As a result of my English education, I was always asked to read dad’s official correspondences which were mainly in English back then. Dad had neat and beautiful longhand writing. However, for more official letters, he would use a portable typewriter. All of us grew up learning how type on that typewriter. There was even a proper typewriting instruction book in the house. It turned out to be a useful skill even now as we still use the QWERTY keyboard with the computer. The impromptu English correspondence lessons given by dad were not something I looked forward to. I was called a blockhead and some other choice names. I think I picked up quite a few cool English terms from him too.
I remembered my eldest sister’s first and last driving lesson with Dad. She came back with tears streaming down her face. Dad stormed in all flustered and red in the face. Dad alleged that she ran the wheels over the feet of some innocent folks standing by the road curb. That was the last driving lesson dad gave. The rest of us children took our driving lessons from a driving school.
Every school year when filling in the requisite form, I had to ask dad what to write under father’s occupation. I was never sure what he what he did for a living during that long period of time before he went to work in Magnum 4-D. He always told me to put his occupation as a contractor. All those years, he did not go to work 9-5 for a single day. He spent the whole day, 7 days a week, at the Master Builders Association club playing mahjong or watching people play mahjong. I think he might have been the secretary of the Kluang Master Builders Association then.
I can only recall one project that he did as a building contractor. The construction of a school building in Ayer Itam. It was built on a joint venture basis with one of his contractor friends. He was very proud of that project. They managed to make some money from it. I believe he bought the Sunrise Park house with his share of profit.
I was talking with 2nd Aunt recently and she told me that dad was very successful with his career in his younger days. Dad’s first job was at a clinic owned by a Doctor Kong. While working there, he was credited with saving a relative’s life by advising the patient to go to the hospital. He had correctly diagnosed that the patient had the symptoms of Malaria and not a case of common fever. The relative went to the hospital and was cured of the Malaria. The family was apparently eternally grateful to dad.
Being smarter than his elder brother, dad was the favored son of his dad. Grandfather was already a road contractor at that time. He soon recruited dad to work for him. Together, they successfully completed a road project. With the money, dad bought his first car – a second hand model. Dad was soon striking out and submitting tenders on his own. With another successful job and cash rolling in, he traded in his second hand car for a spanking new one. That car was apparently bigger and grander than the one owned by grandfather. It must be a big deal then, to own a car in the 1940s when there were only a handful of private vehicles on the road. And he was not even 20 years old yet.
Simon - 26 December 2009
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