I wanted very much to join the NCC. But there were many others like me. So we had to queue up to be assessed for our suitability. When it came to my turn, the teacher decided I was too small. She didn't think I would have the strength to lift a rifle.
I was very disappointed to fail the selection test. I might have been smaller than most girls my age but I believed I was strong.
We lived in a kampong house that had a retractable roof run by a simple pulley system in the kitchen.We opened it every morning and pulled it shut at night. Whenever it rained, the roof had to be pulled shut fast or the clothes and everything else in the ktichen would be wet. Since my mother had to work, we often did this ourselves even though we were kids. I don't remember being considered too young to pull a roof, so I had a lot of practice to build muscle strength.
Shut out from NCC eventually I joined my best friend in the Photographic Club. It wasn't a deliberate choice. I was just something I drifted into. Not exactly a good choice because I had no money to invest in a decent camera but the teacher in-charge wasn't strict and didn't care what camera we use. But I had fun in the dark room printing photos from negatives, developing them in the solutions and then dry them. It was fun to print my own photos.
That's me when I was in Sec 1.My uniform was sewn by a neighbour a few years older than I who attended the same school.
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