It was 1977. My classmates and I had all survived the LCE quite nicely and moved on to Form 4 at different schools. It was the “honeymoon” year – a popular urban legend that 4th Form was a “sabbatical” year in between major exams. It was another terrible myth.

It was a huge year in terms of music – Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours is released; it goes on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.

In May of the same year, Elvis Presley walks offstage in the middle of a concert in Maryland. Tragically, he dies just under 3 months later at his home. I remember reading the headlines in school. Needless to say, the entire school was shellshocked. I had been listening to his last hit “Moody Blues” lately.

Saturday Night Fever was the rage all over the world. While it could be described as a character study about ordinary folk living sad, sordid lives on the fringes of society, the music was diametrically the opposite – upbeat, hopeful, and irresistibly disco. One of my favourites was this one, right at the end of the movie:

Toward the end of the year, we watched Marina Chin, the poster girl and darling of our athletics squad running away with the SEA Games sprint medals in Kuala Lumpur. Half the male population was infatuated with her, including me. Together with a bunch of other fresh newcomers, they ushered in a sublime period for local athletics at the regional level.

It also sparked a short lived spurt of running fever in me. But apart from a few cross country runs in school, it remained an urge and nothing much else. The fact being I couldn’t imagine running and running around a track or up and down roads and countrysides endlessly. But I was hooked on football – give me a ball and I could kick around for hours on end – even in an empty field. The things I craved for...

On December 4th of the same year, a stunned nation witnessed in shock over the hijacking and subsequent fatal crash of MAS flight 653 in Tanjung Kupang, Johor that killed all 100 people on board.

For some reason, I can remember vividly the face of one of the crew members on board. A young girl. She was only 19. Life had ended even before it had really begun for her. Why? I remember asking and being unable to comprehend it.