Always something there to remind me

I know, some of you are having massive nostalgic flashbacks now. I’ll wait, heheh. For the rest of you young’uns, follow me.

The slightly older people in Singapore (you know, those who still like to believe that they’re young) grew up during a time when Channel 5, the only English channel we got growing up, played movies about 5, 6 years too late. When we got around to watching Mannequin, the movie had to be already a few years old and out of date. But each Channel 5 movie experience was just that for me — an experience.

My family would sit around the television, usually with hot chocolate or milo, and just be comfortable, no matter what movie was on. It was less about the movie, and more about the sitting together, I think. Commercial breaks weren’t to be grumbled over — it was a time to run about like the children we were, a time for my parents to explain to my sister and I just what exactly was happening. And usually I would ask, “If you have watched it already, why don’t you remember how the story’s gonna go?” I could never understand why my parents had such bad memories, ha ha ha.

It was a time without the internet, without the thousand and one distractions we have nowadays, a time when the TV screen would produce a high-pitched whine that we were all accustomed to. (When I learnt what a cathode-ray tube was, and what it could do to your body, I got very anxious indeed.)

So, here you go, let me share some of my childhood with you:

This is a response to this writing challenge. It is part of a series of posts where I try to write simpler, easily-digested posts. I hope you enjoyed it!

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