The island where people forget to die(2)

Peter Wu & Others

2 November 2012

Peter: Like you, I had three square meals daily. May be two and a half as breakfast was always a slap-dash affair.

More often than not, I was given 10 cents to buy a bun (Cocktail or Pineapple) at the local store or the bakery near my school. Ten cents were a long way as a hair cut in the neighbourhood barber cost only 5 cents. We had no fridge so it’s not possible to keep things fresh and hygienic so there was no chance to have a piece of fresh bread with butter in the morning. Butter turned rancid during summer anyway so we didn’t have it often at all.

Eating chicken only happened on a special occasion as you mentioned. Chickens in those days were very tasty, tasting exactly like a chicken should. Chickens nowadays – even fresh ones – taste like cardboard. Because chickens were expensive, it was very much appreciated and really looked forward to.

I can still vividly remember the scrumptious meal cooked up by my mother during those special occasions – nine dishes in all comprising chicken, crackling skin pork, prawns, mushrooms, oysters, fish, lettuces, may be a beef dish and occasionally a duck (mostly on the Moon Festival). Invariably we never had deserts with these feasts or any daily meals.

If there were left overs, they were salted as we had no fridge. Even salting the left-overs did not prevent the cockroaches making a feast of them so most were eaten as quickly as possible. These feasts happened only several times a year - before and after Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Day, the Moon Festival, and Winter Solstice Day so there was no chance we over-ate as they happened so infrequently.

Milk – long life milk- was strictly a luxury as it was expensive. Fresh milk which came in the Dairy Farm bottle was rarely seen.

I don’t think I exercised regularly during my youth other than the occasional soccer game but I was very active, constantly getting into mischief. Because I didn’t indulge in rich and junk foods, or ate too much, there was no chance of my putting on weight. In fact most Chinese during my time are rather skinny.

Now I am living in the age of plenty. Within limits, I can have pretty much what I want and eat what I want. But somehow, I yearn for the good old simple days. May be I didn’t realise just how lucky and happy I was.

PS Have you tried free-range eggs? Wow, they are full of flavour and taste completely different to the factory-farmed eggs.

May be we should adopt a life-style vividly portrayed in the 70s British sitcom called the Good Life. I think this is what the residents in the Ikaria Island in Greece are doing. I find this idea very attractive but for it to work, I need to live next door to a rich neighbour like Metis so I can constantly borrow ‘things’ from her when I run short.

Johnson: Dr. Hon, you are absolutely right. That's the way most of us grow up. Life was simple then but a happy one.

Stella: Johnson, I agree too, life was simple but full of fun, like being able to play in the middle of the street!

Dr. Hon: Now my parents. They were refugees from China. My mum was an orphan. They had virtually nothing.

They started their married life in a small rented room, moved to a tiny flat when the family grew and ended up in public housing when the flat became too small for the seven of us.

They couldn't afford to buy their own flat on a meagre income which had to feed and clothe 5 children, and of course there were also the school fees. Life was hard,it's a hand to mouth subsistence but a simple, debt free living. Their only luxury was the weekly yum cha, followed by a visit to the playground with the children. But, they were really contented until my father passed away with lung cancer due to passive smoking. He worked in a hotel where everybody smoked like a chimney!

People have more these days in term of possession and wealth. But who can say they are really happy and contented?

-To be continued-