Auntie tak ingat whether auntie dah boh gambar ni in this blog before. Tapi seingat auntie, auntie belum lagi cerita pasai growing up in Bukit Goh. So, kalau dah pernah tengok pic ni pun takpe. Let me tell some stories related to it. Gambar ni was scanned and uploaded in Acik Din's FB some time ago and auntie telah make a copy for myself. The original pic is supposed to still be in the old album at Wan and Aki's place kot. Can you guess which one is auntie? Deductive reasoning la kan? Eldest girl? So must be the comel one standing in between "Awang Kulup" and "Awang Gedek" (Gedek is pronounced like a sengal person). These are the kinds of the many manja names Wan attached to her kids when we were little. Mommy is the little toddler sitting and playing with that horrendously unidentified object on the floor. And Wan's manja name for Mommy is "Mek Towwek" (also pronounced in a sengal way). Auntie takde manja name coz auntie lahir2 je dah garang and no one would dare to give manja names. HAHAHA!
This picture is taken on one raya day in what used to be our abode in a still godforsaken place (no offence to people from this place!) called Bukit Goh. Bukit Goh is an oil palm estate about 30 kilometres or so from Kuantan. Since Wan was a school teacher, she got to teach in all sorts of places and we will normally have to live somewhere near where she had to teach. Most of the time we stayed in Kuantan because Wan got to teach much nearer to town. But early in our childhood, one of the first place auntie could remember living is Bukit Goh. I think we stayed there, in what was designated as teachers' quarters, for 2 yrs, when auntie was between 2-4 yrs old. In this pic auntie must was prolly 3 going on 4 coz Mommy was prolly about 1. Check out the legs. Tak tau la ni posing film star mana yg we dok emulate ni.
Kat Bukit Goh ni auntie first go to school. Sekolah tadika. Auntie ingat cikgu dia nama Zaimah kot, sama nama dengan Kak Zemah. Yg pergi sekolah is Pak Long Ami and Auntie only coz Acik Din and Mommy were too young. Of course Mushu is way from being conceived. Time ni kalau gi sekolah auntie refused to wear dresses like a girl. Always pakai shorts and shirts and sometimes topi cowboy (with toy guns lagi on a belt). In this pic ni kena paksa la pakai baju kurung. In 2 or 3 hours sure dah bogel and pakai panties jek coz panas. The only time auntie pakai dress to school is bila kena ambik gambar. Auntie remembered having to do it once. Baju dia made of nylon kat dalam and the outer part is like lacy-lacy gitu. Cream coloured. And kena pakai proper shoes and socks lagi. So tak happy. And auntie also remember kalau balik sekolah our baju mesti akan jadi merah coz on the way home from school we walked (pergi Aki hantar) on the tanah merah (only kind of road available en route). And sometimes bila nampak pakcik tukang kebun yg pelik sikit (auntie tak ingat whether because dia ada some disabilities ke or because dia garang) the elder kids would jerit "sabit kepala!!!" (ie tukang kebun tu nak kerja dia sabit kepala little kids la kununnya), we all akan lari lintang pukang takut leaving trails of red dust behind us. Hence the red tint on the clothes as well.
Acik Din (and sometimes, little Mommy) who are left to their own devices (but under strict supervision of Kak Zemah) would also come up with hair-raising activities. The oil palm plantation was of course teemed with snakes of all kind but we would normally not encounter them in the home area. Tapi Acik Din managed to one day. Acik Din was fond of collecting frogs (there were a lot of those). Sometimes Kak Zemah would open an old kettle in the bathroom and frogs would 'fly' out from it. And bila Acik Din nampak dia kata "Eh, jgn buang, katak Din ni!" Auntie tak ingat sangat how the stories go but I think one day when Acik Din was playing with his kataks, a deadly snake came by. Acik Din being curious, wanted to touch the head of the snake and the snake was already 'standing'. Luckily a Pakcik came and rescued him.
We hardly remember things that happened in Bukit Goh but the stories were frequently retold to us by Wan and Aki, each time with slightly different versions, so auntie could not vouch for their accuracy but auntie can definitely recall there was the deadly snake, there was a pakcik whom we thought would 'sabit' our kepala and there was a kettle-full of "Katak Din" in the bathroom.
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