Childhood Memories

As I get older, my birthday celebration gets ‘brighter’. Yesterday I celebrated my birthday at a Chinese restaurant with my hubby, 3 girls, mil and the girls’ 2 godfathers. It was quite a sumptuous dinner but without any fanfare. There was also a tiny green tea birthday cake which everyone chomped down and there were no leftovers this time. Hubby gave me a birthday peck on the lips, in broad daylight in front of the girls. During my teenage years, having birthday parties in a house or a clubhouse that’s totally devoid of lights was very popular. The darker the place, the better and more ‘opportune’ it was so that the boys and girls could enjoy their slow dance and do whatever they fancied in the dark, without being noticed. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t partake in any hanky panky, fishy acts in the dark. I was too prim and proper for all these haha!

When I was about 16 years old, my friends and I were invited to a party at a clubhouse. There was the usual rock and roll music and dance at the start of the party and towards the end of the night, there was the long awaited slow dance. It was pitch black in the function room. There were no exit signs anywhere in the room. My friend who was short sighted and did not wear her glasses (well, she wanted to look pretty and back then, contact lenses were way too expensive) was walking towards the exit of the room and did not see a glass door there. She almost walked through the glass door and hit her head hard on the glass door! Gosh, she was in tears, not so much from the pain but from the embarrassment. We complained to the clubhouse and I don’t know if they had fixed any exit sign after that incident. I have not visited the clubhouse for many years. When I go back to my hometown one of these days, I should pay a visit to the clubhouse to see if there are EXIT SIGNS in all their function rooms. They better have!