What we remember

Most of my life was spent away from 'home'. I was away in a boarding school at a tender age of 12 years. The boarding school I guess that shaped my life. After school, i was in the University, still away from my family and then I did my post graduate, still further away from my family. i came back after all those 'education' and worked still away from my family. Although this time it was nearer, which I could commute, but i chose to live nearer to my work. So, being away especially during Ramadan is nothing new.
I do not remember much about spending Ramadan with my family. The time i remember most during ramadan is when I was young, that is before I turned 12. I remember as a child those days in the rural area, when there was no electricity and nobody had an ice box. My grandfather had this huge ice chest that we filled with block ice bought every evening from the ice vendor. The ice vendor would come in the evening to sell the ice and it was stored in the wooden chest filled with sawdust. I would be one of the early customers, and would always buy a very big chunk of ice. I loved to see my grandfather, cut it into smaller blocks and stored in the ice chest, ready to put into a pitcher of syrup for the berbuka. The ice kept for a day or two in the ice chest. So, we could still drink ice water during sahur.
I also remember the Moreh. Since my house was near to the mosque, we always went out to play galah panjang at the mosque and played tiang seribu in the mosque's hall. My grantfather did not like us to go and play galah panjang in the dark, because he said there would be snakes, but being young and believing that all the jinns, ghosts and ular are all locked up during ramadan, we went out to play anyway. There would also be some enterprising people selling ice kacang, sotong bakar and some rojak near the mosque. I love sotong bakar (sotong katok) with its sauce.
Another thing I remember is that during Ramadan, my grandmother would start cooking by 3 in the evening. There were so many dishes she made. There would be buah melaka, tepung talam, dadih manis, tepung bungkus etc. and ofcourse, there would be lauk pauk. My grandfather would go to Kuala Muda to buy fresh fish every other evening and we would eat real fresh fish and seafood. My grandfather would leave home after work, around 3 in the evening and told the driver to be ready at the same time every day. We kids did follow him sometime, but going to buy fish was no fun, except to ride in the car.
We really did spend a lot during Ramadan. My grandmother would cook huge portions so that she could distribute to her relatives and we did exchange food with neighbours. So, it usually was a huge feast during berbuka puasa.
Kids who did not puasa, would be eating on the 'beranda tengah' ( the varanda enjoining the kitchen and the main house) not together with those who fast. They were not allowed to go and disturb the adults who puasa. Actually I liked to eat on the beranda tengah. We could look out and we could throw the kueh we did not like to the ground. usually the kids would be my 2 sisters and my cousin.
We usually berbuka with kueh mueh first and then off to do the maghrib and after maghrib, only we ate dinner. The dinner can last for quite a while. Then we kids, could not wait to be dismissed and quietly ran off to play galah panjang.
Those were the sweet memorie I have for Ramadan at home. The rest just a blur.