Ross White
1968-1970 Forms
2M and 3
My first impressions of Penang were not good - hot stinking place too far from Australia and the mates I left behind. We lived in the house attached to the RAAF Hostel at Tanjong Tokong Road. First day at school didn't help much, firstly having to wear short white pants and shirt with long white socks was not too good. Then, before school had even started someone tried to test me, so before my first roll call at this new school I had been in my first fight. Great start - and I only had 2 years to go. Of course over time all that changed; got used to the smell, the uniform the heat and got to know some great friends and had some great times over the next 2 years. Living at the hostel I missed very few dances and picture nights - not that I would stay inside for very long as most of the fun was outside behind the badminton courts.
We didn't last too long as members of the Penang pool - we were banned from going there by our parents. It seems while I was forging my brother's signature he was forging mine, and man did we run up a bill in the first couple of months!
One of our amah's used to cook up a plate of fried rice that was near on impossible to finish off and a taste unique to Penang; since being back in Australia have never been able to find that taste again, so it is little things like that that ended up making Penang such a unique experience. The smell of the durian, the makan carts, Georgetown and its shops with the open air restaurants which gave the town its odour, the trishaw rides through town, and then the run from the trishaw owner when we couldn't pay, the clapped-out buses hurtling through streets not wide enough for cars let alone buses, the drenching rains and the heavy humidity that followed. The Saturday morning tennis or basketball games, the boxing tournaments, the Jap forts on scout rock hill.
I guess I could go on and on about what made it so unique. The sad part of it all was that it ended - and when it did everyone went in different directions at different times, losing contact with each other. That's why this site of Cynthia's is so special because it is bringing back together the people who made Penang so unique.