I read this in an e-mail and decided to post it with some of my experience.
for readers who are non Singaporean, it i hope its interesting and you could recall yo your experience..
i was born in 1983 so i am the 80's guy!
1. You grew up watching He-man, MASK, Transformers, Silver Hawk and
Mickey Mouse. Not to forget Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony and Smurfs too...
2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during
recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside
you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug. The teachers said you must
brush each side 10 times too.
( there was a dental nurse in my school and my appointments came during my music class , which is awesome. i would rather have my teeth pulled then asked to play the recorder!)
3. You know what SBC stands for.
(Singapore Broadcasting Corporation)
4. You pay 40 cents for Chocolate or Strawberry MILK every week in
class.
(The brand of the milk was magnolia, and we had to drink it in class!)
5. You watch a very popular Malay dubbed Japanese drama on RTM1 about
schoolgirls who possess powerful skills in volleyball called Meoro
Attack.
6. You find your friends with pagers and hand phone cool in Secondary
school.
(The IN thing was to have the pager clip at the side of the pocket to show off)
7. SBS buses used to be non-air-conditioned. The bus seats are made of
wood and the cushion is red. The big red bell gives a loud BEEP! When
pressed. There are colourful tickets forTIBS buses. The conductor will check for
tickets by using a machine which punches a hole in the ticket.
(We used to fold hearts with the ticket pass it to girls we have crush on.)
8. Envelopes given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's
Day.
(I donated $2 every year)
9. You've probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who's Vinny
the little vampire and Acai the constable.
(that was the only magazine for kids)
10. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for
the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat , facing the window to see the scenery.
11. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.
12. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.
13. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street .
14. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka (20 cents per pack), and Ding
Dang (50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every
week. Not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the
lollipop is the diamond on the ring.
15. You watched TV2 (also known as Channel 10) cartoons because Channel
5 never had enough cartoons for you.
16. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and
Secret Seven are probably the thickest story books you ever thought you
have read. Even Sweet Valley High and Malory Towers.
17. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates
and let you use metal forks and knives.
18. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST
EXTREME WAS 'super white'... you just couldn't bring yourself to say
the hokkien relative.
19. Catching was the IN thing and twist as the magic word. (in-case you don’t understand, it is a game of police and thief and twist was immunity)
20. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper
that was smooth and yellow.
21. CDIS were your bestfriend.
( It is TV shows that are telecasted in national TV for school purposes, teachers have to record it and then use it in class)
22. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised
characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.
23. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere
you go.
(The common drink was ribena!)
24. Boys loved to play soccer with small plastic balls in the
basketball court.
(we even had a league, if we didn’t have a ball we would use the pong-pong fruit to play. )
25. Five stones, chapteh, hentam bola and zero point were
all the rage with the girls and boys too...
26. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most
important plants of our lives, guppies and swordtail being the most
important fish.
27. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our
minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Wally & Mr. Yakki. What abt Miss Lala???
And Zaki and Tini in Malay Textbooks?
28. We carry out experiments of our own to get ourself badges for being
a Young Zoologist/Botanist etc.
( I had a young environmentalist badge!)
29. Every Children's day and National day you either get pins or pens
with 'Happy Children's Day 1993' or dumb files with 'Happy National Day
1994'.
(Children’s day was all about what gifts the teachers had for us)
30. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big
sister and brother.
( so that the primary one kids can adapt better in school)
31. We wear BM2000, BATA, or Pallas shoes.
(They were all white canvas shoes that we had to polish)
32. Your form teacher taught you Maths, Science and English.
33. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.
34. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and
you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your
dry and warm socks and shoes.
35. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.
(we would all play till 3Pm then think about going home then, that too was to catch CDIS and cartoons on TV)
36. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost
every day.
37. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you
$3 or more for pocket money every day.
( i used to get extra money from my grandfather on top of what my parents gave me)
38. You see Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.
(Our president then)
39. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to
height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
(I didn’t really freak out, i still remember my partner, her name was “pei shan ,Christina”) she is married now. I know this thanks to friend ster.
40. Boys like to catch fighting spiders.
( Not forgetting grasshoppers, we would break one of its legs to prevent it from jumping off)
41. Collecting and battling erasers was a pastime for boys.
(Erasers with country flags on them, winner gets to keep the other’s eraser, we even modified its shape for “ better performance!”)
42. Autograph books were loaded with 'Best Wishes', 'Forget Me Not',
and small poems like 'Bird fly high, hard catch. Friend like you, hard to
forget'.
43. Class monitors and prefects loved to say 'You talk some more, I
write your name ah!'
(I was a perfect and the 2 names on my book are Siva- for climbing the school fence and Arul for singing in class)
44. There were at least 40 people in one class.
( Now kids this days are lucky to have just 20!)
45. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.
(I got a new bag for every academic year!)
50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one
thing called the timetable.
(I admit I was the worst! I was simply lazy to pack my bag, kids now get lockers to keep their books in school!)
This is the living room, where countless parties were held, most ending in people getting too tired to go home and in the end becoming their bedroom.
Finally my room. The place where i studied, watched movies, had friends over and pretty much some days where spent entirely in this room. although it was small it was a whole world to me.