This memoir was originally a comment I wrote to a poem written by my author friend, Stephen Pollard. After I wrote my response to Stephen's poem, I was suddenly inspired to modify what I had written, so I re-wrote my comment into a story format and posted it as a memoir.
Playing Daredevils When I Was A Child
When I was a small girl, my cousin always took me and my siblings on an adventure to climb what is known as “Lion Mountain” in Hong Kong. The mountain was so steep that it was as though we were hiking at an angle of 95 degrees. We had no gear—we merely held on to the grass on the mountain soil as we climbed. You can say that we were lucky to be skinny and not too heavy for the grass.
We would always begin climbing from the city side of Kowloon to start our ascent. Once we reached the mountain's peak, we would descend into the city of Sha Tin, the suburban town on the other side of Kowloon.
We would return to the city by train – we must have snuck onto the train, because as far as I can remember, we never paid, nor did I have any money to spend at such a young age.
Another one of our childhood “climbing adventures” involved squeezing ourselves out of our bedroom windows and scaling down our house like we were Spiderman, climbing and sliding down the pipes which lined our home from the third and fourth floors down to the ground below and using the same method to climb our way back up into our rooms through the windows. We were fearless.
Scaling up the 4-storey home was no mean feat: it included climbing over the wire safety fence on the roof (our grandfather, likely aware of our daring adventures, had installed it around the perimeter of the roof for our safety). Once on top of our house, we would, once again throw caution to the wind. We would climb over the wire fence and scale down the building along the maze of pipes leading to the ground.
As our house was situated up high on a terrace, it was easy for us to look down at the city below. Sometimes, as we stood at the edge outside the fence of our rooftop with just our tiny fingers holding the fence for our own safety, we paused for a moment before beginning our descent. From our high vantage point, we could see the city down below.
While standing up there, we would scan our neighborhood and in doing so, we'd learn so much about our neighbors:
House #1 had a tiny zoo that kept animals inside cages.
Inside this particular house, trained pigeons were let out of their cages daily to explore the world around them, only to return home to their master and cages in the evening.
The “miniature zoo” also housed little monkeys, and one of them would escape daily and come to our bedroom to play with us. It would put its hand on my brother's shoulder and “read” comics with him.
Grand Auntie Yee-Paw was always mad at that little monkey. As soon as she saw that little monkey, she would scold it, and she would take off her slipper to try hitting it or spanking it to chase that cunning little animal away. That little monkey would flee from my brother's room through his window, only to leap from one window to another, stick its head in at the window sill, and make funny faces to taunt our Grand Auntie, Yee-Paw. We all had a good laugh because that silly little monkey was so hilarious!
The houses on our street were large.
House #1 was so large in scale that we assumed it was converted into several apartments. The “zoo trainer” was one of the tenants among other residents.
Another resident was a single mother who had a daughter – a little girl around my age. The first time she saw me was when I was standing on the rooftop edge outside of the fence. She greeted me from below and was afraid that I might fall. Soon, I was using my vantage point on the rooftop to my advantage, I introduced myself to the young girl when I watched her leave her apartment, and soon, we would become fast friends. I never did ask my new friend what her mother did for a living - it was clear they were struggling financially: my new playmate always wore the same dress, even as she hit her growth spurt and the hemline raised high enough to barely cover her bottom.
One day she wore a new dress and I was happy for her. I complimented how well she looked in it and she told me her mother had bought it for her. But when I saw her a few days later, she was back to wearing her old dress again. I asked her what happened to her new dress, and she told me her mom had destroyed it by cutting it up when she was mad at her. I was so disappointed and sad for my friend. Perhaps I was too young to fully grasp her home situation, or perhaps, even in my care-free, innocent world, I knew, but could not fully understand until I was older, that maybe it wasn't just a case of a lack of money for the small family in house #1, but that it also might have been an abusive home.
House #2 - An Apartments Project Development
There must have been several units occupied by several families inside house number 2 – a converted estate like house #1 with several apartments inside the house. The landlord had also built some smaller apartments on the rooftop level. They seemed to be occupied by some smaller families. I believe the landlord must have converted House #2 into an apartments project and made good money from the tenants.
As for House #3 - well, that was our house, the home for the tiny adventurers.
House #4 – Home Of A Movie Star
Inside house #4 lived a young and beautiful movie star. I have forgotten her name now. I once climbed over the wall into the garden and peeked through her window while she was applying makeup, and getting ready to go out. When she saw me there by the window, she was not mad at me for climbing into her property. I told her I knew who she was and I was her fan and wanted an autographed photo of hers. She was happy to see me and gladly obliged.
House #5 – A Mystery
I could not see House #5 - It was a stone and cement house, very well-built, with greyish cement walls designed for privacy, and the house seemed to have a very high-security standard.
Well, that was all I learned about my neighborhood while my fearless siblings and I stood at the edge of our rooftop. My mom would likely have a heart attack if she ever found out what we did. She never knew. Our grandfather never knew either. He thought he had built a safe environment for us all.
Looking back, now with aged wisdom, I realize that in the innocence of our youth – an age where we styled ourselves as daredevils, unafraid of anything and anyone, much less of the consequences – what we actually gained from the experience was an insight into the lives of those who were less fortunate than us, and living alongside the more fortunate, and even, the famous. I learned the value of being non-judgmental, and of taking chances.
Perhaps we may have undervalued the danger of our youthful adventures, and the importance of real-world safety playtime. We also may not have realized at the time we were learning valuable lessons about empathy and inequality, but those memories, stored away in our rapidly maturing minds, like little golden kernels of wisdom, would inadvertently affect our outward demeanor toward others as adults, allowing us to appreciate people from all walks of life, to enjoy the simple things, and that not all is what it seems to be.
A most enjoyable and meaningful account, Sandie. It is so true that our childhoods were very different from that of today's children. I used to love climbing the TV towers not too far from our home much to my mom's disapproval and fear for my safety. I was not bothered with heights back then. Now, I get dizzy when I watch a movie depicting characters on the edges of high rooftops and such. Well done, Sandie. Love, peace, and best wishes to you,
Your memoir was fascinating, Sandie.
I'm glad those opportunities became a part of YOUR LIVES.
I believe now-a-days, it's called 'extreme sports/adventures'.
Taking risks fir the high...
What a dare devil you all were. 😍
You write beautifully!
I love how you write, your enthusiasm, wit and desire to share and your fantastic memory.
Blessings & many hugs!
A very beautiful & interesting story about the adventures and joys of your youth. As are most children growing up, enjoying being adventurous , being dare devils & investigating the world around them and the learning of many lessons in life.
I have a feeling that your grandfather actually knew that you, your siblings & your cousin had ventures up on the roof, prevented you from playing caped crusading super heroes, parachuting off the roof, that's why he put the wire fence up there.
I'm glad you are sharing this part of your life with us. Thank God you and your siblings are safe from the "Spiderman" stint outside of your house. That was most dangerous!
I love reading your memoirs, especially those of the times when you were small and living in Hong Kong. Your adventurous stories are always fascinating and always captivate my attention from beginning to end of the stories. You were very fortunate to live beside a house with a zoo inside, and next to a house of a movie star. It must have been fascinating to a young girl like you!
Your experience was so different from other young adventurers. I enjoyed reading it immensely as I have other stories you told from when you lived in Hong Kong. I once again encourage you to write a memoir of your life for your great great great grandchildren to read.
I'm so glad that the movie star took you in when she saw you. What a wonderful experience!
I agree with you. While I was a daredevil who would do almost any dare that others would ask, I drew the line on unsafe acts. Kids today with videos are trying stunts that we would have never tried. A 10-year-old in my neighborhood showed me that he could do a flip on my concrete drive. I could never do a flip and never would do it on concrete because of chance of missing.
Kids are kids and they will never change. There are daredevil kids too nowadays, but they are much older. I remember there was one in China who climbed the rooftop of tall buildings too and filmed himself hanging onto the rooftop with one hand. He later fell to his death. I cannot remember his name now, but he was a Chinese kid in China.
I must say with the cellphone selfies now, the children are more daring than we were when I was small.
Oh wow Sandie…what adventures you had!
Compared to our present day society where safety is
always considered first and foremost, our youth was pretty free really…
Yes there are advantages looking back, as you say
they will have helped us deal with many situations in our
present lives…but the it could have been a completely different story,
the risks were enormous…one small
mistake in footing and it could have been a very different outcome…
That being said…what fun and adventure you have described…
Kids need these things, but hopefully in a somewhat safer environment…
Excellent read!!
Rosetta was born in 1909 as the youngest of ten children. The family had more laughter than money and neighbors would knock on their door to ask, "Can we come in and laugh, too?"
A passionate and poignant memoir written by a woman whose life has been guided by the words: "I am here to learn how to love well." The book is a deep examination of relationships, family, motivation, and honoring of the Self.
