MY CHILDHOOD
…a fraction of memories from back then;
I had an extremely happy childhood albeit the toys and coloured screen television was not really present but there was love and affection, care and protection, amity and connection, friends and foes, big dreams and set goals, above all there was an invaluable family of two resilient Parents, four warm Sisters and two dynamic Brothers. With all this, what more can one ask for? I was the last of this phenomenal Family of nine, being the last child added a lot of flavour to my childhood, I enjoyed a little more protection and attention from my Parents who never hesitated to replace the pamper with a hard spank whenever it got to my head.
On the other side of the door knob was the best neighbourhood ever; the streets of Rukubaroad, a conventional Nigerian neighbourhood located in Jos Plateau state (...just so you'll know, am JOSTIFIED!!!).The streets of Rukubaroad had a lot of unique and interesting personalities that made the street always filled with fun and entertainment. My house was a few blocks away from the popular 'filling laka' football field, so I obviously never missed out on the fun.
The streets of rukubaroad was as diverse as any neighbourhood could be, it had families from at least 20 Nigerian ethnic groups and it also had families with different religious beliefs, It was a neighbourhood where Mustapha and Martin were best friends as boys, played football together and exchanged toys.
Infant Jesus primary School was another interesting aspect of my childhood, although most of the memories are now blur but the perpetual bully and wanton slaps from Otene Ogiri who use to be the biggest boy in primary four still remain indelible. I could remember third term holidays being the most anticipated days of my childhood life, could still remember the almost 24hours of uninterrupted play with my childhood friends; Oma, Inalegu, Oni, Eboli, Ligang, Lucky (R.I.P), Chukwuemeka, Nanpido, Martin, Mustapha, John, Ugochukwu, Aboy, Cyril and a whole lot of others, although by early 2000 most of the families of my friends relocated but memories of the long hours we played together never left my head.
I often reminisce over the very eventful days of dashing out of the house just after breakfast to meet my ever available army of friends(...as a bad guy that I was back then, I use to role with more dawgs than cops at a man haunt) then we will commence our always fun filled routine of play which mostly started by going to 'filling laka' to watch the morning football training while using the spare balls to play 'center ball' behind the field, after the 'balling' we will proceed to scouting our neighborhoods for used aluminium containers or used zincs which we straightened and made to shapes of cars. We would then drive (by pulling with a rope) this our improvised toy cars around our neighbourhood in tandem, little did we know that our creativity was envied by those who owned actual toy cars. On some occasions after the morning training we would play the crown cock football, first we would visit a beer parlour which was by the road side to gather crown cocks which we used as players, then we'll search for radio tapes, collect the rollers to use as balls, find a suitable hall way to use as pitch and the game began.
There was a certain evening I and Eboli where playing the crown cock football in the corridor of my house so as to put an end to the argument of who the best was and to my greatest disappointment he won me(the self acclaimed champ...lol),out of hurting pride I accused him of cheating and I insisted that we repeated the game, he agreed, we played again and he won again, I couldn't stand his jubilation and before I knew it, my fist was attacking him without my permission, we exchanged a couple of blows that evening, before morning the next day we 'balling' together like nothing ever happened.
As children back then, we often spent most of our afternoons playing 'Baram', the 'Baram' was made by cutting old and unwanted slippers into 2 or 3 circular shapes of the same diameter and sewing them together using a thread. The game was played using sticks that were a bit curved at the end by as many players as available, the players were evenly distributed on either side of the line which was in the middle of the field. The 'Baram' game began when one player from either side of the line roles the 'Baram' slow and steady towards the players on the other side and any of the players on the other side uses his stick to hit the approaching Baram sending it back to where it was coming from, the whole process is repeated until the 'Baram' comes to rest on either side of the line giving the other players a point, This game could go on for hours until we all got exhausted.
Evenings in rukubaroad was mostly time for home videos, we would migrate in our numbers to their Oma's living room as they were among the few who had a video player back then, after watching about two to three movies(actor and bose ish...u know as e dey be),night will fall and it was time to go home and that's when the ultimate search for my slipper will begin, probably because some smooth operators whose slipper where dead and gone has seized the opportunity of the dark environment to exchange theirs with the newest slipper around. After being a victim of missing slipper a couple of times I wised up and started wearing my slipper on my elbow each time we wanted to go in and watch movies. After the slipper searching episode that's when I will realize that since sun rise I have not stepped my foot at home and most definitely what my Mum use to call 'salary' was waiting for me at home, not only because I had been out of the house all day but because after a long day of rounding the neighbourhood on foot, baram playing ,somersaulting on all the available hips of sand I will be looking like a brother to harmattan, consequently I will always develop cold feet while approaching home. On my arrival my Mum will grant me the privilege of choosing which cane and how many strokes I want for my salary, needless to say it was like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea, after receiving the day's salary, I’ll take my bath after being forced to, eat my usually sumptuous meal, then head to the sitting room to be forced to watch 9 o'clock news by my Dad (...that's why I always hated NTA).
The days cookie usually crumble after my habitual falling asleep in the sitting room while watching the stupid network news and magically waking up on the bed the next morning.
Obviously my childhood was awesome but like everyone else, I fell into the trap of growing up, I had to start doing a lot of things by myself, I even had to start doing house chores and running unending errands for my elder ones (...remember I had 6 of them, so the errands were really unending), it became a crime for me to go out and play all because I was grown.
Apparently, life grew complex and I grew competent...and am still growing!

O.b.i.ZEAL…

In MJ's voice.
Have you seen my childhood?

Vessi: In MJ's voice.
Have you seen my childhood?

...show me