Memories of Plankwalks

My aunts and I often talked about plankwalks in our lives. We have grown up in the swampy terrain of the Rajang River Basin, so walking on plankwalks barefooted or even with shoes, has very special meaning for us.

I had felt the heat of the belian planks on the sole of my bare feet, and some of my aunts had difficulties walking on plankwalks with their high heels on. But it is the sounds of foot steps on the plank walks and the noises made by them that stay in our minds for a long long time.

I had a very protected childhood in Pulau Kerto. People remembered how I once had fallen off the ice mill plankwalk into the muddy banks of the Rajang River. When my father rushed down to the muddy banks, to rescue me (I was already head down in the mud, aged 3), many of the bystanders thought that I could not survive the fall, if I had knocked my head on something hard, or if I had been suffocated by the mud.

My baby sitter, Cousin Yew Ping, told this story many times in her life. When I was pulled up from the mud, my father only saw my two huge eyes looking at him. I was alive after all.

The Foochows called this a matter of "Big Life"  Meang Duai. I was fated in a way to fight for my life and my survival and to succeed.

My late aunt Carrie had a story to tell about her first day in school.

In the 1930's and 40's before the Japanese bombed Sibu, there was a  plankwalk joining the Yuk Ing school to the main road, the Island Road. Students walking on the plankwalk would make a lot of noise and that would alert teachers and especially Mrs. Hoover.

She remembered running after her mother on the plankwalk of Yuk Ing School, the day she was left in the boarding school. She did not want to stay in the school.

This was the story of her sad farewell to Grandma Wong. As Grandma Wong left to catch the boat to Hua Ong Ice Factory, Aunt ran after her, making a lot of noise, as a plankwalk would in those days. Other students watched the tearful farewell between mother and daughter. A teacher had to pull her away from grandmother. Then she watched grandmother walking on the plankwalk right to the main road.

Unknown to her and my older aunts at that moment, that would be the last time they saw Grandmother Wong, walking on the school plankwalk . They watched her back disappearing from the plankwalk and soon she was out of sight.

 For not long after that, she passed away from a terrible miscarriage.

For a long time, my aunt used to tell me that people running on plankwalks and making that special noise would send chills down her spine.