I 'L' You!

This may be a little difficult for those who have not been in an all-girls' school to understand.

'L' = 'Lemon' = 'Lesbian Love'

Please wipe the pornographic image off from your minds now.
It's usually not physical.
Just a rush of emotions, with little gift gestures, a lot of giggling and gawking in the school canteen, and if the stars are aligned well, a lot of chatting over the phone. =))

I am not sure when the term 'Lemon' or 'L' emerged in the girls' school lingo. It was already prevalent when I was in school, i.e. in the mid to late 1980s.

Here's how the term and its variants could be used in a conversation.

A: Oi... Do you hear? Angela Ls Charlotte leh!
B: Issit??!! Since when? I thought Angela was L-ing Linda?
A: Har? Linda? No lar!! CANNOT!! Coz I L Linda!!
B: You L Linda meh?? I thought you said last that Meiqin was cute?!
A: That was last week la! I am a confused Lemonee. Hee Hee Hee...

Why 'Lemon'? Why couldn't we just use the term 'Lesbian Love'?

I think 'Love' is too strong a word.

Some claim that using 'Lemon' or 'L' is simply a way for the girls to be secretive in their conversations, and to leave clueless classmates out of the conversation. Totally plausible. Girls enjoy being secretive. Till today I still dun understand this.

An additional claim is that using 'Lemon' or 'L' was a reaction to the circumstances. I remember there was obviously a comprehensive crackdown on the key Lemonades. These were the most L-ed figures in school, usually short-haired, handsome, confident, good at their respective sports/ECAs, sometimes prefects, good grades are not hygiene factors. LOL!

Back then, when I heard about the crackdown, I remember thinking,"Who the fuck snitched on them? Students? Teachers? Fucked up Kaypohs!"

That crackdown episode ended with a visit to the principal's office, where a long lecture was delivered on what friendship is, and how girls should not hold hands or hug, especially in school uniform and in Ang Mo Kio Central. LOL!
How to explain something like that to a bunch of kids effectively?

Afterwards, the 'Lemoning' did not stop, but went underground instead. Hence, the prevalence of codewords. LOL!
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So I had my own share of Lemoning done in Secondary School.

To date, I can recall 2 baskets of Lemonades.

Basket #1 =  Peer Pressure Lemonades
These are those prominent figures who were ultra popular in school. It's like who doesn't like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise.

These individuals had their tables piled with overflowing Valentine's Day gifts. Recess on Valentine's Day was the most exciting period. Everyone would be walking around with little gifts to give away or to have received. These included sweets, soft toys, flowers, stationery, home-made biscuits/cards, masking tape stickers etc.

While I did exchange a couple of letters with one of the ultra populars (we hid and exchanged the letters under the spectators' stand), I wasn't too crazy over them in general. Probably coz they were too 'mass-market'. The thought of having to 'share' is simply gross.

Basket #2 = "Boutique Lemonades"
These were the less popular individuals. I had 2, one of whom I had a close relationship with.

The first one, E, was a Company Leader in Girl Guides. She was 2 years my senior, and was made the Company Leader the year I joined Guides in Secondary 1.

E wasn't the most handsome around, and her hair was hardly boy-ish. But I guess I was enamoured with her coz she was confident, smart, and coolly leading the Guides.

It was a known fact that I would freeze in my spot and stared very hard whenever she walked past. I had fantasies of spending the campfire night under the stars with her. She would be pointing out the constellations to me, while I would be grinning. Erm... It didn't happen. LOL!

E was not the most easy-to-read person on Earth. In fact, she was rather guarded about her feelings, even though she obliged me with a few long phonecalls.

Years later... I attended her wedding with a then-boyfriend who was her classmate in RJC. She's now a doctor. A specialist. Married with a child. We are supposed to have tea together soon.

The second Lemonade, SY, was spotted when I was in Sec 2. She was in Sec 4 then, and was the ultra handsome and sart leader of the St Nicks NPCC.

I can still remember the sound of the metal pieces nailed to the NPCC shoes striking the concrete floor and track. The NPCC girls were very disciplined. Always foot-drilling and building tents.
The dark blue uniform has definitely left a huge (subconscious) impression in my psyche. LOL!

Unlike the first Lemonade, SY was tanned, boyish, extremely short hair, had lovely calf muscles (which I sorely lack till today), had the face of a small-eyed Manga character, and spoke Mandarin.

I still have pics of her at a NPCC camp craft exhibition, where St Nicks NPCC were the winners. Former President Wee Kim Wee was also in the pic. Weird fragments of the past. I wonder how I would feel when I look at them in my 80s.

I cannot remember how we hooked up. Probably thanks to a couple of my enthuz classmates in NPCC. I think it was also them who got me interested in SY as they would addressed loudly her as 'Ma'am', whenever they ran into her along the corridors.

There was this canteen-gawking episode where I almost fell into the huge 2m x 1m x 1m trolleys while returning my bowl and chopsticks, coz my classmates shouted to me,"Oi!! Look Look Look!! SY Ma'am 来了！" =_=

We exchanged so many letters that a single ring file could not hold all of them. We wrote about every little thing and exclusively in Chinese. I love her cute handwriting. Pilot V8 Dark Blue. She must have had a tough time reading mine.

I remember that day when she came back to St Nicks to collect her 'O' Level results. It was at the public phone outside the Sewing Room. She called her mother, while I waited. I remember her red NJC T-shirt under her St Nicks pinafore, and thinking,"We are not the same anymore."
That was the last time I saw her. I wonder what she is doing now.
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As I became a senior, the L-ing business stopped for me. Like for many others, it was a phase. An experience.

Also as I became a senior, gifts started to appear on my desk on Valentine's Day and on my birthday.

It's just like that... This Lemon business... Geddit?