Childhood wonders
Everytime I pass by hilly and heavily wooded housing areas around SS17 or Jalan Wisma Putra, I come to reminisce about my childhood years. Those were great times indeed and probably instilled in me the need to be conservative about nature and our environment. While not exactly Green Peace material myself, I do cringe and feel sadden by the apparent “rape” of our natural wonders.
Those childhood years were spent every evening or early morning in the fenceless/gateless compound of the colonial-designed government quarter community in Kapit. A compound feels like an understatement as it was really more like fields of green (almost) carpeted grass, blanketed by the shades of tall trees, dotted among the houses. Alas, I forgot what kind of species those trees were, but they were huge and towering, with grey and whitish barks devoid of branches accept for the tops (not unlike those American Redwoods - but way smaller). They also had this huge red flowers, which were shaped like orchids on steroids, than anything else. Playing among their branches was out of the questions, but exploring the crest and crevices to find frogs, tadpoles, worms, moss, and the odd lizard was more than enough to keep my young mind occupied. And whenever I get tired of this, I would just go and play in nearby stream that flowed through this ‘wonderland’. Oh! that doesn’t mean I didn’t climbed trees, because there was also the ‘regulatory’ fruit trees, planted by dad and neighbors.
Sometimes I wonder how I survived. I (actually we) did a lot of pretty dangerous things when young huh? Climbed hills, raced bicycles, explored vast tracts of secondary woods, playing in the stream, fell out of branches, exploring the neighborhood swamp which had a pond that would swell and had mini whirlpools that would throw fishes up to the grassy banks. Was that dangerous? Heck yeah! In fact, once I tripped over a tree root and hit the ground so hard I broke two teeth, step on a snake (but escaped unbitten), nearly drown, and of course got my fair share of cuts, lacerations, the compulsory bruising, mud and germs. Not to mention a good whipping by my concerned parents whenever I embarked on my ‘adventures’.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, when you’re a kid with my kinda childhood going on these forays gives you a sense of incredible freedom. I think that’s where I get my predilection for freedom from. I did things and went places. I was wild and free. Would I have traded that for a safe, cosseted childhood ? Not a chance! That’s the best I can explain it, or in the words of The director general of the Confederation of British Industry, Sir Digby Jones “Get cosseted kids out onto life’s playing fields”.
