Memory Lane - 2

Nostalgia. People say don't look back to the past. It is over and gone. Look to the future. True, don't cry over spilt milk but the way milk was delivered, the bottle or packaging they came in, the floor on which the milk was spilt - they were different. Things seem to be better but are they really? Remember, the milkman who rode his bicycle with bottles of goat's milk straddled across his two wheelers and the stopper at the bottles' opening were just a rolled up cardboard or paper.  

Life was so much simpler just like this optical shop I saw along Balestier Road. Look at its showcases and the mosaic floor. Is life just all about facade? Oh, may be you need air-conditioning, change the floor, recreate the showcase and cabinets. Make the whole place swanky then raise the prices. That is the only formula. To solve problems, just increase prices. Singapore's magic formula. Even people are becoming like that. 

At Martaban Road, there was this old coffee shop where they once served one of the best if not the best char siew rice in town together with a wonderful popiah stall too. The char siew or BBQ pork was not the well burned type but a good selection of meat which was tender. The clincher was its char siew gravy which was the best ever. It was so good you can just drench it in your rice and eat it on its own. The popiah had an excellent crispy/crunchy fish bits topped onto the "man kwan" or turnip.

With the old comes the new. Okay, many people knew Bernie. He has sold Botak Jones and now he helms BJ American Diner at Balestier.

When did you last have Angus Beef? I have previously described a golf driver like Angus Beef. Now you know what I mean. 

I then made my way to Jalan Bahagia. One of my primary school teachers lived there. These looks like private terrace houses. They are anything but. The belongs to the HDB. I thought it is a great place to own such a house with space!

For some units, the car park is just in front of their houses. Our primary one and two teacher Ms Leo (Mrs. Lee) lived in one of these houses. I knew it because there were a few Saturday where a few of us would help her prepare stuffs for the school concert performances at her house.

You have your own garden, plants and fruit trees and even an area for BBQ. Wonderful. This is just opposite the high rise HDB of Jalan Bahagia at Block 34 and 35. 

I have friends who used to live there. 

Next to Bahagia is Jalan Tenteram. 

I have even more friends who used to live here. From here, if I get across the highway it will lead me to Kim Keat Ave. These old flats has ground floor flats that can facilitate you with clothes hanger.

They have been all spruced up and look vibrant and new.

This is the space between two blocks where it was once just a grass patch with mud and sand and several of my primary school classmates lived. They would sometimes invite me over to play our game of marbles, then bring me around to drink some attap chee drinks and to eat laksa because they said the were the best. They were among the first high rise living I  have seen and in  the afternoons, the place here smells of food because those days most mothers do not work and they would be preparing the meals at home.

To some folks, nothing changes. This old lady here lives in that ground floor corner house. They even place their washing machine and water outlet outside of their house as you can see. Then you can also see her neighbour, a man cooking just outside his house. There was another house where they put a dining table and chairs outside with a large umbrella over hanging the dining area making it look like alfresco dining of a restaurant. 

This is Block 20 of Jalan Tenteram. When I was taking pictures here, an old lady followed around and behind me wondering what I was doing. May be she thought I was a reporter. Maybe she was once my teacher?

I went further to search for my now defunct old primary school. Next to it were low lying houses where a few of my friends then lived. It may be Jalan Rajah now. I am no longer sure where it was as the entire landscape have changed. Kim Keat Primary could have grown up into this. If it were here then going straight through the gate bring you into the "tuckshop" known nowadays as the canteen.

Next to the tuck shop was the basketball court with a field next to it where the boys played police and thief and hantam bola. Next to our school was the Vocational Institute. The VI has become our ITE today - big and great strides have been made. The old VI was really It's The End with lots of bigger and meaner people than our primary school. 

In our time, buying a cracker or some biscuits can win you money - 5 cents of 10 cents through tikam in the school tuck shop. We already had mini casinos. Haha. There was also a polyclinic next door. The nurse led by the matron would come over to carry out the BCG vaccination. Most of us at that age were silly, everyone wanted to queue last. In this situation, you should volunteer to go first so you would not know much and get over with. Being at the end of the queue meant that you would hear some 30 plus people screaming or crying ahead of you and you would have bitten off all your finger nails when your turn comes especially when your classmates told you how big the syringe was and that they burned it before they stab you with it.

There is so much going on in the good old days but time and space do not permit. However, as I recall I could rattle off some names - from just outside the school there were a few boys - Tay Soo Hang, Tay Chor Chai (I met him at the Police Academy), Au Seng Lye and Joey Chia (not from my class and met him in NS). From Jalan Bahagia, I remember Chong Weng Kee. Chong went to the same school for secondary education but we never kept in touch till we met near the work place and also in ex school gatherings. Chong was an athletic big boy who won the 100m race, high jump and long jump. Lim Watt Poh was the guy who carried Japanese colour pencils with 36 colours in a tin box when others only had 12 colours in a cardboard box. Watt Poh was also the guy who introduced me to stink bomb. He let one go in the middle of where we used to be for school assembly and quietly walked away. He also showed me how to order more expensive food at the tuckshop like the more costlier dry fishball noodle and when done with would asked for the soup. I remember he had sweaty palms and would carry a handkerchief because of that. 

The Jalan Tenteram boys were Tan Tian Mong, Lim Song Piow and Ong Choon Nan (who went to the same secondary school, played in the band, played soccer together and met once in awhile). There were a couple of guys from the Whampoa, a certain Loy Chit See and a Lau Choon Meng. Chit See was the oldest friend still in regular contact since dinosaurs roamed the earth. There was also a Loh Chee Phua and Seet Lye Poh. I also remember Cheong Siew Fun, the girl who joined us later perhaps in primary 3 or 4 as she sat in front of me. Then there is Mansur who could speak Mandarin and Tay Gek Kwang, a Toa Payoh boy whose dad sold tau suan and lotus seed dessert. 

There was a girl called Suprinah whom everyone called as sharpener. Then there was a boy who when the teacher asked to name different types of soaps and he stood up and shouted "chicken soup"! His name became chicken soup for the rest of his time in school. Lol. We left in 1973 so it was like 40 years ago! We were all rightly or wrongly slapped by some teachers in school. When you get home and tell you mother, you get slapped again so that the next time you will just keep quiet. "Why your face so red?" "Nothing. It is a very hot day".

Many who were less musically inclined became nervous wrecks during music lessons trying to play the recorder. The teacher a Mrs. Miranda would play the piano and you are supposeto play your recorder. When she looked to pick someone all eyes were on the floor and if you played but fumbled by not holding the recorder properly resulting in a "lau hong" sound, she reached out to pinch your tummy's side and twisting it. How painful was that? Ouch!!

There are still two things I never really understood about KKPS. Why all the boys have to have crew cut (botak)? Why do we need to stand completely still when the recess bell rung, wait for the second bell to move again? Haha.

If you read about this, you will realize that Kim Keat Primary's motto "Honesty and Diligence" stood the test of time even though the physical school was no more. The few guys I still kept in touch with are all keeping the school flag flying. Sometime, somewhere or somewhere in time, in cyberspace, somebody may get connected here. Cheers!

If we ever meet somewhere in time in the future, I shall sing the school song (only remember the opening and closing lines and first line of the chorus). That was because I would sing loudly these two lines so I would not get the famous pinch. I still remember a couple of folk songs we used to dance to in the school folk dancing led by Ms Leo (Mrs. Lee). It was here that we met students from other classes. Choon Nan was with me, so I will sing to him the songs when we meet.