About 55 years ago, as I remember the many instances that happened during my early primary school level school life, I had many friends. I was the tag-along friend, not the initiator, not the leader in a group. Some of my friends were smartly dressed. One particular school friend was a reputed anak towkay from Putatan. He came to school with many new things, e.g. toys, to show to others. One morning he came to school with something in his pocket...
In those days, schooling was not literally learning but more on character building. The day started with a short Manual Labour on the Timetable. It was sometimes the very act of cleaning the immediate surroundings of the school, e.g. picking of rubbish on the ground, collecting them and throwing them in the proper place. This friend of ours had that something in his shorts pocket. When he bended down to pick a piece of paper or anything that could be termed as rubbish, a cat sound came out from his shorts pocket as he stretched his back upright. So those curious friends, myself included, went along with him where ever he went...just to constantly listen to the "meow" sound he could produce. This anak towkay was a Chinese. When we pressed on him to tell us what it was, he somehow told us in so, so many words, maybe some of the words were partly in Chinese, that the thing was Singkolomutaitaitingaudikoput.
