Have you been keeping in touch with your primary school classmates or schoolmates?
I once studied at a co-educational primary school, SUDC No.4, in Sibu and through the years, I have been keeping in touch with some of my classmates, particularly the girls.
Like me, these girls continued their secondary education at St Elizabeth’s Convent School, now renamed SMK St Elizabeth, in Sibu. So they became my secondary school classmates or schoolmates.
After we completed our secondary education at St Elizabeth, many of these girls and I continued to keep in touch. We are now part of the St E Chat Group.
Since leaving SUDC No. 4, I have met just a few of the boys who used to study there with me. I met one in Kuching when he joined the same Toastmaster Club that I joined. A teacher, he left after a year.
About 20 years ago, I saw another when I attended an event hosted by a housing developer in Kuching. I did not talk to him because he did not seem to recognise me. Besides, I was in a hurry to go somewhere else.
Many years ago, I also met another boy who was my Primary Six classmate. We talked but superficially. Since he did not ask about the other boys or girls, we never talked about SUDC No. 4.
Suddenly, a few months ago, a former classmate who studied in SUDC No.4 and St. Elizabeth, decided to bring all the 1970 Primary Six pupils of SUDC No. 4 together by setting up a WhatsApp Group.
Thanks to her, many of us are reliving our childhood.
Response to the Group Chat was fantastic in the few weeks of its existence. In 1970, when we left SUDC No.4 after completing Primary Six, we, most of the boys and girls, were just 12 years old.
In those days, if you were 12 years old, you were really innocent. The television had not been introduced to Sarawak and there were no mobile phones and internet then.
The public depended on the radio, newspapers, magazines and books for their latest news.
When I was in SUDC No.4, I did not talk much to the boys. Some caught my eyes because they were either tall, handsome and smart.
All these years, I have been wondering what happened to some of the boys.
After the SUDC No.4 WhatsApp Group was set up, I learnt where some of the boys had gone to and what they were doing. You see, not all the boys are in the Chat Group because some cannot be contacted.
Two of the boys, who joined the Chat Group, have migrated overseas.
I was pleasantly surprised and glad that one of the boys had kept, in good condition, a group photo of all the Primary Six pupils in 1970, their teachers and headmistress. I have long lost that photograph because my family in Sibu has been moving house quite a lot.
When I asked my nieces to locate me in the picture, they couldn’t. I had long hair that fell to my waist, I was slim and looked cute then.
Some of the comments posted in the WhatsApp Group were quite hilarious.
Some of the boys and girls, who could be grandparents now, recalled fighting each other.
Many girls remember one particular boy, who is now a very successful businessman, for “being not only naughty, aggressive but had a liking for pinching girls and leaving their arms blue and black.”
His reply was “Oh dear! Am I that bad? You should see how mellowed I am now.”
The Class of 1970 is looking forward to reunions starting in Kuching. Many of the girls cannot wait to meet the naughty boy face to face and remind him of his antics. He might even have to atone for his past misdeeds by picking up the cost of a reunion dinner!
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 1970. The six years I spent with these boys and girls at SUDC No.4 were among the best years of my life, thanks to the memories we shared then and the jokes and messages we share now in the Chat Group.
