Not too long ago, in a moment of inspiration, I sat down to write a poem for my training ship alumni 40th anniversary reunion souvenir program but was somehow distracted and never got around to finishing it. But then again, that's the story of my life...hahaDO YOU STILL REMEMBER
Yusof Ahmad
Do you still remember
The sound of reveille in the early hours of the morning
Cadet captains screaming "Get up! Get up!"
The mad rush to the heads and changing into boiler suits
Drinking scalding hot tea and munching dry biscuits
With eyes barely open
Do you still remember
Holy stoning ancient decks and chipping away never ending rust
Morning exercises with the PTI on the quarterdeck
The Beatles yay-yaying over Radio Ceylon from the fo'c'sle head intercom
The smell of frying eggs and fresh coffee
And on to bathe and change, breakfast and Ash Bash...
(PS: The young cadet bugler sounding the morning "Reveille" in picture is now Capt Percy Master, chairman of the MasterGroup of companies, India.)
Radio Ceylon played all the hits of the Beatles in the 1960s and other great artistes - Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Englebert Humperdink, Tom Jones, Hank Snow, Jim Reeves,Ricky Nelson and so many others.
ReplyDeleteThe station was popular across Asia. There wee wonderful announcers like Vernon Corea - there are two good resources on Radio Ceylon in the blogsphere - http://vernoncorea.wordpress.com and http://vernoncorea.blog.co.uk - saw something about Cliff Richard who recently visited Sri Lanka.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI remember Vernon Corea and had eagerly looked forward to the 'Binaca Hit Parade' program on Sundays...