37. Leaving the Nest

In the mid-60s, our parents stopped making the Taoist paper paraphernalia and images. By then, many of these items are mass-produced, cheap and easily available in the market. The work area in the hall was then replaced by two sets of mahjong tables. Mahjong games were very popular during those days and playing sessions usually would begin in the afternoons and very often would end late at night. It was here that we learned how to play mahjong, and our mother patiently taught us how to count the score and the many strategies to win the game. However, the only time we to get to play mahjong was during Chinese New Year reunion gatherings when we would pit our skills and luck against each other.

The mahjong sessions eventually fizzled out in the mid-80s, and the hall, including the corridor that leads to the back of the house, was turned into parking spaces for motorbikes that belonged to employees of the Berkat Supermarket across the road. They parked their motorbikes on a monthly rental basis. Mother would handle the negotiations and the money collected was sufficient to pay for the house rent and utilities bills. The rooms upstairs were left empty, and our parents lived in the big house all by themselves until December 1996.