History When I was a Boy by Lim Cheng Ean

At War I have often wondered why none of my sons was as keen on athletics in their school days as I was during mine. I can think of many reasons for this difference. The main one was that they lacked the urge to run that distinguished my boyhood from theirs. They were nurtured in houses each with its own lawn, firstly in Anson Road and lastly in Northam Road, both roads ranking as elite residential areas. My childhood environment was entirely the opposite.  It was in a crowded area of the town with labyrinths of narrow streets, occupied on each by a row of narrowly fronted brick houses adjoining one another by a party or common  wall; and all of the same width and same height, and all fitted with the same type of stairs leading to the upper floor of a height not exceeding that of the lower floor.  Hongkong Street was a good specimen of such streets. The boys there were a rowdy lot, their principal occupation was fighting the boys of Prangin Road, which adjoined it on its northwest side. I  happened to be born in Prangin Road, which was different from Hongkong Street, because it was bounded, on the opposite side by a canal of about 12 feet width, on both banks of which grew a row of closely planted Casuarina trees.  When I was 13,  I joined up with our gang of boys eternally at war with the Hongkong Street gang for some abstruse reason.  I practised punching water stored in bath-tanks and bags containing rice, chaff or chopped hay.  I even reared an egg-laying hen when I learnt that eating eggs raw as soon as they were laid was the best way of building up muscular strenth. It was the Hongkong Street side that stealthily came one day via Carnarvon Street to attack our gang and give me my first taste of war.  As we were prepared for them and were superior in numbers,  we stood our ground and exchanged blows with them; but before we could do much harm to them,  they deemed discretion was the better part of valour and retreated, at first slowly and subsequently as fast as they could run via Carnarvon Street and back into Hongkong Street; we chasing them as fast as we could; but stopping at the junction of Carnarvon and Hongkong Streets, also convinced  that discretion was the better part of valour.

Howling Casuarinas Sometimes we went in force to the same junction to challenge them,  and after a scuffle we would usually retreat when we saw that we were being outnumbered and felt convinced that discretion was the better part of valour.  In this style of fighting no one was really hurt at all; and all that came out of these encounters was a natural competence to run very fast over short distances. Now you can understand why I came to like running for the sake of running, and why my sons never showed such a liking.  When I first saw West Side Story  in a cinema hall in San Francisco in 1962 I felt I was lucky that Penang was not then as affluent as America to produce the murderously high type of street gangs shown in that film. The Casuarina trees I have already mentioned also helped me to be a sprinter.  They had a habit of howling when a strong wind was blowing through their clusters of pine-needles. In the stillness of the night that howling had a frightening effect on me.  The fact that Malays called them pokok hantu or  devil trees increased my fears all the more.  My eldest sister was in the habit of sending me out at night to Carnarvon Street to buy from a grocer there things like betel leaves, gambler, betel, tobacco and tobacco leaves.  It was her habit after dinner to play a card game called chiki with her friends, while I studied a little apart from them under the light of their lamp.  I never refused to do these errands for her, because she was my nurse when I was a little chap and furthermore I had to depend on her every morning for dressing my queue. Whenever I had to go on any of her errands, I would summon all the courage within me, and walk boldly out of the compound of the house and into the street under that row of Casuarina trees and on to Carnarvon Street and into the grocer's shop and make the purchase; but on the return journey, my courage would begin to give as  as I re-entered Prangin Road; and then fear would catch hold of me, and I would start to run, faster and faster, until in the end I would arrive back exhausted, still clutching the things I had bought. By dint of these nocturnal exercises, I soon learnt to run faster than the devils that I thought dwelt up in those trees.

A Dashing Centre Forward ‘One thing leads to another'  as the saying goes. From an ability to sprint to a desire to play football and to take part in athletics was but a natural development.  How I yearned to be able to join in a  football game that I saw going on on the school ground after school.  But I had to be back for dinner at 6 p.m. and the game would then be only about half through. The only solution was to become a boarder and live and eat in the school. Luckily my mother agreed, although the school was only a little more than a mile from our house. Once a boarder I became a real footballer, playing a dashing centre forward for my school; and subsequently I took first place as a sprinter over 100 yards not only of my school but also of all the three English schools combined. In 1912 , when I was up at Clare College, Cambridge University, I took part in the sports held by that college for freshers. I entered my name for the 100 yards sprint, after having done some running exercises on Fenner's track, holding tightly to a slip of wood in each palm, which I had never in my life done before.  When we were lining up for the start I found that I was given a handicap based on my height which didn't measure up to the English undergrads.  The result that I  was at forefront when the gun went off for the start.  I won with a money prize of 5 pounds earmarked for the purchase of any article from a specified shop.  As I fancied a silver cigarette case with my college crest and my name engraved on it together with particulars of the winning event, I contributed some of own money, as the cost came to more than 5 pounds.   Although I was very happy, the Sports Committee regretted that method of giving a handicap based on height and proceeded forthwith to abolish it. Yes, indeed, one thing did lead on to another in that Clare College Athletic Meet of 1912, a long time back from 1968. #

_______________________ From a 1968 note by Lim Cheng Ean (1890 - 1983).

The Penang Story is a project organised by the Penang Heritage Trust in collaboration with Star Publications with the aim of assisting Penang and Malacca's joint listing in the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations's World Heritage list. The project is sponsored by the Japan Foundation, ABN-AMRO Bank and the Penang Government with the City Bayview as the official hotel.  The Penang Story tells of the peoples of  Penang and can be found at www.penangstory.net

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_____________________ The Penang File Issue 22