Friday 23 October 2009

Dad's birthday, 1967

It's funny I can remember so much about this photo taken in 1967, when I was just 6 years old, at our home in Jalan Wijaya. The ice cream man had just been on his strange motor cycle ice cream van contraption. He used to carry everything; ice cream, lollies, pop corn, drinks etc and you always got something free which I remember at the time was Marine Boy transfers. I can even remember the taste of that lolly like sweet milk on a stick. Does anyone else remember them? My mum's given me a saucer because it was so hot any ice cream or lolly that you had would just melt down your arm before you could eat it! I've built a train out of Lego and there are the instructions in front of me and I can recall, and you can see it in the picture, that I built the tunnel too small for the train to go through! I even remember sticking to that vinyl chair because of the heat and the table I'm sat at is the one where I saw my first snake coming down the leg.
I know this is Spring 1967 as I recall my mum was just about to wrap up my dad's birthday presents, and there they are in the picture, Old Spice and a box of cigarettes! It seemed at the time that there wasn't a person in the Navy who didn't smoke. Funnily enough, I remember all the detail in this photo but I don't remember my dad's actual birthday at all!
On the walls are those pictures that you only see nowadays in charity shops - ships made of wicker and framed. We must have had those for years. There's also a money box in the shape of a black baby holding fruit. These were everywhere when I was a kid. The cabinet in the background was where I kept my collection of plastic vehicles from the past which were free with Sugar Smacks (which is why I was unhappy with the box of ants I got from the cold store - my mum wouldn't let me fish out that free gift!).
It's funny that I remember so much from a small photo from 1967 but would have to really think what I did a month ago. It's funny how the memory works, isn't it?

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