In Continuum.

Hopscotch Domination

A random series of memories came to me yesterday night while talking over the internet.It must have stemmed from the topic of friends appearing in papers or on television.You see,back in the school days when a classmate or even schoolmate appears in the papers or the television,you almost always wished that it was for something horrendous.Like,he was involved in some armed robbery,the victim of an armed robbery,drug trafficking,or worst.But of course,it is almost never about all those,because in Singapore's newspapers you will never get to see anything negative about it's own citizens,save for the evening papers and tabloids,which has a smaller readership as compared to the morning ones.Anyway,no matter what you hope those friends or friends of friends to be in the papers for,it always stirred a sort of excitement within the community,this desperate hunt for that day's newspaper or video just to catch a glimpse of that person,and then dump the paper aside after five second of viewing and disbelief.

I remember in Primary School when a classmate was featured in a television show.It was a chinese television show,and i have no reason why his entire family was featured anyway.The reporters visited his homes and the cameraman pointed the camera at my friend and his two other brothers,doing everyday chores and - for most part of the show - played cards and did card tricks for the lenses.Immediately after the show was aired,he was the center of all forms of attention possible in school.

It was in the canteen that morning when it happened,when he appeared and everybody swarmed around him.Of course,he already had a pack of cards prepared in his bag,and he actually had the cheek to play modest.'Don't want lah',he managed to say.But then again,who the hell brings a deck of cards to school after the show that shows you playing them just aired less than 24 hours ago?Yeah,go on and play modest but we didnt give a shit.We wanted to see some card tricks.

So he started the tricks and the people were awe struck.Of course,now that i think about it,they were merely small little tricks,flipping the cards here and there,and cutting them with one hand.I've already seen them too many times.But back then it was a target of all the boys' envy,and the target of all the girls' admiration.The crush-counter for him probably shot up by a mile after that showcase of his skills in the canteen,and he probably jumped a few notches on the hated list in the boys' mind as well.But instead of cursing him under their breaths,they desperately wanted him to teach them certain tricks.

At that time,those gambling Mediacorp shows were hot.I mean,really hot.Even I watched those damn shows,and i can tell you that they weren't all too shabby back then.But anyway,to see those actors and actresses cup dices and then shaking them all over the place was a sight,and that friend of mine was able to do that.Of course the boys wanted to learn the tricks,hoping to attract the attention of the cuter girls in school as well.We learned,or we tried to,and ended up with the dices flying everywhere in the canteen and classrooms,and the drink store uncle fuming with anger because we used his store's cups as practice material.I mean,scraping his cups over table tops that might have been dotted by bird droppings only hours ago wasn't the greatest idea in the world.

The principal made a public announcement then,to ban all "Gambling Acts",and that was when Zhonghua Primary School turned into a Communist Society.That was also the beginning of the end,when the games were slowly banned one by one,leaving the domination of hopscotch.I mean,hopscotch was and is fun back then,sure.But hopscotch is ultimately a girl's game,and the boys just wanted some running about,or anything that involved a ball,or anything round.But we were denied that,and that is the point of this entry: To tell you the truth behind the totalitarian school i was in for six full years.

With the "Gambling Acts" denied from us,we moved to playing marbles in the sandy area behind the school.By scratching a line out in the sands with the sides of our shoes,that was all we needed for a good game of marbles.Those round crystal-like things hitting against each other,flying here and there and making beautiful clicking sounds.It was a good game,and the boys had a kick out of it.But when marbles roll out of control into drains,it was never the thing the boys intended,and wanted to do because it usually involved the removing of the drain cover and the boy climbing into the drain that was taller than him,just to pick the fallen marble up.That was when it happened.

Some idiot climbed in to retrieve his marble,and was dumb enough to leave the drain cover uncovered.So after school when a mother came to school to fetch his son home on foot,she actually fell into one of the uncovered drains and broke her leg.I remember that day well,with the prefects forming a sort of human wall around the lady,while the rest of the canteen crowd stood all around,watching as the poor lady bled to her impending death.The teachers freaked out and there was an ambulance called.She was on the canteen bench then i remember,and there was blood everywhere.She was screaming in pain,and no one owned up as to who removed the cover.

So,the marbles were banned.

With marbles off the list,we moved on to erasers.That stupid game of flipping one eraser over another in that turn-based game was interesting at first,because people desperately wanted to collect all the different countries printed on the rubber.But that game soon turned stale because let's face it,it was a dumb and boring game.Pushing the erasers with your thumb bit by bit until your enemy was close enough,then flip it over just to win was rather childish.So we were innovative enough to change the rules to that of a MahJong game.I was the pioneering batch of boys in school who used the erasers as MahJong pieces,and i remember use walking around with that red plastic bag of erasers to play.But of course,we were nabbed by the principal herself,and was made public the next day.I remember that day really well,when we were in assembly and my name alongside the names of the rest of the group were called.We had to stand up in the middle of the hall,and made an example of.She used words like "Disappointment" and "Shame",and i remember not feeling too good about it.I mean,money wasn't even involved in the first place,and it's not like we had much to gamble with anyway.That old bitch was being plain mean,and standing there with the rest of the school staring at you,i felt the urge to set off the fire extinguishers in the hall once again(Yeah,i did that before).

So,erasers were banned too.

Catching was the main entertainment for most of the boys.I mean,the days when both marbles and erasers turned boring,we started playing catching.You know,the police and the thief games.We were so crazy about the game,we moved from just the normal field and invaded the hopscotch area,then the school compound and finally,the HDB blocks around the school.Basically,we played the game everywhere because we needed a lot of variety back then.But because of multiple casualties during the catching sessions,especially amongst the hopscotch players as boys dash around them and bumps into them unintentionally,they will be sent flying across the concrete ground and getting injured.Also,the neighbouring residences were complaining about the noise that we created during the block catchings.The complained anything from the noise the boys made while screaming to a boy hiding behind their shoe cupboards.Basically,the news got into the ears of the principal and catching was terminated from her list of "Safe Child's Play".

So,catching was banned too.

I mentioned before,anything that had to do with a ball or anything round was favoured by the boys.That was true,and i remember the frequent soccer and basketball games.We rushed down to the courts during recesses or even after school to play those balls,and had a real kick out of those back then.But because of the frequent news of injuries amongst the boys,the dirty uniforms due to the sweat,the stench from their bodies halfway through the English classes,and of course the fights that occured once in a while between two teams of rivaling players,soccer and basketball was sort of brought off the list as well.The principal had the ultimate say around the school,even if a basketball court and a soccer field was available,we were not permitted to use it.Which defeated the whole purpose of having those in the first place,but it's not like as if the kids had much control over their emotions back then,right?I mean,we are talking about kids who lose control over their bladders halfway through classes here.

So,soccer and basketball were banned as well.

With everything stripped down,with all the entertainments gone,fear not.Because there was still the hopscotch.The classic game of throwing your wallet or name tag into a yellow box,then jumping from one end of the design to another and then back dominated the playgrounds of the school kids.We did not find it odd then,just another activity to do during the recess,but now that i think of it,everything was at some point banned in school,and the children were rid of their rights,our rights.Everything was banned one way or another,even the usage of fire in the canteen one way or another was under control,because at one point in my primary school life,the bookshop was burnt down to its foundations.And the lady at the bookshop was depressed for a full month,and charging tissue papers at ridiculous prices.It was a totalitarian society back then,but the trick was nobody noticed anything wrong.Not until now,anyway.I wonder why hopscotch received such a warm welcome back then.It was probably because of the safety level of that game was way over the charts.The teachers were happy,they kept their feather dusters and the kids were in check.While the principal sat in her office and dreamed about young boys and then spanking them with her cane.

So,everything was banned save for hopscotch.Hopscotch dominated the school,the minds of those poor little kids,and soon enough we found ourselves running out of hopscotch boxes.Those bloody adults,ruling over our child's plays like God rules the Earth.Of course,they probably saw themselves as that.Besides,those activities were of any importance as compared to the reputation of the school,trying desperately to boost the students' results and making sure the name of the school appear at least five times in every available newspaper for the good reason within the span of twelve months.Since primary school,the idea of us screwing up our lives because of a bad result was preached over and over,and implanted into our heads like little microchips to robots.That idea remained with us for a long time,in me all the way until JC when i finally tripped.But tripping only had me realise their fault,where they went wrong.They banned everything that might have threatened their reputation as a safe,reputable school.Oh,those bloody adults.Just you wait,just see our future generations in the society.Bookworms and geeks,nerds and dorks.I wonder what is the next thing that is going to be banned now.

Sanity.

Childhood.

Freedom.