Understanding the older generation

Last night when it was me and my ma at home, she told me of her fun days years ago. She told me when she was younger, she and her friends would pay $5 to go on a tour to Singapore. She told me they would go to many many places in Singapore, and somebody would ask her to get 10 people to go on the tour, so that another person would have the chance to come to Singapore for free. Of course she was that lucky person. Then she said she'd spend her money on shopping and food instead. She said when my pa was courting my ma, he would bring her to watch opera. And many times my aunts would tag along, and he would have to pay for all of them. And opera tickets weren't cheap in those days. And my pa wasn't very happy for paying extra and the 'lightbulbs'. That made me laugh.

It's hard to understand older people, sometimes. It's harder to imagine what they were like in their prime days, in a totally different place and environment. Nowadays kids play with their latest high-tech gaming machines, in the olden days our parents made toys for themselves. In the past, things were much simpler.

Adults keep a lot of things to themselves. Many times I wonder about the countless things I still do not know about my parents. My parents both have a significant scar on their bodies each. She told us about her scar on her leg. It was when she was young, she went out to feed the ducks, fell and cut her leg on a piece of glass. She told us about the scar on my pa's ass, too. She said when our pa was young, he was mischievious, just like any other boy. One day, he climbed his neighbour's rambutan tree to pluck rambutans, but was chased by the neighbour's dog and bitten on his rear end. That was kind of funny, too.

You wouldn't imagine them when they were young, what they were like. The moment you stepped into this world, you only know the adult version of them, you've never met them when they were children. The reason of them being around was to care and nurture you, to shape you into the person that you are today. You would sometimes... take them for granted. As if... they are supposed to be around.

I guess we don't think about such things. I dunno why I wrote this, too. I think it was the tiny bit of closeness which I felt for my ma when she tells me about her past. Each time I would get this feeling. It's like being welcomed into their world, into their past, the past we do not know about.