childhood memories : blast from the past

Just imagine living a day a piece..You wake up in the morning and you cant even remember whatever happened yesterday. Its like you are formatted daily and the moment you wake up, you are just empty and virtually deleted. In short, just imagine life with no memories. Memories of your childhood, college time or the many relationships you have had over time. Go back to the first two words i began with...Just Imagine

I wouldn't want that to happen to me. Reasons being it would erase something that is very close to me..my memories. Over the past weeks we have talked a lot about business, the market in Thika, Real estate, interviews but we cant forget we are humans, beings with feelings and memories.

Personally, my roots are in Thika, born and enjoyed my early childhood in Majengo and later Biafra estates. Those were the best times. The tallest building was the December Hotel while the best rave place was Club Vybster. Biafra Estate is just few metres from Delmonte and I remember as a kid enjoying cans of pineapples every time a train transporting pineapples from Delmonte derailed..And yes the swimming sessions in River Chania although in most cases, i never ventured into the deep waters. Then, there were no residents around the landless area and those were the perfect places to go hunting. So you would find us with our pack of dogs trekking more 15 kilometers to hunt rabbits. Many of the expeditions took place on Saturdays and Sundays.
I would really enjoy the daily laps to General Kago where I was a primary school kid. Tow in tow with my sisters and cousins we would make the daily to and fro treks. Mount Kenya University was still a dream then, so the areas that MKU now sits, had acres of swamps and bushes which were the perfect place for our children games during break times.

Did I mention this big nite..It all happened in the community park in Starehe estate or the garden near the Bible Fellowship Church commonly known as Butu. This was the monthly 'watoto kaeni chini' brought by Factual Films. This would be a night of pure entertainment since we would enjoy movies the whole night. Not to mention the daily spanking the next morning. I was willing to undergo the spanking but missing the free movies..Not me.
On the same grounds we had the Unilever road shows. I don't know where the hell they disappeared to but this was the perfect catalyst to miss afternoon classes. Unilever would give free t shirts, packets of Omo, Blueband and bars soaps to different winners. Well the contest involved dancing on the dais while the public would choose the best dancers. And well, you would never miss me there. I particularly remember this day, that I missed school but went for the show. When I returned home, mum was really waiting for me with dads giant slipper ready for a bashing..But whoa!! That day I never got the bashing,reason being; earlier in the day I had won a big packet of Omo during the kids dance challenge on the road show..Talk of villain turning into hero..I never escaped the beating after all, as a few days later we stole mangoes from Joytown School (boys will always be boys). That night, I received two beatings for the price of one.
Thika has been a great place to nurture soccer. Those days there were no Thika United and Medisca came just a few years later. KTM (Kenya Textile Mills) was the real deal. Thika stadium was the place to be on Sundays. Most of the times we could not afford the 5 bob gate fee so we always headed for the tall walls.
 
Honestly there were some broken limbs here and there after jumping over the walls from the Bus stage stalls but at the end of the day we were town boys and this was the perfect adventure.
Kids from Majengo, Biafra, Starehe and Ofafa were treated with awe and fear especially by those from Kimathi and Section 9. Reason being we were the bad boys and bullies. Many are the times we would walk to section 9 to....you guessed right.. steal mangoes and mabuyuss from Hindu homesteads. A dog bite here and there but we would be back to our normal mischievous ways.

Those days there was no BIDCO and the air was relatively clean apart from the occasional stinking smell from the skin tannery along River Chania.
Many are the times when our mischievous ways ended tragically..I once lost a desk mate in class 2 who died after consuming contaminated sukari nguru that we got from those cargo trains in the railway station near today's Engen. Had this other friend who drowned when we were sharing a swim in the Chania River. But we never learnt..what mattered was the action and adventure.
Let me just stop at that tragic juncture today..
When I met this former primary school buddy when heading to work this morning, the memories about those times resurrected..call it fate but it had been more than 17 years since I saw this dude and I really felt nice reconnecting with him while sharing those childhood adventures.
I guess those are the emotions that cripple you, when you meet such a friend after those many years..since you shared and survived the same childhood and what you have to share today are only memories..plain memories.

pictures courtesy of Google