How much is the value of our money today? What can we buy with 10 sen? And how far can we get with 50 sen? What can we eat with 1 ringgit? All in all that’s the value of our parent’s hard work then.
40 sen was my pocket money to school 25 years ago. With that money I can buy my self a plate of ‘mee goreng’ for 30 sen and a glass of ‘sirap’ for 10 sen during recess.
Back then with less than 100 ringgit you can get 3 sets of clothes and a pair of shoes for Baju Raya. And today a pair of ‘kasut raya’ will cost you more or maybe close to 100 ringgit.
I remember 18 years ago my mom used to sell cookies for Raya. Back then it was 10 ringgit for 100 pieces of cookies. Today I think it’ll cost you more than 25 ringgit for a few hundred grams of cookies.
I remember those days my father used to pay the petrol station 20 ringgit to fill up the tank. With that we managed to travel ‘balik kampung’ from Penang to Alor Setar. Today with 20 ringgit worth of petrol, it’ll probably take me as far as across Penang Bridge.
I remember then ‘ais krim Malaysia’ only cost me between 5-10 sen a piece. It’s still cheap today, somewhere between 20-50 sen a piece but it’s a bit smaller or should I say shorter in size.
Back then in Penang, the city council was the only local authority that operates public bus system. It was simply known as ‘Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang’ or in short M.P.P.P. (some call it ‘Monyet Panjat Pokok Pisang’). To travel from Air Itam to Komtar it’ll only cost us children 25 sen and 50 sen for adults.
One of the best ‘roti canai’ served in Penang only cost me 30 sen and ‘teh tarik’ was 40 sen in the 80s. And today ‘roti canai’ is hitting 1 ringgit mark and ‘teh tarik’ is hitting 1.50 ringgit.
I remember back then while walking home after a game of football at the ‘padang’, we would treat ourselves with a piece of ‘sengkuang’ (turnip) as big as our palm which cost us 10 sen. With 10 sen today, you probably get a piece of ‘sengkuang’ as big as your 10 sen coin.
Football boots back then was expensive. A branded pair will cost our parents between 50-80 ringgit. So we make do with 10 ringgit ‘but kicap’. And today I heard parents bought 200 ringgit football boots for their teenage son who can’t even kick properly.
I used to have 2 white shirts, a pair of olive green trouser and a pair of white canvas shoes for school. These must last me at least a whole year. Today, school going kids have a set for each weekdays and I don’t think school uniforms were more expensive back then.
That’s life in the 80s. It was cheap and full of fun. We create our own games. And due to this, we’re much more physically active. Everything cost less than 1 ringgit and we’re not exposed to fast food then. Mat Sentul was our idol with his brand of junk food advertisement like Kum Kum, Ding Dang, Tora, Nini and many others.
As kids we don’t have to worry much. We leave the worrying to our parents. They have to work hard to make our life better and more meaningful.
And now when it’s our turn to be parents, we leave the worrying to the government! They have to work hard to make our life better and more meaningful.
Isn’t it wonderful when you don’t have to worry about anything?
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