When I was very little, I spent a lot of time at my grandfather’s shop. He sold Honda motorcycles, generators, motors, Flygt hardware and shotgun cartridges. We were in the middle of town. So was my other granddad’s shop - my mom’s dad’s. In fact that was how mom and dad met. They were neighbourhood kids. That’s how some of dad’s siblings found their partners too.
I loved being at my other granddad’s place (mum’s dad). He sold sports equipment and music instruments. Sports equipment and music instruments. I can never figure out how those two could get to be sold at the same time. It’s like selling burgers and furniture in the same store. But there were plenty of shops like that back then.
We were right across the road from the Electra House and Open Air Market. Some days, mum would bring me down to granddad’s shop where she worked. I loved to sit at the front of the shop, watching people walk by, shoppers buying rubber flip flops or wooden clogs next door. Most of all, I love watching folks from the interior come to town in their traditional head dress, elongated ears and traditional tattoos. The main bus stop was. There was a little water fountain right outside the Electra House. All sorts of people would pass by there. Little old men with throat tattoos, little old women with lovely elongated ears, young proud warrior-types, most of them from out of town. They would stand there looking at the hustle and bustle of the town. I used to watch them, feeling the adventure and romance oozing out of my pores, thinking about walking the forests with them.
I recollect these moments with much fondness. The sights, sounds and smells of downtown Kuching were the building blocks of my childhood. 
Then there’s the Electra House itself. Boy, what history. I would say that it was the first shopping centre in Kuching. But way before that, when my great-grandfather was a young man, and Kuching was a sleepy little village by the river, the Electra House was where the generator for the entire town was kept. One large generator, and the whole town lit up. Someone had to switch it on every evening. My great-granddad worked for the electric company at the time, so he got to switch it on every day, seeing’s that he lived across the road. So there it is. My great-granddad helped kept Kuching lit up. What an idea.
Top: The tiles that lined my granddad’s shop were over a 80 years old, at least. I’d played on that floor since before I can remember. I would ride on the back of my aunt’s humongous dog, Brownie, on that floor. Great-granddad presented me with a talking, walking doll one day. He’d bought it on a trip to Singapore (I didn’t like it very much since I had never really taken to dolls, but I was fascinated by the fact that it could talk).
Bottom: The old shophouses in that part of town.
