.
Happy Birthday to who?
To Hisham!
Which Hisham?
Hisham, my penfriend since 1971!
That means we have been penfriends for 35 years...
Penfriends, to us the oldies and mouldies of yesteryears, are just like the current version of friendster through the internet if you like.
However it required more effort than clicking on the keyboard of your computer.
We write letters, in our best handwriting, usually on our school's writing pads , put a stem on the envelope and hand them over to the prefects to be posted.
The reply from a penfriend took another extra step of being scanned first by the teacher on duty for the day, before it could reach you .
All these did not deter us girls from writing to our penfriends.
Most of us had at least one penfriend from another boys' boarding school.
I used to exchange lots and lots of information with Hisham on all of my activities in school.
It was like blogging, really...
I wondered how he put up with them, then.
Hisham was the first to know that I became the champion in Poem reciting competition in Johor.
He knew that my choir group came out the National champ for 2 consecutive years.
I described to him at length of my participation in the school play as Princess TupTim in the 'King and I'.....
I valued Hisham's friendship, as he too wrote back on a weekly basis.
He continued writing even after I sent him a foto of myself with the school compound as the background. I thought I was ugly and Hisham would stop writing once he set his eyes on my pic.
He sent me pictures too which I still keep in the drawer until today. He was very goodlooking.
His letters were the only thing I look forward to those days besides the monthly registered letter containing my monthly allowance from my dad.
We stopped writing for a while, after Hisham left for UK to further his studies.
It was not economical anymore, I suppose, and besides Hisham must have been busy mixing around with new international friends.
We went our separate ways, leading our separate lives, but Hisham has always been in my mind.
Some years back, I hit his name at an email address and sent a brief hello.
Lo and behold, he wrote back with a hello in return!
We had a lot of stories to catch up on.
I updated him on my family, and he on his.
Hisham knows where I am and I know where he is holding up.
We have not met, even after 35 years.
We are still penfriends.....
Happy Birthday Hisham!
I know that all of your dreams have come true......
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6 comments:
Mama Irma,
Those days Hisham must be a Sdarian, Starian, or budak Koleq.
Nostalgia...
Those teachers n prefects who screened the letters should be doing well in today's film censor board. I should know.. because my
loving half (A Srikandi) n I were parts of the plot.
hjghaz, you're absolutely right, he was from one of those institutions.
Lucky you, got to marry your penfriend,(my fellow Srikandi!)...
wow! this is a long penfriendship! i guess when we were in s'ban the sdarians were seen as rivals, so kureng le pen friends with depa - only jadi train buddies (bila balik semester holidays)
Hi mama rock,
It is indeed a very special long penfriendship. Wonder if anyone else has this kind of record.
hi mama irma!
my mom married her pen-pal from sas. that's my dad... it took them 20 years to admit that to us, the children. ha ha ha.
i wonder whether the boarding schools students nowadays still exchange letters.
1bloghopper,
A few of my friends married their penfriends too, but, once married they are no longer called penfriends!!!..
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