SMS Kelantan as I Remember

This is a collection of stories and old photos of me, friends, teachers and events during my secondary school years (1975-79) at SMS Kelantan, which is now known as Sek Men Sains Tengku Muhammad Faris Putra. The school itself was started in 1973, and moved to the new campus in 1974 (you'll see grassless field in some pix!)

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Societies and Clubs

One of the highlights of the beginning of the academic year (in early January) would be the general meetings of clus and societies. In those days, joining clubs and societies was optional. Yes, there were those who didn't join any club/society at all. In those days, extra-curricular activities were not that paramount to getting a place in the higher learning institution nor the scholarship, even though it helped if we are in some clubs/societies, to show that we are not bookworms, maybe? And maybe to show that we have leadership ability/experience...

We used to join the clubs/societies purely based on our interests. I really didn't know what my interest was, except that I enjoyed needlecraft(still do) and cooking (not that much, anymore). Like many friends, I joined the most popular clubs/societies, :) .

These are the most popular ones:

The History & Geography Society (Persatuan Ilmu alam & Sejarah)
This society was popular because their main activities were excursions. Who wouldn't want to join a trip to Kuala Lumpur? The trip then was not as direct as today. There was no Gua Musang-Lipis highway, so the trip had to go through Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan before heading towards Kuala Lumpur. If we were to leave the school after school on Thursday (being the last schooling day of the week), we will only arrive in Kuala Lumpur the following morning! That's a good 16 - 18 hours. I remember we used to have dinner in Kuala Terengganu (we left school at about 2 or 3pm), then a late supper in Kuantan, and will have our breakfast in Kuala Lumpur.By the way, that was not a trip organised by this society.

I joined this society when I was in Form 1, but gave up the following year because the membership was too big, and obviously the seniors would get priority over juniors like us.

The Cinema Club
This was a mainly boys' society. The members of the society learnt to handle cinema projectors, and set them up for our weekly movie show on Friday nights. We used to have a movie show (real movie reels! Some were delivered all the way from Kuala Lumpur). The committee members had the privilege of liaising with an agent in Kota Bharu to get the supply of movie reels. When there was a movie a week, it was mainly lousy old movies. Later the club decided to reduce the frequency of the show to fortnightly, and we got good movies. Normally during the day, there would be announcements as well as some posters put up at strategic places in the school compound to remind us of the show. Sometimes it was by word of mouth.

I was not very much into movies, and was quite selective on the movies that I watched. I remember at one stage there were romantic movies, at another stage it was mainly kung-fu movies (I came to know Bruce Lee then!) and later it was into horror movies.

Let's see if I can still remember the movies that I watched then:
  1. Old Turkey Buzzard
  2. D'alamo
  3. The Sound of Music
  4. Love Story
  5. Pengantin
  6. Fist of Fury
  7. Way to the Dragon (Bruce Lee)
  8. Enter the Dragon
  9. The Fearless Vampire Killers (I had sleepless nights after that!)
  10. The Omen
  11. Bridge on River Kwai
The Chess Club
I always saw this one as a "elite" club because most of the members are the quiet and studious ones. Our first best student for MCE was a committee member (at least, if not in the top 3 posts) of this club. I was good in checkers but was (and still am) with chess!


The other "glamorous" club would be the music club, which I have decided to have a posting of its own.






3 Comments:

  • At April 15, 2009 8:05 AM, Anonymous sim said…

    Hi Kak Sabar

    Music Society was the first one I joined in form 1 (1976). One fond or rather, embarassing event during Malam Perpisahan was the choir... where we forgot the lyrics mid way. If I'm not mistaken, the song was "Morning has broken" by Cat Stevens. I also remembered being in the school band for a short period under Ms Rita Maria Dourado. Hashimy was the first drum major then, followed by Nik Azwar and Haniff. Hmm... those were some great memories. Thank you for evoking them through your blog

    Cheers
    SIM

     
  • At April 15, 2009 11:35 AM, Blogger busymum100 said…

    Hi Sim,

    Guess what? A special blog on Music Club (just on its own) will come next, with photos courtesy of K Nury. Unfortunately they were taken in 1975, so there's no you yet :)

    Yes, I remember the song, and Cikgu Bahar used to make fun of the choir girls aftyer that, he kept on humming "Morning has POZET" instead of "morning has broken"!!

     
  • At April 28, 2009 11:20 AM, Anonymous Nury said…

    Sabar and Sim,

    Sorry, just realize Sim left a comment. Wasn't it Haliza (Mek Rock) who led the choir as the 'conductor'? It WAS a 'pozet' moment hahaha....

    Remembered learning to play the recorder with Ms Rita. one of the songs played was ....I love to go wandering, along the mountain track......Forgot the name of the song.

     

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