endeavours in building the family.
As a matter of fact, besides his bad temper which I presume the status quo has not changed, he does have his gentle side.
He likes to dabble in many things. Erecting a TV aerial was a case in point. His interest in electronic was apparently triggered by a torch light given by a foreigner. At that time, my father was still a tot in mainland China.
As my father's business was a sundry shop, it was literally a supermarket at that time, selling a wide gamut of goods. My father's greatest interest was the radio receiver, powered by a very big battery. I recalled that the battery was selling like a hot cake.
There was one occasion, my father returned from Singapore with a loaned slide projector. It suddenly became the talk of the town. Many people would flood my house to watch the slide show at night. I can't recall the content of the slides.
Education-wise, my father was very regimented in supervising our study. Despite his endeavour, I somehow did not excel.
My father loves maths a lot. He liked to set maths questions such as determining the numbers of heads of goats and ducks in an enclosure where the total legs count are known. Of course, you could use algebra to solve it, sans it, could you do it.
As my primary education was in Chinese, so it was an uphill task when I enrolled into then Secondary School. I could not differentiate between "pay" and "paid". The exact spelling of "morning" had to be copied from the "Good Morning" face towel.
To help me with the English, my father would write down the equivalent meaning in Chinese for every words in the text books. He also bought a record that teaches the proper pronunciation of international phonetic. As it was DIY, I would mimic my father's mouth and tongue orientation. Could you believe that my father could not speak English and yet I was learning English from him.
I also learn my accounting and abacus from him.
Of course, there are many other aspects of his life that I want to recount, such as his love for photography, fishing, travelling, foods, so on and so forth. I may include small anecdotes in this post in future.
This small write-up attests my father's talent which was printed in a Primary School Annual.
My father is already 95 years old. He is still very keen in life-long learning. He can do account using computer. Lately, he just bought a new car to pamper himself.
As for the readers who have endured so far to reach this part of the post, perhaps you can learn the secret to longivity from him.Sorry, the explanation is in teochew.
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