Manus McFadyen
1966-1968, Classes 4E, 5G, 6D
Email: manus@pacific.net.au
1968
2004
What do I remember of Penang? Lots, but not as much as I’ve probably forgotten. So I was very glad to find this site.
The heat? Yep, it was hot. But I can’t remember it ever slowing us down as kids. I do remember returning to class after every break with my shirt clinging to my back – that can’t have been much fun for whoever I was sitting next to.
The smells? It was olfactory overload! Nominees for most memorable are: the drains, the markets, the drying fish, even the cloying scent of joss sticks but the winner for me is the mighty durian and the chorus of groans that would erupt class by class as the scent of an opened durian wafted through the school.
A whole pile of other memories spill out in no particular order when I open the Penang drawer: jungle tumbling down to the sea, trishaw rides, playing in tropical downpours, so many different faces, foods, ways of dress, makan carts, the extraordinary spectacle of Thaipusam, cobras in the lounge room, the butcher on a push bike delivering to our door, banana on a roll from the tuck shop for Monday lunch, fighting-kites with glass string, the clatter of mah jong tiles, riding lessons at the polo fields, building endless configurations of cubbies from our packing boxes, bold monkeys, the dark cool of Kings Restaurant, the riot of Red Rover on the top play ground, an endless stream of badly dubbed Italian gladiator movies at the cinema, door to door snake charmers,…..
We travelled by ship to Singapore then flew to Penang for the start of 1966. My two sisters, Lisa and Dominique, and a brother, Matthew, were at the school. Another brother, Peter, was too young and spent his days at home tapping ducklings on the head with a hammer. We lived at Tanjong Bungah then Tanjong Tokong before settling at Jesselton Crescent. The Russells were down the road. The Hargreaves were next door, the Doughtys around the corner. Jonathon Pritchard lived close by too. The Whites moved in a couple of doors up in our last year.
Entertainment for young boys was not complex. A bike, a stick for a gun and you could go all day. We had more fun on a cargo net strung from a tree at the Russells’ place than I can describe – that is until I fell off their roof and had to go to the hostel for stitches.
Penang Swimming Club was a home away from home. I learnt to swim there but spent most of the time bombing from the high tower and signing for ice cream. Sometimes we would drive further around the island, picnic on the beach and go scrambling on the rocks – until I cut my foot open on shells and had to go to the hostel for stitches.
In between going to the hostel for stitches I also went for the other stuff; scouts, tennis, dances, jabs…... There always seemed to be something going on there and life was generally a happy round of home, school, pool and/or hostel, home again. There was the odd trip to the mainland to break it up but I was always glad to get back to the island – to mates, the pool and friendly doctors who knew how to stitch.
The soundtrack? It was all Trini Lopez for a while (hey, I was only nine!) until the Beatles (Help) and the Supremes managed to make an impression. And for some reason the Stones’ As Tears Go By still takes me straight back to twilight in the streets around Pulau Tikus markets. Very strange.
Mates I remember from school include Stephen Russell, Jonathon Pritchard, Hunter Doughty Gary Paine, Brian Kells, Ron Birch, Gary Albury, Gary Logan, Ray White, Peter Kennewell.
We returned to Sydney from Penang and I have been based here since. Took up Bahasa Indonesia at school as a result of our time in Penang and took it through to Uni. I was unsure of what to do after Uni and was having too much fun playing rugby to give the matter my full attention. Still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up but in the meantime I seemed to have carved out a career in human resource management. I’ve travelled quite a bit to satisfy a wanderlust I think I picked up in Penang. Still single, live on the north side of Sydney not far from the beaches, work in the city and spend a lot of time on the F3 heading up the coast or to the Upper Hunter.
My time in Penang was a very comfortable, cocooned existence but I did have a notion that the whole experience of living and being educated as an Australian within a foreign culture brought a special dimension to growing up as an Aussie kid.
An adult’s childhood can often seem a distant place even when it occurred in the most familiar of environments. When it actually took place in a distant land in unusual circumstances it can seem too other-worldly and I sometimes doubt my memories. But the shared experiences reflected on this site say “Yes, that is the way it was and yes, it was as good as you remember”.