This has been one of my favourite songs for a long time now, and the lyrics go something like this, “Faded photographs, covered now with lines and creases…memories in bits and pieces…”
…and indeed, some days, I would browse through my photo albums and look at the old photographs and the memories would come flooding back to my mind. There are those, for example, that would remind me of my dancing days at the Sibu Recreation Club…
There was a dance hall on the upper floor and on Saturday nights, clubs and societies like the Jaycees, the Medical Club and others would organise fund-raising balls. My friends and I loved dancing but with my meagre pocket money of 20 sen a day, I had to scrimp and save to buy the ticket – usually ranging from RM2.00 to RM5.00, and we would have to buy the drinks coupons as well on the night concerned. Ladies could go in free and at times, my friends would chip in to make up the amount needed for my ticket and we would not drink the whole night through. We just wanted to go and dance…
Well, the Sibu Recreation Club or SRC as it was called, is no more. They have demolished the whole building and today, the towering Wisma Sanyan stands where it once stood.
The first photograph shows a dinner cum dance at the Sarawak Club in Kuching. This would be the original Sarawak Club before it got burnt down not too long ago in a fire that razed it to the ground…
I cannot remember the occasion now but it probably was New Year’s Eve. Sophia’s parents invited me to join them together with the three daughters (I think they were there but not the youngest one who was still a toddler at the time) and also Gerrie’s parents and Lindy Sister…
It is kind of sad that those dances or balls are now things of the past. I drop by clubs and discos sometimes but it is all so different now. Once, I went to Hard Rock Cafe KL to check out the scene there. No, I did not have to queue; I had privileged entry (plus no cover charge) as I was staying at the hotel. Gosh! It was so crowded and the people were like sardines in a can, with hardly any space to move…and when the band played Nirvana’s “The man who sold the world”, everybody started moving vertically (not that they had a choice) like they were jumping on imaginary pogo sticks. I just sighed, and I turned and left. It just wasn’t the same…anymore.
Could it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time rewritten every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again,
tell me…would we?…Could we?
(The way we were)
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 