Blast From My Past Pt12 - Of Bookshops And Rubber Seeds

I was thumbing my way through yesterday's Malay Mail while munching on some teriyaki salmon lunch when I came across an article/obituary on one of the most famous personalities of Malacca, Mr Lim Koh Sin. He was the owner of Lim Brothers Bookstore (at Riverside) which sadly closed in 2001 after 66 years of business. Seeing the bookshop mentioned after so long brought me a flood of memories and nostalgia. I used to crouch and squat for hours in their corridors, overlooked by stacks and stacks of books...

See the website Mr Lim's son did in honour of his father and the bookshop HERE. You can see the shelves I'm talking about.

Anyway, I used to spend precious pocket money on fantasy books (such as Choose Your Own Adventure, Lone Wolf, Way Of The Tiger and Fighting Fantasy) and Smash Hits mags as well as comics like Topper, Beano and Dandy. It was an annual affair to buy the annuals released by these comics publications. It was also an annual pilgrimage to purchase school text books and stationery here to complement our crispy new uniforms. And when I was lacking in funds, I would just read story books there - coming back time and again to finish off the books. When I was lucky, I would get books from here as a reward (from my parents and relatives) for doing well in my studies.

So it is with some sadness and fond memories when I saw the article and subsequently, the website... Lim Brothers will always be a recognized and honoured name among the current batch of working (and retired adults) born and bred in Malacca.

On another note, today on Mix FM, the DJs were talking about childhood pastimes (thank god, something worth listening to instead of the garbage they normally spew every morning). Got me to think about what we used to do with seeds from the rubber tree... in primary school, we used to gather these seeds. When you take a seed and rub it really hard and fast against a rough hard surface like tarmac or cement, the seed will get really hot. So we would have immeasurable fun taking these hot seeds and quickly finding some poor victim to touch with these seeds. As you can tell, we didn't need to have a lot to have pure clean fun!