Time Tunnel : A walk thru Malaysian past

I wanted to do this since last month but I am not known for my time management. The hospital I was born in, is still waiting for my blood sample and records. Being part of the Malaysian civil service, they seem to think I already submitted, so all's well. Anyway, I wanted to have a separate article just on this place that we went to in Cameron Highlands last year. It was a museum of things that you could find in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Meaning it contained things that I grew up with. It was very nostalgic for me and I hope it will give you the same nostalgia while giving our foreign friends a glimpse of Malaysian life, when things were so much more simpler.

The pic below is called "Tikam" which means "poke" or in this case "trying your luck". You buy a stuck piece of paper (stuck to that cardboard rectangle) for 5-10 cents and unfold it to show a number corresponding to a price on another cardboard. It was gambling for the young un.



Below is a poorly taken picture of a rusty iron pump. It is primarily used to pump kerosene into a bottle to be used in our stove or lamps. We used kerosene a lot and it was a chore my brother and I hated! Not only was it dangerous (like I said, times were simpler then, so who knew these were fire hazards), it STUNK!!



This was about the only bicycle you could get back in the 70s. This was before the emergence of the BMX, Chopper, etc. I think the most popular brand was 7-up Sport (can't remember why though) but we called it the Bengali's bike because we see a lot of the Bengali's riding it.



Here is a little treasure trove but check out the lamp used by miners on the top right which was used in a lot of households. Also the calendar which was hugely popular, where you tear out each day. Not very eco-friendly those days. The "A Go-Go" record on the top left also cracked me up!!



This is a cool drawer, filled with items that I could remember. My favourite of course, was the Nintendo "Game & Watch". This particular one is "Octopus". See how many you could remember.



We didn't have many electronics stuff back then and behind Melissa, is the weighing contraption that was used to weigh groceries. You put the groceries on the flatbed and the put weights on the dangling doohicky until it is balanced. Then you see how much it weighs by the amount of weights you have added.



Aaahhh....this is a magic contraption. You depress the long tail and death comes out of its nozzle. Below the nozzle is a round container which is where you put in the "death" solution. If you haven't guessed, its an insect spray.



Old light switches.



How many bottled drinks can you remember and also the coffee shops used to have these table settings. Far cry from Starbucks eh?





These were our comics. The Chinese flying heroes always had a dot on their forehead. Must have been Chindians!!



Mikey trying the old "aneh" barber chair and a dentist chair. Can't tell which is which so go figure.




Some cash denominations.



The evolution of the telephone. You should see the kids' faces when they saw our old black, heavy dial phones! ("How many ring tones does it have?", "Where's the camera?", "How the heck do you fit in into your pockets???").



You have got to have one of these at home. Everyone did!! Remember the jingle? "Singer! Menawan keluarga bahagia". "Singer, makes your home a happy home" or something to that effect.



This is our food cupboard or "meat-safe" or something like that. On top of it, is a contraption we used to shave coconut so that we get that scraps to make coconut milk or "santan".




This is the ever popular butterfly kerosene stove, also known as a extra large molotov cocktail!! The kerosene goes into that transparent thingy which flows into the wick in the middle of the stove, which was hugely popular. We used this during the Japanese occupation and in our war against the communist, where you can fling it into the middle of the army!! Ha!Ha! It's a bloody wonder, my brother and I didn't burn the house down, or our parents would have killed us.



Every house had a Fab washing powder and if you lived in a village like I did for a while, you will have that huge ceramic tub. It used to be as tall as I was.



That's Malaysia's most successful performer, P. Ramlee. Sadly, since his death in the 70s, no one has been able to take over.'



Every ladies' fav past time. "Setting" their hair at the hair salon. I used to follow my mom to these places and had a ball since they had comics and normally a junk food stall. Mikey says it's some alien brain washing thingamagic! And in some ways, he's right.



This is a usual scene of a grocery store. Check out that HUGE Ajinomoto container! Can you imagine the health inspector having a heart attack seeing such a huge blatant show of MSG-ness!



Common electrical appliances. The fan will cut off your fingers and the TV comes with a radio at the base. Sorry, no remote!




Cinema movie flyers.



Mortar used in the kitchen to grind chili, pound garlic, onion, etc. I used this a lot! Back in the days, men were a lot more faithful. These things will crack your head wide open!



Toys for the kids. Remember these? Though the car will be for the more affluent.





And as the pictures says it, this was a "Speshul" posting. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Make a trip if you can and re-live our childhood.