Today i will continue to do a recap of what most of us had done when we young.
1) Autograph book
Not sure how many of us owned one of these memories? The purpose of this daily look-alike book is to record bio-data of your friends, poems and even a message to you.
An example of such records might read as this
Name: John Chia
Class: 5DD
D.O.B 14 February 1984
Address: Blk 1000 Ang Mo Kio Street 89 #10-2548 Singapore 2056 (the postage code was only 4 digits)
Telephone: 2551021 (Last time no 6 in front )
Hobbies: Collect stamps, collect stickers, watch tv, sleep
Best Friend: DJ, Benny, Andy, Chang, Kang Jun
Good friends: All the rest of the class
Friends: Anyone except Laura
Poems:
Laura and Andy up on the tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g (meaning you spell the letters out when you recite the poem)
Roses are red, violet are blue, girls are pretty, what happened to you.
Message: Marry Laura !! Remember me! Etc
At the last few pages of the autograph book, there will be a section for your friends to sign off with their well wishes.
So, kind of brought back some memories huh? Yeah it does for me. Sadly, while passing my autograph book, it was lost in transition. There goes my little memories, however as you can see, i could still phrase out some details above, hence not too bad already. :D
So where your autograph book?
2) Buses
Back in the early 1990s, the buses that we took are all non-air conditioned. It will be super humid when the bus is not moving. That is the same for school buses, where everyone will be squeezing with each other. I can still remember there will be a strange rule that 3 school children = 2 adult. What's this theory man? I am glad they removed this rule. No one actually follows them though.
Since the buses were non-air conditioned, the windows can be opened for air/wind to enter. I can still remember the sign "do not extend your hand/head outside the window". For safely reasons thats for sure. But it does feels cooler and more stylish to put either your head or hand outside the window. Occasionally, when you want to disturb some passer-by, you can instantly shout out to them like some hooligan. Phrases like, "hello Chio Bu!" or Whistling can be heard on a regular basis.
3) Cards
Lets see, the cards we used to play. There is the Dragon ball cards, idol cards and Magic cards.
Lets start with Dragonball cards. This is probably the reason why kids back then want to change their notes to 20 cents coin. Why? To insert to this card machine which will dispense cards. There used to be a saying that $2 will confirm you a "shiny" card. Yeah maybe true to an extend. The cards can be sold to shops such as World of JJ at Bishan Mrt back then. The rate could go from $2 to $20 depending on the condition and whether its a single, double or even triple gold.
Next, for the girls, it will be the Idol cards. The 4 heavenly kings, or the 4 small kings were all once well sought after cards. Similar machine as the Dragonball cards, the only difference would be these cards may include the autograph of their idols.
So who were the more sought after idols? No doubt it all boils down to Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok. Girls would go crazy over them, hence their cards are also something nice to have. Some girls would placed the cards in their wallet and adore like it's their boyfriend.
Lastly, Magic cards, the most expensive cards of them all. Unlike the dragonball or idol cards, these cards were not sold on the machines. They comes in a packet, which cost around $3.50. Which will contains random common, uncommon and rare cards. If you were very lucky back then to own a black lotus card, congrats you have just been richer by $300.
Magic cards can also be played with your friends, as long as you have a deck of cards. Comes in different colours, red, green, blue,white,black. All represent different sorcery. If you enjoyed this game, maybe you will go around challenging different players and may even take part in competition.
I hope this episode of memories had been a good walk down the memory lane. Stay tune for more.