The past and simpler world

"How many people long for that past, 'simpler, and better world', I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world around them?"

~ Drizzt Do-Urden



How true that simple statement is. People, me included, often thought of the good old times, reminiscing how good the older and simpler times are compared to the more unpleasant present. How well it'll be if all the flats are cheaper and bigger, how well it'll be if the cost of food is cheaper compared to my salary and how carefree students are in school compared to the present. While no doubt that there are truth in such statements, perhaps it is also clouded by the nostalgic sentiments of the past, so that you only see the past with bias recollection of the more pleasant times, while blatantly ignoring the more unpleasant times.



Perhaps Drizzt Do-Urden is right, the world changes no doubt, but it is the person who changed even more. If I am somehow, magically transported to my distant past, would I have found the world a better and simpler place to live in? Maybe not, because I no longer look at the past with the eyes of someone browsing through a new book for the very first time, soaking in the smell of the new-ness of the book and absorbing all the sights of a tourist arriving in a beautiful town for the very first time. Memories are to be re-lived in the mind, not to be visited physically, otherwise the magic of the sweet nostalgia would be broken by harsh reality.



Let's relive some memories mentally then. People of my generation would have experienced these little pockets of memories as lively as my own recollection:


1. In primary school, we are have to chew on some tablets that gives a red colouration to our teeth so that the plaque are highlighted in order for us to brush it off.


2. After recess in primary school, the whole class can be seen squatting besides the drain in the school compound, gurgling water from a cup and brushing their teeth.


3. Buses are paid in coins, with a conductor stamping the ticket. Then the paying system becomes transit link card where you have to press your own fare. Finally it becomes ez link card where the fare are automatically calculated for you.


4. In primary school, I witness the explosion of plastic usage in everyday life. Tuppleware parties are held. The wood and metal tables and chairs are slowly replaced by plastic ones. Metal containers used to hold food are replaced by plastic containers. Metal water bottles are changed to plastic ones.

5. There's no such thing as calling someone you're meeting at 1pm that you're late, using a handphone. Handphone only became popular towards my army days and perhaps into my university period. Before that, if you make an appointment, you bloody hell make sure you're there on time. If not, there's no way to contact the person en route since neither of us carries handphone...


6. ...unless that person carries a pager. In which case, you have to call his pager, leave a voice message, and hope that he received the page and CALL his voice mail to retrieve the message. Really, it's just easy to be punctual.


7. I remembered dialling up to connect to internet...it was a frustrating exercise when a call comes in, then all your internet connection gets cut off. Not that there's anything much to do on the internet anyway.


8. Before google, alta vista was my favorite search engine. Lycos, yahoo are a close second. But once google appears, everything else is changed. Search engine can never be the same again.


9. I saw the advent of coloured television. When I was little, I remembered watching television in black and white. Then it became coloured, now it became 3D.


10. I saw the building of the MRT lines. I remembered fondly in primary school that a worker was waving at us (or rather, because we're waving at him) from the half constructed mrt lines. I remembered my first ride on the east-west line and how scared I was by the roar of the train when it's underground.


11. When I was in secondary school, punggol/sengkang was a swamp. I have great memories of canoeing and camping there. I remembered serangoon shopping centre was a hangout for ah-bengs and gangsters too.


12. In the past, buses are not air-conditioned. There are little windows that you have to shut it when it's raining. On the top of the buses, there's also a air vent that you have to close it physically when it's raining. Have you seen the sight of rain splattering inside a bus? A journey inside such a bus is warm but sleep inducing. I can even say that I can sweat comfortably and be lulled into a nice nap.



Is there more of such memories that you can think of? What was it like for life in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s that you remembered fondly? Do share it in the comment box below. I would love to have a oral history of how life was like in the past, compared to now :)