1959 gas irons and Ding Seling

Ding Seling was in charge of teaching the new comers how to use the gas irons for ironing. He patiently taught us how to get the gas in and wait for the hissing sound and then light it up. The lighting up of the gas iron was often a very high anxiety moment. But most of us managed with great skill after a few attempts. I would always be grateful to Ding because he was a very patient and compassionate teacher. Having come to the school one year earlier, he was so much more knowledgeable and street wise than I.

There were three gas irons kept in the hostels for ironing purposes. I slowly learned that ironing was an important school chore because our trousers had to have a crease after they were washed and starched.

Please note that gas irons were probably only found in TLS and Miri. In other parts of Sarawak I understood later that folks used charcoal irons. In fact using a gas iron or charcoal iron and starching clothes are actually very archaic skills and not many people today have them.

In order to make starch we had to heat up the water with an adquate amount of cornflour until it turned into a gluey kind of consistency. I learned to do this in the little kitchen attached to the hostel. Once the starch was made, I had to put my trousers into the mixture and let them soak for a while. The trousers would then be wrung dry and then hanged on the clothes line to dry.

On a sunny day, our trousers would be as stiff as manila card paper! Some kids might over do the starch a bit and their trousers could even stand upright on the grass! I had a lot of fun washing my clothes. To this day, laundry is still one of my best skills.

Most of the senior boys had their trousers ironed with one single and straight crease in the front and at the back of each trouser leg and the school took pride in grooming them well. It was also the "must do" thingy then: to wear white cotton trousers which were clean, well starched and ironed. When one was far away from home and in a new culture, one was forced to acquire new skills as quickly as possible. I found that by being the same as the others, I would be able to share a new identity with them. Soon I learned enough laundry and other housekeeping skills to be accepted by them.

Some great stories from TLS are associated with the gas irons. So more later.