I admit that I am a little smug about this issue. Well, I have seen the worst in the 80s when supermarkets and retail outlets collapsed, housing projects abandoned, factories closed down, tour companies and posh restaurants ‘beat mosquitoes’ , people lost their jobs, not being able to pay their housing and car loans and facing other hardships.
But God has been kind to me, I suppose. The factory where I worked for had to close half of its production. Then, I joined a legal firm and was working till 1-2 am in the morning because a supermarket closed down and all the suppliers wanted to sue them. My boss didn’t even pay me overtime. So, I left in a huff and later found that he also did not pay my EPF.
I got a job as a secretary in the midst of recession. There were 64 candidates, many of them much more qualified than me. I was only taking my secretarial course but my boss immediately took a liking at my attitude and hired me on the spot. He asked, “Why didn’t you go to Form Six?” I told him I did not want to burden my brothers as they were not earning much and my father died when I was young. So, I had to work right after Form Five to survive. Heh, I was such a clever, conniving 21 years old, huh?
Times were hard back then. So hard that I ended up sharing a flat with my future husband as it was cheaper for us to rent a flat on the mainland than both of us renting individual rooms on the island. Smart and ’sinless’ way to live together, huh?
At one point, my hubby’s company couldn’t afford to pay the production workers’ salaries. My own hubby too did not get his salary but he hang on due to feeling indebted to the company’s bosses. However, the production workers did not know that and got angry with hubby instead as he was always the one who handed out the salaries. So, his beaten up Honda Civic was scratched by them almost every day. Eventually, the company closed down and hubby did not even get retrenchment benefits.
We have lived on RM2 per meal back then and we survived well. In fact, when we were better off financially, we learnt to appreciate the overseas holidays and other luxuries in life. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t feel so blessed.
Now, I am wondering if the newer generations whom had not suffered through a recession knows what a recession is? Looking at the way people are living on credit, I am sure they will have a much harder time than when I was younger. Back then, credit cards were hard to approve. There were no Courts Mammoth to get your furniture in installments. So, when there is a crunch, we didn’t feel the suffocating feelings of escalating interests and loans and installments to be serviced.
That’s why Jesus is so wise. He said we cannot have two masters. God and Money. It is either, or. We may not be Christians back then, but our frugal lifestyle tide us through the recession. We have never placed money as a priority and thank God, today, both of us are not worried at all with the impending hard times that are threatening to hit the world and our country. Come what may. I wonder if this time it will be much worse?
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