GONE ARE THE DAYS!
“Wake Up Jaybee!”
“But why?... I’m
enjoying this trip”
“You’ll soon have to
get back to work and you need to quickly compose today’s content”
I don’t like it when
the tiny voice in my head guilt-trips me into doing things, especially at times
like this when I’m touring “Good Old Town”. So, rather than start thinking of the
right thing to write, let me let you in. From here on, you are inside my head for
the next couple of minutes. Welcome to Good Old Town. I come here once in a
while, so everything is in shape.
If you’re allergic to
nostalgia, be warned. Good Old Town is all shades of it. This is strictly for
those who grew up in Nigeria. Find your own Nostalgia if you didn’t. Sorry. While
you mo… Careful!... That picture is from a time during breakfast, and that’s me
dunking my bread inside my teacup. Oh here I am, rushing home from school to
meet the start of TV stations’ transmission by 5pm. You remember that song “Our
Sweetest Station NTA 2, NTA 2 Channel 5!”
Remember those dope
series – Tiny Toon Adventures, The Lion King, Taz-Mania, Rug-Rats, and so on. That’s
me watching… what movie was it again? Wasn’t it Terminator, Mrs Doubtfire, Home
Alone, Apollo 13, Jurrasic Park, Coming to America, Rocky, or Equalizer 2000…
can’t quite remember. Oh, and that’s me cutting paper currencies to spend
during “Daddy and Mommy”. I was always the child. Never got to play “Daddy”
*side eye*
Well, I preferred it
to “Hide and Seek”, “Police and Thief”, “Stay/freeze”, “Obey My Command”, “Who’s
in the Garden”, “Form a Big Circle” and “Where did I see” (My bro was always
asking where he saw what only him can see). That’s me stretching my hand and
singing for a bird to poo on my fingernails, to make them white and fine. I was
flying kites in this picture and I played truancy just so I could play with
this Red Toy Car. Gone are the days.
The nostalgia of recitations
may be too much for you, but at least you remember “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”,
“I see the moon; the moon sees me”, “Wherever you go”, “Biro Master”, and… Wait!
Hope you also believed that India beat Nigeria 99-1 in a football match where
the ball transformed to various kinds of animals. Santa Claus creeped me the
heck out. I still don’t like him or his gifts. I’ll rather watch Chukky, Mount
Zion Horror Movies, or Willow.
Big Boy starter pack –
1 Head warmer/Bandana/Durag, 1 Fila face cap, 1 Fubu oversized T-Shirt, 1 baggy
Jean or Combat, 1 “Timbolo” (go figure), 1 walkman (with extra audio cassettes).
Alternatively, you can manage a Palito radio. But before we became big boys,
playing the “200 in 1 brick games” with the overhead light, there was just the “10-10”,
“Tinko tinko”, “After Round 1”, and “Who Mess?!”.
That’s me rolling a tyre
(I was an expert driver), before there was Table Soccer, Fall the Maize cobs, and
Rubber Band Olympics. Oh how I enjoyed Tales by Moonlight. Remember Sprint and
Banana chewing gums, Baba Dudu, Short Cake and Coconut biscuits, the choco
cubes, Video Cassette rewinders, Kitto and Trekkers sandals and Goody Goody. Christmas
period was a time for new shoes and clothes, but looking back now, you can’t
but exclaim “Gone are the days!”
Mature Minds Talk.
Wow, very interesting memory lane and efficiently written/crafted.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful write up.
Thanks Anon 07:38
DeleteAwesome read! Good old days!
ReplyDeleteThey are indeed good old days. Thanks for reading
Delete