Once Upon A Time in Foch Avenue
Foch Avenue! I wonder what it is called today. It used to be our favourite meeting place! I remembered every Saturday after work (those were the days when we were working half-day on Saturdays) Rock used to meet me for lunch! Ah! those sweet, memorable and exciting dating days in the late 60’s! Hey it was cheap then compared to today’s standard! It costs us only RM $4.00 for two including drinks! I was a cheapie then because she earned more than me! My salary was RM $640.00 under the Suffian Scheme for Government employees!
We used to have lunch at her favourite ‘Mee Yoke’ or ‘Prawn Noodles’ stall at this particular coffee shop ‘Lai Foong’. Just a few weeks back, I took Jay there to show him where his mom and I used to meet for lunch! Well, the ‘Mee Yoke’ stall is no longer there but during that time it was the best in town! Heard from rock that the owner of that stall donated it to Genting Casino for keeps! Do you show your children the places where you dated? For me its a nostalgic journey back to when we were young and foolish!
The name of the coffee shop or ‘kopi tiam’ commonly called locally, bears the same name, looks very much the same except the surrounding structures have changed quite a bit. There was a Goldsmith Shop, Nam Yick which belongs to my uncle just across the road but today it has moved elsewhere. I went there once a month to borrow money from my uncle to survive for 3 months just when I first started working and we don’t get our salary until the 3 months probation is over and we received a whole lump sum! How in the world did the Government expect us to survive for 3 months without pay??? Talking about kind, sympathetic Government! Thank God for rich uncles!
With that salary, I could afford to pay rental for a shared room with another friend, pay my car installments, give my parents RM $150 per month and the rest just squandered away dating girlfriends!!! Today, a person with an income of RM $3000.00 could hardly survive!!!! No wonder we call the period then “The Good Old Days”. Our Philosophy of living was simple, study, work, get married, have children and then we do not know what else to do!!!! No ambition of climbing Mt. Everest! Aaah! once upon a time when I did not have a need for dentures and V……?!
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