Model Boats at Victoria Park

When we (my siblings and I) were small, our family lived in Kennedy Town, on the western-most end of Hong Kong Island.  Occasionally, our father would take us on an outing at Victoria Park.  The one thing that I enjoyed the most was to watch people played with their remote-control model boats at a pond on the western edge of the park.  

The boats would run circles around the pond.  I remember the boats ran on gasoline-powered engines.  People would gun the engines, which would squeal loudly, with smoke trailing behind.  To us, it was great fun, exciting, and free entertainment. In those days, we could not afford something like that.  So we could only watch.  But it was great fun, and left fond memories. 

Six decades later, I went back there today, not knowing exactly what I would find.  It was a weekday afternoon, only two boats were in the water.  Not too many people were watching.  But I was happy enough that some people are still playing with boats there, just like 60 years ago.  It almost feels like time had stood still. 

Of course, my father had passed away.  I was no longer in primary school.  My sister and my mother live in Toronto.  My elder brother and myself are the only ones living in Hong Kong now, neither of us in Kennedy Town. 

Many things have changed drastically.  Much had disappeared, never to return. I am grateful some things remain the same.  It feels like they remain for a purpose, to prove that the past did actually happen. That it was not just a piece of imagination, or a dream.  That we actually lived. But when I am finally gone, who would have known, that we actually lived?  Does it really matter?