The 4 Stooges

Tonight, I caught a nice movie on HBO by chance. The movie title is weirdly known as "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", about the bond between 4 best high-school girlfriends who are separated for the summer. It's a coming of age kind of story - friendship, puberty, emotions and life itself.

I love such shows. This one was set at a nice pace, not too slow. It was about 4 teenage girls who each have to fulfill a certain destiny on their own during summer, and they naively decide on a pair of jeans to be their bonding fabric - the jeans amazingly fit all of them (one of them fat) and would be mailed to the next one after the first had worn it for a week. The jeans began to work its magic the moment a girl wore it, uncannily fulfilling her inner desires.

I guess the way I described it, it must sound like quite a silly teeny-bopper show. But it wasn't. It was a very raw and simple story told from the heart. It reminded me of a group I once belonged to. Now that was silly.

The 4 Stooges.

How "loser" can we get? On hindsight, we could've come up with a cooler name. Kids form or join groups just to be "in" those days. We hammered the final nail on our own coffin the day we called ourselves The 4 Stooges.

More importantly though, I personally very much wanted to form a brotherhood. A bond that bore deep into our roots, unbreakable and dependable. Truth be told, it was a disaster. Far from creating a brotherhood based on loyalty and trust, members of the group were just interested in skirt chasing. I, for one, had always deemed girls then as secondary, preferring to immerse myself more in sports and being loyal and honourable to friends. Well, 1 friend thought I might be gay. I guess I wasn't ready then, for I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and training martial arts under the wings of a very skilful instructor who had honour and discipline weaved into his entire being.

I guess as kids, many people weren't too sure of themselves then. Puberscent boys were just too busy trying to get into the pants of any other girl then. That caused many ripples in the group. Finally, the 4 Stooges died its natural death, along with a pre-supposed tight friendship among all members. However, the precipitate which did filter through subsequently turned out to be an endearing friendship between one Stooge and me.

Come October 14, I will be attending my secondary school's 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner. It would be a prom I never had as a kid. My dear friend, Ah Tiong, would be there too! I was hoping all founding members of The 4 Stooges would be present that night, but life hardly grants your wishes. One member would be not be attending.

Although I never really gotten along with him, I was hoping he'd show up, just so we could celebrate (for a night) the few years we shared, that we were a part of each other's lives. Unfortunately, a bigger arse would come in his stead. Well, we're not gonna let a thorn spoil everything right?

So I would be there, in part to celebrate a past sharing of lives, and in part to celebrate that some are no longer in my life...


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