I always say that I enjoy my adult life a lot more than my life as a kid growing up. When I look back though I always remember fond memories but the one thing that sticks out is how the really simplest things made me super happy as a kid. We were living in a time with no social media, with no iPads or smartphones. Where it would never occur to us that to touch a button on a screen would actually activate it.
Here are the things I remember growing up with:
1) My cutting edge computer had 16MB in Hard Disk Space.
My family had a 286 at home. One of the first computers to have its own hard disk and one of the fastest computers of its time. The hard disk had a capacity of 16MB and that was huge. We couldn’t fill it up in spite of all the games we installed on it.
Today even a pen drive has 16MB. Our phones have a minimum of 16GB (which is 1,024 times more) and our desktops can have terabytes. Still… the 286 made me happy. The Pentiums that came after made me happier of course but there’s nothing like the first computer with a hard disk.
2) I bought chocolates because of the toys. Not because of the chocolates.
Tora was sold for RM1 per piece.
I didn’t buy them because I loved the chocolate. In fact its chocolate was just mediocre at best. I bought it because while watching the 5PM cartoon slot or RTM, they played a TVC that showed the exciting possibilities of a Tora toy.
A cheaper alternative was Din Dang that cost RM0.50. Its chocolates were terrible. But its toys… that kept me going. I wonder if this strategy: toys over chocolate is still as effective as it was then.
3) We wrote letters
There was no such thing as e-mails. We wrote letters to people and at one point I even had two pen-pals. One from Johor and another from Selangor that we exchanged letters with. if you get close enough to a pen pal then you attach a photo of yourself, normally the best possible looking photos.
The problem with pen-pals though is that sometimes the other side stops replying or you forget to reply and it just ends. Nothing however replaces the feeling of opening up your mailbox and seeing a letter there for you from your pen pal. The excitement of ripping open the envelope and eyes darting word by word.
4) Landlines were the only way to talk to your friends
Phone numbers in Penang then had 6 digits. Somewhere towards the end of primary school it changed to 7 digits which is where it is now. I guess when they got to too many numbers they would have changed it to 8 digits just like in KL but up till today that doesn’t have seem to happen. Maybe because most people are going into mobile lines now rather than phone lines.
The downside of a landline? When you call your girlfriend her whole house knows you’re calling. In fact you risk having your girlfriend’s dad picking up . If you spend too much time talking on the phone you’ll get a lecture from your dad at the end of the month when he gets the bill.
5) Flag erasers were the worst but still popular
Everyone had a flag eraser. In fact many people have tons of them but the funny part is that it’s one of the worst erasers out there. You keep it in your pencil box and you only use it when you’ve lost your Steadler one and when you do it frustrates you because it turns your paper green.
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At least they smelled good.
What else do you remember growing up with?
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space