RAAF School Penang

The year was 1970 ... yeah, I know most of you weren't even born yet. There I was, excited. My first day of school. I'd been to the Kindergarten, which was a little up the road from where we lived, but today I was going to the BIG KIDS school! Well, big kids compared to me ... it was actually Pre-school. My first recollection of the day, was the big kids on the school bus flicking bits of paper at each other with rubber bands! OUCH! In the picture below, I'm in the front row, second from the right. One of the first things I learnt at school, was that when other guys kick you in the nuts, it hurts! I'm in the front row of the next picture, first on left, surname spelt incorrectly. One of the second things I learnt, was life wasn't just. Once when standing in line, the guy in front of me (and I can't remember who it was), grabbed me by my nuts, and I doubled over in pain. This of course made me accidentally reverse into the guy behind me, causing him to double over too. So, in spite of the fact I was the one who had been injured, I was the one who got into trouble for it. Here is another interesting fact. I went to school with a girl called Wendy Felsch. We later went to school together in South Australia (Smithfield Plains High). When we were about fourteen or fifteen, her and another girl tried to pull my pants off at a party. I fought them both off bravely. [When I say I fought them both off, I mean the girls, not my trouser legs!] :-) Anyway, as James mentioned in a previous comment, there was a RAAF radio station. This was stationed over at Butterworth. My brother Jeff just saw what I was writing, and he said, 'Do you know what I remember of Penang?' I said, 'You're "I am a Hippy" Underpants?' 'Nope, nothing.' Well, Jeff was born in Penang and was only about two when we left. My sister Angella was also born in Penang. She'd remember even less. Anyway, my life in Penang was full of wonder. We used to like to go into the hills at the back of the house and get bits of cardboard and slide down the grass terraces. Many a time I got a nasty grass cut from the long grass there. OUCH. I used to like catching butterflies in my butterfly nets. Flying kites. Riding my bike up and down the road. There was an old river bed up in the hills where we could get clay from to makes stuff with. Near there were heaps of monkeys that lived in the trees and chatted away. The constant chater used to scare me a bit, and I bet if a monkey had of come anywhere near me, I probably would have freaked out and ran away! Once, when we were up in the hills, a cobra came towards us. We had climbed into the hill with a heap of wood in order to make a cubby house. As we all ran to get away from the cobra, I remember everyone yelling, 'Get the wood! Get the wood!' I was the smallest, and as such was coming last. So, as we all got down to the street, everyone blamed me for not stopping and picking up the wood. Like sure, if the cobra was chasing us (which it most probably wasn't), then who would it have got to and bitten first? ME!!!! lol Anyway, my elder brother and one of his friends went back later and retreived the wood. Still, I was blamed for being a coward who didn't stop to get all the wood! Grrrr! That'll teach me not to run faster than everyone else! :-) Another one of our favourite past times was playing British Bulldog (also called Red Rover, Bull rush and many other names). We had quite a few girls who would also play the game. The funny thing is, every now and then, a new girl would come along and insist on playing. We'd always try to talk them out of it. Only, they'd insist on playing. End result, they'd play, get tackled, run home crying and we'd get told the game was banned! Same thing happened at several schools I attended. lol Another thing we loved to play was Softball. I was alway sgood to get to first base, and we'd have the big hitter come in after me, and he'd hit a home run and we'd both score! w00t! The other thing I played was soccer. But, that's not that exciting. I remembered we'd mainly play against each other, but every now and then we'd play against the Malay school. The thing I remember most about the field there, was it had no grass and the ground was hard as concrete! OUCH! Somewhere in Penang is a soccer field with DNA from my kneecaps on it ... well, my DNA has probably broken down now, and there's probably grass there now ... so, part of me will always be in Penang! :-)