Surviving an electric shock and the death of a pet

How I nearly died of electric shock

 

I must have been only eight at the time and I was full of life. We lived in Singapore since my Dad was in the RAF and we were based at Changi. Living in Singapore in those days was definitely in the exotic category, especially since this was in the 1960's.

It was a wonderful life living in the sun. The heat could be almost unbearable at times and the humidity, extreme but when you are young you don't seem to mind as much. Coca cola was cheap and ice cold and this is what us kids lived on. Our incomes went a long way in Singapore and we were having the life of Riley as they say. We even had a maid even though my Dad was not of particularly high rank.

Health and safety was not something that was in our vocabulary at this time and we took many many risks with everything. Thinking back, even the wildlife in Singapore could be lethal. The King Cobra snake was the most feared of these but I only saw one once. Stone fish abounded in the sea and we swam in the sea barefoot all the time without a care in the world. We survived. Toys included catapults and fireworks in the form of bangers which we could buy as kids and just roam around freely at any time of the year throwing them about at anything we wished.

Guns abounded in the country at this time and I saw many. Mostly, they were used to shoot rogue monkey troops and stray dogs. Our family had befriended a stray dog and we would feed it every day. It sort of became our pet but one day as it approached me, so did a Malaysian man with a rifle. I was stroking the dog at the time and he simply waved me back and shot the dog right in front of me. I could have been only a couple of yards away as it dropped dead in front of me.

The electric supply to the married quarter was 250v AC at the time which is higher than in the UK from where we had originally come. All the switches were made of Bakelite, an early form of plastic. Unfortunately, this could be a little brittle and my Dad had broken a light switch with some furniture. It could be switched on and off with a bit of wood until it could be fixed. Wanting to switch it on one night, I could not find the bit of wood but instead I found my Dad's pipe cleaner. This was made of metal. When you are eight years of age, naturally your knowledge is often limited and although it crossed my mind at the time, I decided to go ahead and use it anyway.

I reached up to the switch, placed the metal pipe cleaner on the bit that moved and pressed. I remember a big flash and the way the current charged through my whole body. More by luck, I was able to let go of the pipe cleaner and the torture stopped. I was still alive but extremely traumatized and I screamed as loud as I had ever done before and in a blind panic, ran downstairs and into my Mothers arms.
For a while, I was unable to coherently tell my parents what had happened.

Later on, my Dad made it a priority to fix the light switch. After this we thought no more of it a continued our adventurous and dangerous lives and we loved every minute of it.