Ewen Mackinnon
1971-1973
Email: ewen_mackinnon@yahoo.com.au

My friends of my youth, do you recall our days of leisure, as we idled our times in a tropical paradise called Penang. Do you recall the smell of duran and are you still repulsed by the memory of the smell. Do you see and hear still the call to prayer even though it's in your mind only. Do you remember the black tongued dogs that inhabitated your own yard or was a stray. Do you recall the trishaw races and the trishaw man, who would take you any where for a few ringgit. Do you see in your minds eye the friends you made at school and the times of visiting myrids of temples and places of worship for a variety of different cultures and races. Do you recall those of us who lived on the mainland, when the buses left the ferry terminal on the Penang side and getting caught up with pilgrims on the road when a haj boat was in port. Taking the faithful to Mecca or they had just returned from pilgrimage. Do you still see thaipusian and recall the shafts and hooks buried deep!

In the skin of a follower and the chanting of the festival. Do you remember the boat races and the festival of the 8th moon. Do you recall friends you have lost and smile to yourself as their names appear on this site. Do you recall the injections for cholera and the numbing pain of the injection a few days later. Do you recall who your class mates were and where they lived and how much of a special part in your heart and memory they hold for you. Do you smile and think back to a special time of your life that you lived in Malaysia.

Do you recall the times of excursions to various places of interest and not just temples or places of religion. Do you remember climbing the battlements of Fort Cornwallis and sitting on a brass cannon pointing out to sea. Do you remember Penang Hill and the railway to the top of the hill. Do you remember as you were driven to school in buses or in your parents old morris minor and there seemed hundreds of those cars owned by RAAF families. Do you recall looking out the windows of these vehicles and seeing old concrete pill boxes for machine guns mutely protecting a rice paddy not far from the SNCOs club. Do you still see these things in your mind and when you hear "Leaving on a Jet Plane", do you remember RADIO RAAF BUTTERWORTH. Do you recall the the chanter of the cobra man and his baskets of snakes, how he would tease the cobra and play his chanter out of striking range of the snake. Do you rmember the monkey gardens and if you was a scout or guide camp coronation. Do you remember reading in the star or strait times several people jumping to their deaths from a high rised appartment building and the building having a curse on it from some old chinese woman. Do you recall the days of heat and tropical rain, and if you lived in the same street as I did, looking up at the wires for electricity sparking awy brightly as the rain struck the wires above your head (at robina park). Do you see the Chulia Street and Hutton Lane with the Eden Cafe and how dark and cool it was inside. Do you remember the Chinese funerals that were held outside the cafe every now and again. Paper mache buildings car and property for the dead to take to the spirit world after it had all been cremated. Do you remember the bands and the paid mourners as they escorted the procession of the funeral and if you remember these things then truly my friends you were in Malaysia.