In the old days we do not have computers or any of today's social media gadgets. In fact, during my childhood days, television didn't even exist in Singapore. I am talking about the 1950s. As kids, our playthings were kites, fighting spiders, tops, rubber bands, marbles etc.
Today, I want to talk about one my favourite hobbies, fighting spiders.
Catching fighting spiders and letting them fight with other boys' spiders were one of the most thrilling pastimes for me. Besides, if your spider was a good fighter, it might even earn the title of "King Spider" in the kampong (village). To be the "King", your spider must be victorious in all the fights against spiders owned by other boys.
I used to catch the spiders in the bushes. Only male spiders fight so we did not catch the female spiders. The male ones had faces that were white in colour and the female black. We looked for leaves that were stuck together and in between them you might spot the spiders. We would use our hands and cupped the leaves and spread them on the roadside and the spider would jump out. We would then place it in an empty match box or a small container.
A "King" spider could fetch as much as 50 cents in my kampong. 50 cents was a lot of money back then especially for kids like us. 50 cents could buy us 5 plates of fried noodles in the school tuck shop. Besides, we would be very proud to be the owner of the "King".
Above is the video of the intense fighting between 2 spiders that I was talking about.
Bak chor mee is a type of noodle dish that is served with minced pork. Bak chor mee means minced meat noodles with a bit of vinegar in Hokkien. This yummy mee is being sold in a coffee shop at block 446A, along Jalan Kayu (next to a Buddhist temple).
We had the above for breakfast.
