My "Rascal" Years

Not too long ago, about 30 years or so … we, the rascals of Kampong Attap, dominates the streets from SBA Hall till the Selangor Chinese Association Building. We shout, rave and scream and turn every part of the area to become our play area. Small traders, businessmen, aunties, little children and practically everyone would not dare to cross our path. Complaining to our parents were of no use. We are uncontrollable. No one would dare to cross our path – actually, they couldn’t care less.

Today, I wanted to share with you the games I played during my “rascal” years. I’ll try to share as much as I can remember. Not that I’m proud of what I did, but those were really our fun and crazy childhood days. Remember, we were rascals! To us, every day is a school holiday and we play like there’s no tomorrow.

Hide and seek
Hide and seek game for most would normally confine to a small little house where cub boards, under the bed/sofa, behind the doors, curtain, toilets or behind something bigger in size are the hiding places. These are for amateurs. It’s too easy for us. We, the professionals play at a different level. With our speed and “endless” time, our playing field must be more challenging. Where is more challenging than the street of Kampong Attap. I think there are about 5 or 6 shop houses in each roll. In between of these shop houses are lanes big enough for a car to pass. So, imagine if you were to look from the bird’s eye view of the shop houses. Can you see the B or P area? That’s our playing field. Sometime, it can be double the size.

Our hiding places are behind the pillars of the shops, cars, under/in the lorry, behind/up the trees, under the drain and whatever “things” that can hide us. Great fun isn’t it? Now imagine … playing at night with only the few street lights surrounding our play area! A whole lot of different level, man!

Football
Our favorite game is football. We have Kelvin Keegan, Paolo Rossi, Kenny Daglish and many more wannabes. Every evening, we would gather and decide to play at either one of our normal 4 playing area. One of the more regular playing area is at the back of a shop house where it’s suppose to be a parking lot (maybe the size of 25’ x 15’). The goal posts are drawn on to the walls. Cool eh. We also play on the street itself, front porch of an occupied house maybe the size of 24’ by 8’ and the biggest playing area is on top of the hill (that place can lead to Kuen Cheng primary school and Mirama Building). My 5th uncle would normally look for me at our regular “field” when he wants to bring me along with his family to swim at Chin Woo Stadium. He knows that I wouldn’t be at my house!

My personal favorite football field is on top of the hill. The ground is not grass but a very soft “light yellow-ish” sand. We played without shoes. The sand is so soft that we can even do tackles just like we did on the grass. Imagine playing under the rain … woo hoo. So much fun … my friend!

Picture cards
Ah… there was a “season” when the small picture cards are our highlight games. We would put a stack of cards in the middle of the road and with a 6” square marked around it. At an agreed distance, usually about 4 to 8 cars length away, we will throw our own slipper aiming at the stack of cards. We “win/owned” the cards that were hit and flew away from the square line. I can still remember the “splash” sound of the cards when strike. Not to mention the “dent” sound when the flying slipper hit the car ….

Besides the cards, sometimes, we could win up to 10 cents. The person who wants to play but without any cards can place 5 cents on the stack of cards. I can’t remember exactly but I think 5 cent can exchange for 50 cards and 10 cents or 100 cards. Those days, 1 cent can buy 2 sweets leh!

Hit the stick game
I don’t know what this game is called but this is how we played. It’s something like softball. We need 2 sticks, a small hole and an open space. A small stick (length about 1’ – we called it Stick A) is place on the edge of the small hole, balancing with one end tilted upwards. The player holding the other stick taps the stick A so that it flew up. While the Stick A is still on the air, the player is supposed to whack it as far as possible.

The opponents are supposed to catch it before the stick A lands. If the opponents caught it, then it’s their turn to whack the stick. If the stick A lands on the ground, then it is measured from where it land to the hole. How to measure? Stick A = 1’. Go figure. The team with the highest points wins. It’s fun but quite dangerous. As you try to catch the flying stick, it might hit your palm, hand, elbow, face, chest and worst is when it hit your “birdie”.

Tennis ball
Nope, definitely NOT to play tennis. We don’t have tennis court in Kampong Attap. There are a few ways we play using the tennis ball – the rascal way.

One of the simpler games was to throw the ball at someone. Everyone would go for the ball and throw at the next one beside you. Sometimes we have 2 or 3 balls. It is fun and a sense of achievement to hit someone especially your enemy or the one you don’t “friend him” on that day. Of course you wouldn’t want to be hit! Just like the stick game, you wouldn’t want it to hit your “birdie”.

For me, the most fun game using the tennis ball is this. Each player will dig a small hole (big enough to fit the tennis ball) next to each other. Let’s call this holes “home” (sounds better). Eg. Ten homes for ten players and so on. Everyone would have to remember their “home”. A line is drawn about 10’ away from the “homes”. Everyone is supposed to stand on the line. One person would roll the ball towards the “home”. If the ball falls onto your “home”, you are suppose to quickly run to it, pick it up, turn, and throw at someone. If it touches someone, that person is down 1 point. If you didn’t manage to hit anyone, then you are down 1 point. The persons who are 3 points down are punished. He/she will be a target. He will stand next to the “home”, bend down with the butt facing the crowd. At a certain distance, each person will have a chance to throw hard aiming at your butt! It literally gives you “Pain in the Arse”.

Other games
There are plenty of other games/things we “rascals” do. We occasionally play guli, kites, police vs thief (where we run based on B or P area). We make our own guns using plank and “jelly fruit” as the bullet. The “jelly fruit” is a small and green in color. When ripe, the “jelly fruit” turns red. Come to think of it, I am not sure if there is such tree in Sg Long! Mmm … I’ll try to find one and take a picture of it for the future generations knowledge!

Istana Negara
Do you know that those days, in front of the Istana Negara, there is a small river? The water was clear and shallow. Every time I passed by the area, I would remember my “rascal” years. You know what we did? We catch fish and sometimes swim (since we were already wet trying to catch fishes). There are guppies (low grade one la) and “thong sutt” in Cantonese (it looks like cat fish). Every time when we caught the “thong sutt”, my friend would take it back home and made fish congee. Real sweet! For me, I dare not bring it back to my mom. She would whack me, if she knows I wondered so damn far and played near the Istana. By the way, the small river is actually a big drain! Man … what on earth were we thinking, playing on that bloody “longkang”!!!

Lion dance
A rascals’ life wouldn’t be complete without joining a lion dance troupe! Every Sunday morning at 10am sharp, a few regulars will start practicing the drum, “gong”, cymbals and lion dance at an association call “Chung San Wooi Goon” in Cantonese. It is in the same building with Lee Frozen but at the other end. We would take turn to practice the instruments and the dance. Hey, this is the perfect activity for us, the rascals, to make noise. Really loud noise! To be fair, we are serious in practicing as we do perform during Chinese New Year. We earn a decent amount while making noise. Why not?

As mentioned earlier, we were rascals, we don’t read! We just like to play and have fun! Those were really my great and colorful young days. I left Kampong Attap at the age of 13 when I went (sent) to a boarding school in Ipoh called Horley Hall. Not sure where all my rascal friends are but I heard a few of them have upgraded themselves to become real gangsters. God bless them! For this, I have to thank my 5th uncle for his wise decision and also my mom's blessing, otherwise I could have upgraded myself the wrong way too!

Closing
In closing my post today, on behalf of the Kampong Attap rascals, I would like to take this opportunity to apologies to all the uncles and aunties whose car we accidentally scratched or dented and the window panes, front gate, doors, light bulbs, etc that we accidentally broke and the chaos and noise we've created. We are guilty and I humbly ask for your forgiveness.