Once upon a time, the historic Padang Pahlawan located in Bandar Hilir, Melaka, was a vast green field that locals used for various recreational purposes, including socializing and flying kites. However, even though development would take its toll years later in 2004, my earliest and best memory of Padang Pahlawan was probably during the late 1980s.
Back then, my dad lovingly taught my older brother D and me how to fly a kite. Carefully, he would grab our hands firmly together so that we could tug on the kite’s long string. But less surprisingly, we only visited Padang Pahlawan when the weather was good and the wind was at its strongest peak. Besides the day's fine weather, we also owe the impeccable quality of our kites, which helped them fly sky high, especially since we specially bought them from a renowned kite master shop located in Kampung Hulu. Quality aside, I also remembered our kites have the most impeccable craftsmanship and stunning aesthetic that could rival the ‘creme of the crop’ of kites out there, but unfortunately, the two kites got mysteriously lost in the massive hoard of storeroom junk one fine day.
However, due to the long hours spent flying kites there, we all got tired and would then take a short break to enjoy a beautiful picnic underneath the old Angsana tree. While seated comfortably on our family's old palm-leaf woven mat, my mum would generously hand each of us a plate of our favourite nasi lemak kukus, which she had tediously cooked at home, and then store it warmly in traditional tiffin carriers. But unlike the typical Malay-style nasi lemak sold abundantly near the roadside, Mum's nasi lemak was a cut above the rest due to a special Peranakan recipe. She acquired this heritage recipe from her humble days of working as a young housekeeper for a wealthy Peranakan family who lived along the Klebang Beach mansions during the 1970s. Naturally, the Peranakan-style nasi lemak that my mum cooked tasted genuinely superb, although there were no specific measurements for the recipe, just as back in the old days. Looking back, I remembered hungrily savouring every last morsel of Mum’s delicious nasi lemak due to the fresh and quality ingredients used in it - from freshly-squeezed coconut milk specially bought at Bukit Cina’s wet market to putting in a selected handful of fiery bird’s eye chillies and pungent belachan into the traditional stone-based mortar which she then crushed them evenly into the most aromatic sambal paste using its accompanying pestle, handed down through generations in full set by my late Ah Poh or Grandma.
When he was not busy teaching us the rigours of kite-flying, Dad would park our old 1981 Datsun car in the car park so that we could walk to the nearby public swimming pool. Back then, the MBMB-built public swimming pool brought plenty of fond memories as we would often happily go swimming there due to its reasonable entrance fee. But being a cowardly young child who feared drowning, I would therefore paddle and swim confidently in the children’s wading pool, whereas my expert swimmer older brother D could already do the butterfly stroke and other difficult swim styles effortlessly, like a dolphin swimming in the deep end waters of their adult-sized pool. After getting tired and slightly sunburnt from swimming all day, Dad would take us for a quick bite at the next-door A&W fast food restaurant. Back then, the idea of having A&W on regular days was considered a luxury since most families could only afford it on special occasions. Since Dad didn't skimp on us with food, we unhesitatingly ordered giant mugs of their all-time favorite root beer floats as we were hot and thirsty, together with their signature coney dogs to deliciously munch on. Indeed, those were very good and happy times as Dad and Mum worked very hard to ensure their beloved kids did not suffer as they had previously done before in the past.
As the 1980s eventually paved the way for the new decade, my older brother D and I gradually became old enough to kickstart our primary school education. During my sweet primary school years, I played with my schoolmates underneath the lovely Angsana trees that grew and thrived on the lush Padang Pahlawan fields. There, we played various traditional childhood kampung games during after-school hours, such as the usual batu seremban to rope skipping, humbly made by us kids using knotted rubber bands to form a jump rope. As the angsana trees often shed huge amounts of vibrant red-colored angsana seeds, we would collect those seeds that had fallen on the ground and then play with them. However, some kids are afraid of playing with the angsana seeds since rumor has it that the seeds are very haunted due to the evil wandering souls that supposedly live in them.
While waiting for my Dad to pick me up from school, I would greedily wander to the fields nearby food stalls to see what each stall was selling. But being a mere kid with limited pocket money, I could only buy a cheap but very delicious icy cool ice potong stick, albeit made only of rose syrup and water, at a mere 10 cents. Back then, I also recall hating after-school Mandarin classes that were formally held in my former alma mater. As I further recall, I find it extremely tedious trying to learn the Mandarin characters and their various idioms despite initial encouragement from my parents. Due to that, I did the most naughty and unthinkable thing by skipping Mandarin classes to hide and loiter near the Padang Pahlawan food stalls until the hours had passed, which, very luckily, my Mum found out the truth pronto. Just like the protagonist from the epic Malay tale of ‘Si Tenggang’, I also sadly broke my poor mother's heart on that very same day due to my very unfilial acts. However, I was lucky that God did not punish me by turning me into a grotesque-looking stone. Instead, my worried sick Mum immediately brought me safely back home using her trusty old Vespa motorbike. However, later that night, she showed me some tough love where she kicked my sad, sorry butt so incredibly hard that it went directly to Timbuktu.
Back then, I also recall that my all-girls primary school was situated right next door to the Bandar Hilir primary boys’ school. Looking back, I remember the only thing that separated us kids from two different worlds was the glaring, adequately wide holes that the barely legal young girls from SK Sacred Heart would use to stuff in their nonsensical love letters of sorts. Usually, these love letters would be shaped like a folded paper airplane so that they would seamlessly zoom past to easily reach the hands of their so-called crush. Inside, the written contents have all the most ridiculous declarations of love and heartbreak that could surpass William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet’s tragic love saga. On top of that, the young girls would also frequently use the glaringly open holes to obsessively stalk or spy on the hunky, but very sweaty, male soccer team members from behind those hidden walls. On the contrary, I find this ironic since the spied masculine party wasn't even oblivious of the girls' childish lovefool behaviour. After all, the much older boys were then of course actively playing soccer and busy scoring goals like David Beckham out in the hot, glaring afternoon sun of their school’s colossal field.
Childish love shenanigans aside, one main thing I liked most about schooling at SK Sacred Heart is that the class teacher would often hold field trips to nearby but equally awesome historic spots like The War Memorial, Light & Sound, and The Malaccan Sultanate Royal Palace, or aptly known as Istana Melaka. Back then, we would take our time to leisurely walk to these nearby places, since walking only took less than five minutes to get there. Throughout the time of our field trip, I remembered that none of the kids tried to play the fool or cause mischief with their child-like shenanigans, all thanks to the strict supervision and guidance of our class teacher, Miss Tan. Looking back, I loved visiting Istana Melaka mostly due to the presence of its eerie, life-like mannequins that are highly reminiscent of the world-famous Madame Tussauds Waxed Museum. Believe it or not, I often imagine that the whole Malaccan Sultanate crew would come to life magically at the stroke of midnight to party like there’s no tomorrow, as in the Ben Stiller starred hit movie “Night At The Museum.”
Fast forward to the late 90s, my older brother D was about to graduate from high school at The St Francis Institution to pursue his tertiary education in the Klang Valley. Then, he would often meet up with his group of close buddies and play football with them at the nearby Pahlawan field. After that, he and the entire gang would walk across the field to go to the nearby Mahkota Parade shopping mall. Upon reaching there, they would immediately head to McDonald’s to have a towering lunch of its Big Mac burgers and a soft-sundae ice cream cone for dessert, being regular teenage boys then with a huge appetite. On those alternative days right after tuition classes, my older brother would hang out at the same Mahkota Parade mall to check out the legendary Yee Hai record store to scour for some of the latest chart-topping music records, but in cassette form. Expectedly, my music-loving brother would usually favour 90s alternative rock bands like Third Eye Blind and Blur. Otherwise, he and his close buddies would head to the popular bowling center at the top level to successfully hit a full turkey or two before heading home later for dinner.
Now, at present, the old Padang Pahlawan has turned into the popular Dataran Pahlawan MegaMall. But despite the current place's full air-conditioned atmosphere and sleek commercial appeal inside, I feel sad that its developers had stolen away a large part of my precious childhood from me. Regardless of that, the historic Padang Pahlawan serves as a stark reminder for me to always work hard and never take good things for granted regardless it is my family, work, or good friends, just like how the late Tunku Abdul Rahman originally worked hard and then fought his way to first declare the country’s glorious independence back on 31st August 1957 at there.
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Lim Su Yee (michellelimsuyee@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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