Thursday, February 14, 2008
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Teacher-Students Reunion 36 years on
Chinese New Year is a time for reunions, especially family reunions, and quite often reunion of friends or ex-classmates in the hometowns. But a reunion of teacher and students? I don't know about you. But that's a rarity for me. If and when that happens, that'd be an exceptional bonus. My brother Eng Hooi and I received just such an Exceptional Bonus this Chinese New Year back home in Penang.
Please meet our Commerce Teacher from our secondary school years in Assumption Secondary School in Penang in the early 1970s, Mr CHEE THOE LAY a.k.a. Kojak.
Eng Hooi remembers he'd be angry about being called Kojak, then. But he must have mellowed with age, like people in general are prone to. It was Mr Chee himself who reminded us that we used to call him Kojak - but he didn't remind us that we did that behind his back. Kojak (acted by Telly Savalas (?)) was that bald-headed detective who spoke with a drawl in a TV series.
That, I had forgotten, but quickly recalled on his jovial reminder. Mr Chee has obviously learnt to laugh at himself even more. As Chris was taking this photo, he called out, "Wait, let me comb my hair first!" What hair!
I remember Mr Chee well for sending all of us, as the first exercise at the end of our first lesson in Commerce in Form 1 (1974), to go open a bank account of our own. It'd have been the first bank account for almost all of us, if not all. I obediently went to the nearby Chartered Bank (now Standard Chartered Bank) in Bagan Luar Rd to open my first bank savings account. That was to be my first of many encounters with the world of finance. I was also to maintain that account for the next 30 years!
We met Mr Chee at the Arena foodcourt ("let's eat here, it's cheap and good") of the spanking new waterfront shopping centre, Queensbay Mall, overlooking the prison turned spa resort island of Jerejak.
Mr Chee looks well. He has been taking extra good care of himself, after a mild stroke in 2000. That taught him to manage or avoid needless stress better, and eat (less) according to his (reduced) needs.
"People our age don't need that much food because we don't do that much anyway."
Daily life for him is an early morning walk, a good breakfast (no lunch), go home to take a good look at his stock market investments ("see whether to take my profit or to let them ride") and after that, a good sleep until ... dinner? Or something like that ...
Mr Chee, who taught us in the early 1970s, taught for 6 years in Assumption (now defunct). Then, it was 6 years in LaSalle (now defunct too - "must be because I am one of the "Pek Kah Te" teachers, he said). After that, he taught for 14 "too long" years in Heng Ee. The location suited the demands of the time then, when he as the more mobile parent had to ferry his three children to different schools at different times.
In Heng Ee, because he opted to teach in the afternoon session, he was given the heavy responsibility of being the discipline master. How does he discipline difficult boys in a school infamous for its discipline problems? "I'd ask them out for a game of water polo ... " As a result, most of them (the bad ones) play water polo, he said.
Mr Chee has also been a part-time swimming coach. It was in that role at the University in Penang, USM, that he run into Eng Hooi when my brother was doing his undergraduate studies.
It's been more than 30 years - 36 years for Eng Hooi, 34 for me counting from our first encounters in Form 1. We remember Mr Chee well, and feel extra privileged to be remembered by him.
Thank You Sir, for the times then.
Thank You Sir for making the connection after all these years!
It was so fun catching up after all these decades.
We appreciate you :)
Please meet our Commerce Teacher from our secondary school years in Assumption Secondary School in Penang in the early 1970s, Mr CHEE THOE LAY a.k.a. Kojak.
Eng Hooi remembers he'd be angry about being called Kojak, then. But he must have mellowed with age, like people in general are prone to. It was Mr Chee himself who reminded us that we used to call him Kojak - but he didn't remind us that we did that behind his back. Kojak (acted by Telly Savalas (?)) was that bald-headed detective who spoke with a drawl in a TV series.
That, I had forgotten, but quickly recalled on his jovial reminder. Mr Chee has obviously learnt to laugh at himself even more. As Chris was taking this photo, he called out, "Wait, let me comb my hair first!" What hair!
I remember Mr Chee well for sending all of us, as the first exercise at the end of our first lesson in Commerce in Form 1 (1974), to go open a bank account of our own. It'd have been the first bank account for almost all of us, if not all. I obediently went to the nearby Chartered Bank (now Standard Chartered Bank) in Bagan Luar Rd to open my first bank savings account. That was to be my first of many encounters with the world of finance. I was also to maintain that account for the next 30 years!
We met Mr Chee at the Arena foodcourt ("let's eat here, it's cheap and good") of the spanking new waterfront shopping centre, Queensbay Mall, overlooking the prison turned spa resort island of Jerejak.
Mr Chee looks well. He has been taking extra good care of himself, after a mild stroke in 2000. That taught him to manage or avoid needless stress better, and eat (less) according to his (reduced) needs.
"People our age don't need that much food because we don't do that much anyway."
Daily life for him is an early morning walk, a good breakfast (no lunch), go home to take a good look at his stock market investments ("see whether to take my profit or to let them ride") and after that, a good sleep until ... dinner? Or something like that ...
Mr Chee, who taught us in the early 1970s, taught for 6 years in Assumption (now defunct). Then, it was 6 years in LaSalle (now defunct too - "must be because I am one of the "Pek Kah Te" teachers, he said). After that, he taught for 14 "too long" years in Heng Ee. The location suited the demands of the time then, when he as the more mobile parent had to ferry his three children to different schools at different times.
In Heng Ee, because he opted to teach in the afternoon session, he was given the heavy responsibility of being the discipline master. How does he discipline difficult boys in a school infamous for its discipline problems? "I'd ask them out for a game of water polo ... " As a result, most of them (the bad ones) play water polo, he said.
Mr Chee has also been a part-time swimming coach. It was in that role at the University in Penang, USM, that he run into Eng Hooi when my brother was doing his undergraduate studies.
It's been more than 30 years - 36 years for Eng Hooi, 34 for me counting from our first encounters in Form 1. We remember Mr Chee well, and feel extra privileged to be remembered by him.
Thank You Sir, for the times then.
Thank You Sir for making the connection after all these years!
It was so fun catching up after all these decades.
We appreciate you :)
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