My earliest childhood memory is of my kindergarten days. As with most lower middle-class families, i attended the PAP Kindergarten in the HDB heartlands (in my case, the Kim Seng area).

I remember dressing up in the blue kindergarten uniform. I remember my little back pack. And i especially remember the small black board issued by the teacher.

It was a just a plain black board mounted onto a plank of chip-board. There were 2 holes punched into the top and a rafia string strung through it for little kids like me to hold as our little “suit-case”. To me, that was the greatest wonder in the world. With coloured chalks, i would “paint” the world around me. (I believe my doodling started with this humble little black board.)

I vividly remember one incident where our teacher tasked us to to write down a message on the blackboard for our parents. We were to write it down with our own chalk and bring it home without smudging it.

It reads: “No school this Friday.”

I was thrilled. Sometimes a small little task like this really boosts a young child’s self-confidence. Gleefully, i wrote down the message and when the bell rang, i rushed home immediately.

Grandma was cooking lunch and couldn’t fetch me, so i decided to walk home (not the first time really). Our block was just a 5 minutes walk from the kindergarten. I took much care making sure i don’t smudge the chalk writings while I climbed up the stairs and took the lift up to my floor.

“Kok-Kok”, i knocked on the door. Grandma opened the door, beaming with a joyful cheer.

“What do you have there?” she exclaimed in Cantonese.

“Its an announcement from Teacher!”, i explained holding up the small black board above my head, beaming with pride of having accomplished my task. “No school on Friday!”

“Really?” Grinned Grandma as she opened the door. “That’s wonderful”, she said while she opened the door and hugged me.

I still can’t remember the the holiday or the occasion, but little old 5 years old Michael didn’t care. Its another opportunity to stay home with Grandma and play!

Note: This post is part of a series of recycled posts from my old Blog. They are primarily about my childhood and adolescence times. 11 Parts in all. Enjoy!