Changing values

Life has changed drastically from the time I was young till now.One conspicuous change is in our values.We used to live with very strict parents especially my mum .Children were to be seen and not heard and to argue with the elders was considered disrespectful.Dinner was only eaten when the head of the family sat down and everyone must have bathed and clean.Dinner was usually simple with everyone eating a lot of rice to make sure that you do not go hungry the later part of the night unless you have some extra money and wanted to wait for the char keow teow man who usually came round at about 10.
Children were expected to give money to the parents every month,an obligation and a house law laid down by mum.I remember for as long as she and dad lived I had to make sure a part of my salary was set aside for them every month and mum would not let me go if I were a few days late in sending the money even to the extent of calling the school where I worked and demanding to know what's happening, why the money not sent blah blah blah.We took this as an obligation and did not actually grudge giving money to the parents.
Getting scolded and even whacked with the cane was a normal process of growing up.Relatives would visit each other regularly.I remember the first time we travelled in a bus and dad said he was taking us to makan angin and I actually opened my mouth to taste the angin.Silly me but it was the first time i even sat on a motor vehicle and it was a big deal.Dad would visit his mum in Bidor and later Tapah Road and his sisters in Bidor and Tapah Road too.Keeping in touche with the relatives was important and dad brought us up that way ,to be in touch with relatives as often as possible.Travel those days was by bus as we had no car of our own.Cars were not even considered as we knew we could not afford it.
New year was a time which we all looked forward to as everyone of us got new clothes and there were the ang pows to look forward to, but mum would take back the ang pows we collected saying that she had to give out to others.We only got to keep those given by mum and dad.We used to make our own cakes and that was in the spirit of the new year.We had to grind the rice into liquid,scrape the coconuts,cooked the koay kah pek (Loveletters) in the fire pit where the fire came from charcoal>It was hard work but everybody chipped in and it brought the family members so much closer.We used to compete to see who could make the most koays and who was the fastest.Making the new year cakes together was a great tradition which unfortunately is lost today as all these goodies are now sold in the market and we just buy them off the shelf.
Even the games we played has changed so much.Those days we had no computers,no handphones or astro.We made our own kites, our own spinning tops,and we palyed marbles and all the games you can think of.There was no racial factor, no need for 1 Malaysia,children were children and just played together,fought with each other and came to each other's house on festivals.The Chinese used to carry trays of cakes to the Malay and Indian neighbours houses and vice versa .It was a quaint practice which you dont see so much nowadays when you have the Open House being practised sometimes way after the festivals were over.Children dressed up in their new clothes and proudly carried the plates of goodies to the neighbours' house.Today?
Yes those were the good old days.Today we see a very materialistic culture where evryone is out to excel and in the process perhaps lose a bit of the important values in life!