Memories in Black and White.

This is an excellent black and white photo from Datu Professor Haji Abdul Majid of the 1962 Luak Bay.

I am wondering how many people still have these old Kodak photos of the old times.

In retrospect a poor Iban boy like me and a boarder of Tanjong Lobang School at that time to have some keepsakes of our stay at the school was a great feat considering how precarious our lives had been.

All students selected from the rural areas who fortunately studied in Tanjong Lobang school in those days had to travel great distances and many days by land and water. I personally had to walk almost a day to reach a suitable long boat. Later when my father was able to own a boat of his own I was able to board a boat and then paddled two days to reach Limbang where I would board a government boat to reach Brunei and then I would take a bus to Miri.

It was a good time then as no one had even heard of little boys being robbed or abused along the way. If I had lost my photos so easily I would not have any black and white photos left today.

Whatever photos I had I would carry like my precious life home to show my longhouse relatives. These photos they would look at until I came home one year later . Some of these were lost forever when my long house was razed to the ground. Only one album survived because my wife insisted on bringing it back to Sibu during one of our homevisits.

In order to show my friends at school what my father looked like my father actually took a photo in a photo studio in Limbang at a great cost. I treasure that photo till today. That was 1960. I often wondered what if some of my school mates or hostel mates had been nasty and stole this photo from me! I would have lost the most precious memento in black and white of my father .

The Luak Bay was not only our playground. It was more importantly our source of supplementary food. Whereas most students today would have lots of money for tidbits we survived on whatever we could catch from the bountiful sea at that time. Mr. Hicks one of our principals allowed us students to catch fish and crabs at a specific time before our dinner and prep. I am sure many of my school mates then have their own individual stories to tell.


I am glad today that the digital age has enabled me to retrieve some of the black and white photos. I will be posting them from time to time on this blog.

this photo comes from my good and long lasting friend from my Tanjong Lobang Days. Perhaps together we can build a good archive of our school days in Tanjong Lobang School. (Now renamed Kolej Datuk Tuanku Haji Bujang of Miri)