When we were young we were often invited to stay with our Grandparents in Sg. Merah.
In this particular posting I will mention about the kerosene lamp Grandfather used before the advent of electricity. Treated water came only after 1960, and I cannot remember when electricity came. My mother is no longer around to answer my queries. And many of my young friends were all born after the era of kerosene lamps.
I remember Grandmother Siew's great cooking especially. She could even make brinjals and cabbage tasty, and to die for. I was not able to eat brinjals before then. So food was good and there was plenty of space for us to run around. Usually there were only myself and little cousin Chiong Whye as young and frequent visitors. But I would stay only for two or three nights, while Whye stayed the whole of the holidays. As he could not be left in the orphanage, he boarded with Goo Poh in the Methodist Primary School so that he could go to the primary school easily. It was a really good arrangement.
Grandfather was most happy to have us around as far as I can remember. I felt very welcomed by him.
At night to prevent us from feeling scared he would ask Aunty Ah Hiong to light up the kerosene pressure lamp. I was always afraid that it might explode when watching her expertly lighting it up. Somehow aunty Ah Hiong was so good in starting the lamp and soon it was very bright in the kitchen.
Aunty Ah Hiong never went to school, she was a girl given to Grandfather to raise as her family was too poor to keep her. She was considered our aunt. She was given our surname Tiong and was later married off to a very good man and they prospered.
We would have bright lights for a short while in the kitchen and then when grandfather went up stairs the lamp would be taken upstairs to light the upstairs living room. There would be only enough kerosene to light the lamp for a short while. And soon it was dark.
this showed that even towards the end of his life Grandfather was always very frugal. He would light up his own bed room with a small hand held and table top kerosene lamp, which actually he would carry to his own master room. I would sleep with aunty Ah Hiong in the small room next to the living room And in a small bed was Aunty Woon Sieng. We all slept in beds without any mattresses in those days.
My grandfather had a terrible habit. He ground his teeth at night and we were all terrified of that noise.
Life was simple. And after a few days my father would come to bring me home after he finished working in Sg. Aup. My younger siblings would never want to spend nights with our grandparents.
It was not that my grandmother would cook something special for Cousin Whye and I, and it was not the special treats we had when staying with them. I think for the two of us young visitors, it was the special love that Grandfather had for us that made us want to visit him.
I still remember one of those special moments when he took out his small rubber purse to give each one of us a few ten cents...He would say:
"Save 10 ten cents and you get a dollar. Save 10 dollars and you get a new red note..."
May be it was because of his teachings Chiong Whye and I bonded and we often talked about savings when we became adults.
It was not easy to save money. But we struggled to save some for the proverbial rainy day. The teachings and role modelling of Grandfather would always be in our mind.
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