By Gerald Nkisu Katayi
Communication Methods used by lovers have dramatically changed in the last few years. Nowadays lovebirds use the internet, cell phones and other devices. Their romantic dinners are crazily followed by drinking and clubbing.
In those days, you had to pull the middle pages of your “excise book,” sketch some flowers, painting them with crayons, adding inscriptions, “love potion.” All this is happening during class time, probably in grade five. Wearing khaki shorts; seating on hard desk and the feet resting on bare floor. Armed with a pencil and a rubber, pulling back mucus from time to time and then you start a letter to your lover.
Dearest darling, (then you add, “mistakes are yours to control.”)
How are you at this time in moment, back to me I’m fine.
I love you like a cup of tea
I don’t sleep but I dream about you
I can cross the ocean for you
You are my toffee sweets
You are my sweat banana
I miss you like water in the desert.
The letter is concluded by; write to me back and reply. After writing many letters, you had to “breaking the news” to your parents that your exercise book is “finished.” All your reply letters were kept under the “pillow” whatever it was made of.
Them good old days. Wish the clock would turn back.
Chwe Chwe Chwe Chwe
Ha ha ha i remember those days.Awe it was nice mwe.Ati my sweet pie popcorn banana missing you like rain in the dry season.Awe kwena…nice article my man ,you have really refreshed my memory.
RB ………………………………….AGAIN AGAIN
Good article u hav remainded me those old days kikikikiki!
Ni Donchi kubeba kaili zee big. Pa bwatooooooooooooooooooooooo
You forgot the part of: I am dedicating On bended Knees by Boyz 11 men and I swear by All 4 one
my mother always used to tell me ati “uyu no tulonda twakwe utwa mu makufi” lobe ukaletapofye ulwisula mushi.so i never used to realise that when she sees those tulonda she used to know where i was bruised.kaili kale yalebela panshi pa fyani
You have triggered very sweet memories.
hahahahahahahahahahahaha nice article indeed ! but u also forgot when the phones just came , people used to keep some massages in their phones and some still keep even now !!!!
Those were days……………
Even the SMS English nowadays is full of grammatical mistakes and very confusing. Kids nowadays are FACEBOOK addicts and in live in fantasy land. Wow! what a generation!
Comoros 0 Zambia 8
And it hard to take fanatics to spoil this article! For once lets leave politics out if this please no chwechwechwe viva mmd viva Rb!ya those wer the days I remember my gal used to decorate her letters to me with glitter and I would anxiously wait for another one after replying!:))
Try a love letter this time and girl/boyfriend will be very happy.It is pretty romantic.
I still remember one dedication I got in a love letter ‘NDAKUTAKISHA NAKU BANANDI’ by leo munthu.
Those were the days man.
# 7 you make me laugh. And the girl would go home with grass hooked to the hair at the back of the head…..
#3 Mr Ability & sam bloggers…….Are so dumb you cant stick to the subject matter?
Grow up or shut up if u got no idea about the subject at hand.
(Sory #3 Mr ABILITY fo using u as an example)
#15 hahahahaha.
Na nomba ila chitika mu mpatamato stadium (nicknamed GUEST HOUSE)Ku luanshya.Hahahaha
The good old days ,huh.
Pa Bwatooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Thank god for those days, kids today can’t write or post a comment without resorting to the lazy ghastly phone text language.
when was this 1876 HAHAHAHAHA
simply beautiful. Those were the days. Lovely article.
Gerald Katayi – You are carzy! I remember in boarding high school we all used to receive letter during lunch time in the dining room, the boarding captain standing on top of a spare dining table and reading out names and everything else written on the envelope and then you would stand up and go to collect. This used to be a ritual full of comedy. Here is one envelope I remember being read out: “All the sweet flowers on earth sing your name! All the angels play your song! Your distant eyes are like stars looking over me at night! If I had wings I would fly, So please deliver my letter to my Darling Mr.(and then the name of the guy came out at this point together with the address!)” I’m telling you up to now we still tease the guy, although he now married – to a different girl!
Urgh! ‘Sweat’ banana?! The spelling of that phrase conjurs up phalic images in my head. Also, don’t forget “You are my salty kapenta, my smooth nshima and my delicious delele.”
@18 maureen darlington,
Banoko pachinena ukukalabana kwati lifwesa,we want to take a break from your nonsense and you start bringing us vomit resdues.your fellow prematures have stayed away that’s why this blog is not congested,ther author targeted us the matured who realy grooved but have survived the AIDS pandemic not because we didn’t use to bonk but because we use to bonk reserved kids,who to just get her out of the family house ussualy on a saturday you have to use 99 tactics.
and the ka kid when you reach the venue when you undress she sees mr snake up stiff,she could even start crying like you want to stab a with a knife.after screwing she will avoid you for one week ku nsoni.totally different nefyaiche fyanomba.you enter a room she is the first one to undress.mwe mbwaa mwee
But zoona AIDS yalisenda abantu,three quartes ebo twalitwali nabo baliya and aba baiche balipo tabeshibe nangu chimo.
I have not been posting the comments lately, but this one it has reminded me old good memories, when you give the love letter to the kid to deliver to your girl next door.
Wow! This is sweet dear. Good old days indeed. We started with yapa dress, when 5 ngwee was enough to win girl friend.
Remember the 3 button, bell botom trosers, liganza shoes, then stone wash, also North Star shoes and Wind Breakers. If only life could rewind to give this generation a taste of that life. Thanks for this drop in the oceanration a taste of that life. Thanks for this drop in the ocean
#25 – STONE WASH????? What happened to stone wash? I still remember one particular stone wash jean-suit I used to wear even in bed while at campus. Now, that would still go even in today’s world!
hahaha…nice article.You have really reminded me of the old good days when relationships were real. The time when one had to plan and write what they really felt, unlike today where people just send a text full of “i love u” even when they don’t mean it…Those days you really had to mean it and much time and resources went into the letter writing.
I have even remembered the time my gal, just across our House, was found with my letters and banned from coming to our place..lol.
Great stuff LT..keep it up
lol…ati “standing perpendicular to the floor and parallel to the wall, i can’t continue to carry on my feels for you and today i have decided to put pen to paper….”hahaha…good old days..we miss u.
I remember some funny line I used in 1988 ati “Time and ability has allowed my pen to dance automatically on this paper just for you…….” hahahaha. good ol days for shizzo.
Great memories! Ati “I love you like sweet mbalala.” Good old days indeed
@Lover Mwinsho – please, you have killed me, that was a tough vibe ROFL! Please napapata finish it kaili!
Iyeeeeee we were just talking about it in the afternoon with my friend cant believe it.as #25has said most of my galfriends are no more they are gone kuli AIDS zooona.but anyway we had good time i remember in the evenings you find small boys patumakona waiting to give me a letter.which reads dear sweetheart with heart shaped flowers and then it says love is to kiss and kiss is to love!!!! hahaha i miss those days i used to hav three to four letters a week not those days one date in month.oh we even used to sing pali ba M you dont have to mention the whole name if hes mike just say M shilala utolo shalala utolo mutima ulapelebela.thanks for this just to refrensh ma mind from politikisi
ya good old days indeed,even to get the letter was hard,the delivery system was irregular,either they will catch you or you wont get it at all.our parents were intelligent despite them not being educated,today we hardly know our own children.wow i treasure my mother.
#31 Lover Mwinsho-I’m cracking with laughter, that was excesively exaggerated!! Nice article indeed, it floods back memories. In life we take things for granted-it is those first naive girls who would cry for you all over and shower you with love letters on a weekly basis, there are the ones who are trury still the loves of our lifes-trouble is,we won’t realise it there and then but years and years there after when she is beyond your reach.
All those friends who were popular with girls at school are gone, all those who loved to go to night clubs and discos…are gone, All those who loved combining chibuku and women-they are all gone. It is only the shy ones with women and the God fearing who have croocked beyond 35 yrs. Ladies and Gentlemen, Aids is bad news.
Who remembers KOKO keep on “keeping on”
And we would write S.W.A.L.K (Sealed with a loving kiss) on the back of the envelope
I had an old man tell me that ” MWAICHE MWALIU SHAMA SANA IFWE TWALEYAFYE KU NITE CLUB NO KU CHITA TU MA GELO TUBILI NANGU TUTATU A NIGHT OKWABULA NA CONDOM BUT NOMBA IMWE AIDS YALIMIFYENGA !!!!:-?
#33. Me. the full letter was something like this. I actually fished it out from my grade 10 books that are still safely kept at my parents place
“My dearest …….,Time and ability has allowed my pen to dance automatically on this paper using my dextrous right hand. Just dropped you one to let you know that u are the cherish of my conduct, the leader of my team, the sunshine in my morning and my source of motivation. when I see you I feel superkalifrickexparadotious. Yours in love and war, Lover Mwinsho.”
dude, bet this line wud work even today on some chicks :)
Those from Mufulira will remember how as young lovers we used to go to the park near the swimming pool. I had the misfortune to be caught chaffing up my sweet luv in this park by a kanyangu (mine police) with a big alsatian. He threatened to take me and the girl to our parents. I have never pleaded like that in my life for him to release us. My sweet girl always told me our love will never end because ‘love does not break like a bottle of fanta’. Sadly she ended up marrying some guy from Luanshya
Yes, I also remember recieving such kind of love letters decorated with flowers all over. Ati Love is nothing but s.e.x. I love you like a cup of coffee. Yaa!!! Those were really old days. Going to school without shoes in the cold season with cracked feet and no jeasey. Books were also carried in a small plastic bag. Sometime the teacher would even throw the book at you. You should cover your book!!!!!!!! Awe Life really kutali twafuma. Today, my small daugter has a fleet of shoes to choose from. When going to school she has to carry all sorts of food, flask, an expensive bag, ribbons on her head and someone to drop her at school. Ohh!!! No wonder our children are dull, there is no incentive for hard work. Everything is already there for them.
Iya pa kaputula fye was common in the eighties, that is why most of us have lived beyond 4o!
i cant believe people have quickly stopped commenting on this very interesting topic
Not forgetting the BIG brothers to our sweeties who used to ‘ukupingila’ if you chaff their little sisters or ‘ukuswakisha imbwa’.