Things From The Bygone Sixties And Seventies

During the sixties and early seventies, I was a kid living in Binatang. Life then seemed to move at a snail’s pace, compared to life now. There was definitely much less stress then. Traffic jam was totally unheard of in Binatang as there were so few cars.  If a modern day teenager who grew up with the internet, smartphones, iPad, Facebook, Astro and DVDs is transported back in time to the sixties and seventies, I am sure he would find life a real bore.

But for those who grew up in that period, life was full of innocent fun. Remember the games of hide & seek, cops & robbers, hopscotch, five stones, snake & ladder board games, aeroplane chess, swimming in the river, kite flying, playing with bamboo pop guns, catching guppies in the longkangs, and playing marbles on the streets?

Five Stones is a game played with five small stones. It was very popular among the girls. Each player has to throw a stone into the air, and then quickly grab another stone on the ground before catching the first one on its way down. The game continues as the player repeats the action by grabbing two stones on the ground, and so on.

I went for a short trip across the border to Brunei yesterday, bringing my family for sushi at Escapade Sushi. Arriving at Escapade Sushi in Kuala Belait at about 11.20am, we found out that it was fully packed. We were told by the restaurant staff that they could reserve a table for us for 1pm. We decided to drive further up to Seria to try our luck at the Escapade Sushi there.

The Escapade Sushi in Seria was also fully packed and again we were told that we would have to wait till 1pm. We made the reservation for 1pm before walking round the town. We ended up browsing in the Yick Fatt supermarket in the basement of Plaza Seria.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Sam Fong Hoi Tong Powder and Tancho Pomade on the shelves in the supermarket. These two products immediately aroused a lot of nostalgia as my late dad used to sell these in his shop in Binatang in the old days.

The Sam Fong Powder is synonymous with a lot of women in the sixties and seventies. It is talcum powder pressed into a square slab and comes in a small cardboard box with the picture of a woman. This face powder was a staple among many women and probably the only cosmetic that they used throughout their life, keeping their skin looking smooth and flawless.

Created by a Hong Kong company, Sam Fong Cosmetic Co. Ltd, the Sam Fong Powder makes your skin geisha white. You can add water to its powder and use it as a mask. Some people use it to polish silver too.

Tancho Pomade is a Japanese hair product that was the rage of many boys in the old days before the advent of styling gel. It is a thick sticky and greasy green hair cream that you use to reshape and set messy hair. It grooms and settles the hair, giving it a lucious shine. It was a must-have item if you wish to comb your hair Elvis-style.

This stuff comes in a little yellow box with green detail. The box carries the brand TANCHO in white against a green background with the slogan “Pure Nourishing Vegetable Pomade” underneath the brand.

The hair cream comes in a white ribbed plastic container with a green twist off lid. Underneath the lid is a plastic seal. One thing that really makes this product cool is its emerald-green color. To match the green color, it also has a slightly  jade scent lavender with a hint of mint scent.

Its only drawback is its stickiness which will transfer to whatever your head touches. Your pillow cases would always have the oily stain caused by Tancho. So beware!

As nostalgia took a hold on me, I was transported back in time to some of the stuff that defined my childhood.

Fancy Gem Biscuits

Fancy gem biscuits, the little biscuits with sweet star-shaped icing coating at the top, were joyful tidbits for kids of my era. And these biscuits came in an assortment of colours. Some eat the biscuits first and save the icing to savour at the end; others would bite off the icing and throw away the biscuits minus the icing.

Haw Flakes

These are round reddish brown sweet berry-scented wafers rolled up in bright cylinder-shaped pink wrappers. And they are often touted as a candy that helps aid digestion. They are made from the Chinese hawthorns, the fruits that are also used to make traditional Chinese snack bing tang hu lu 冰糖葫芦.

White Rabbit Creamy Candy

White Rabbit Creamy Candy is white, with a soft, chewy texture, and is formed into cylinders approximately 3 cm long and 1 cm in diameter, similar to contemporary western nougat or taffy. Each candy is wrapped in a printed waxed paper wrapper, but within this, the sticky candies are again wrapped in a thin edible film made from sticky rice. Developed in Shanghai as early as 1943, the addictive candy is a big hit worldwide but its popularity has declined after being hit by the melamine contamination scandal in China in 2008.

Ice Ball (Kantongs)

Ice balls are finely grated ice packed into a ball and topped with coloured sugary syrups. They were often sold by roadside hawkers and some coffeshops and were typically eaten by using just the fingers or hands.

Green Mountain Soft Drinks

These soft drinks were manufactured by a Binatang soft drink company. As it was cheaper compared to more established competitors like F&N, Fanta, Green Spot, it was popular among Binatang residents.

Comedians Wang Sa & Ye Fong

Wang Sa and Yeh Fong gave me a lot of laughters during my childhood.  My youngest uncle Hwa Gain used to buy their records and he would play them for me when I stayed with my grandparents in Sibu during my school holidays. Wang Sa and Ye Fong are gone forever but still live on in my memory.

Lao Fu Zhi (Old Master Q)

Remember reading  Lao Fu Zi 老夫子 while having hair cut at the barber when you were young? I can definitely remember. Created by Hong Kong cartoonist Alfonso Wong (王澤) in 1962, the images of old-fashioned and kiasu duo Old Master Q and his buddy Big Potato have left deep impressions in Chinese communities for decades. The author passed away in 2001, but the long-running comic still survives till this day, although its influence and popularity have been shadowed by the domination of Japanese manga since the nineties.

Enid Blyton Books

Enid Blyton storybooks were my favourite during my childhood days. She was a British novelist (1897 – 1968) who specialised in writing stories of adventures, fantasy and magic for children. Over 600 million copies of her work sold worldwide, especially the Commonwealth countries. I devoured her Famous Five and Secret Seven novels, fantasizing myself being part of the Famous Five and Secret Seven.

 

Movies

Remember all those martial arts,  Huángméidiào (黃梅調) and romance movies starring Li Ching, Lily Ho, Lin Po, Chen Pei Pei, Wang Yu, Lo Lieh, David Chiang, Ti Lung, Lin Chin Hsia, Lin Fong Chiao, Chin Hsiang Lin, Chin Han, Alan Teng Kuang Yung and Bruce Lee? I can still remember the movie “Wan Bao Chuan” (Lady Precious Stream) had a record-breaking week-long run at the Eastern Theatre in Binatang. Movie adaptations of novels by Chiung Yao were also a big hit.  I was in Form Two when Bruce Lee exploded onto the scene with “The Big Boss”, forever changing martial arts movies. He elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. Hindi movies like “Bobby” and “Haathi Mere Saathi” were monster hits too.

Music

Chinese music scene in the 1960s and 1970s were dominated by Teresa Teng, Yu Yia, Liu Chia Charn, Jenny Tseng, Yao Surong, The Chopstick Sisters, Wynners, Agnes Chan, Chelsia Chan, Teresa Carpio, Lam, Frances Yip, Tracy Huang,  Sam Hui, Rowena Cortes, Paula Tsui, Au Yeung Fei Fei and the likes. Agnes Chan, with her saccharin sweet voice, was idolised by many teens in those days. She had a string of hits like “Circle Game”, “Nobody’s Child”, “You ‘ve Got A Friend”, “Devoted To You”, “Whatever Will Be Will Be”, “Day Is Done”, “Rose Garden”  and “Twelve of Never”.

 

Don’t you think life in the sixties and seventies wasn’t too bad after all?