alphabe Thursday: Letter O for old

 You have to imagine this is an old wooden stove.

When I was young, Dad was a civil servant and we moved houses when he got a promotion. We lived in two houses, class 4, an exact old wooden house like the above, we lived for 7 years. It's on stilts but you can't see the stilts here hidden by the scrub. We were there in the old days in 1959 to 1966.

In the old days, we used firewood to cook our food. I took the first photo, because it looked like a wood fire stove we used. Just imagine the bottom tier was used to store fire wood, and the upper tier, where we cooked our food.

At the bottom left corner, was a metal container where mum had some rubber soaked in kerosene. That in the old days were used to start fire.

I must have been in primary 4 and 5 when I have learn somewhere that water puts out fire. I was doing an experiment and wonder if the liquid kerosene would act like water, and put out fire. I dropped a match into this box of volatile kerosene and rubber combo.

"Whoosh!" a curtain of fire came up.

It scared the hell out of me. I must have screamed. I tried to put it out with a cup of water, it made it even worst.

Dad got mum to soak a blanket to cover the container. The fire was put out, the whole kitchen was black.

I crounched in the corner, waiting to be punished. But the punishment never came. 

Dad said, " She was just doing an experiment."  As I write this, I am wonder if Dad read about Thomas Edison and his experiments. 

We moved away to another house, and I didn't go back to the old house. I left the country for Canada, New Zealand and Singapore.

In 1995, My sister and her husband, Kallang asked if I wanted to go back. So I went back, all the houses were there except my house. The people told me it was burned down. 

It survived my little fire, it could not survive a big fire. I was quite emotional seeing an empty space.

search/label/Alphabe-Thursday