Taman Jurong
in 1970s
In 1974 I was working in Jurong and my office was at
Block 107 Corporation Road. It was a two storey shophouse. There were
altogether 10 such blocks plus 4 blocks
of high rise residential flats. The blocks of flats No 63 to No 66 were in a
diamond shape formation. At the center
of the 4 blocks was a supermart. The area was bounded by Corporation Road/Yung
Kuang Road/Corporation Drive/Yung Sheng Road.
I remembered the UOB Bank at Blk 106 where I got my first
credit card. It was a classic credit card. A few years later UOB Bank upgraded
my classic card to a gold card for no apparent reason and it was free.
Another memorial incident was with the Citi Bank at Blk 108. I invested in
foreign exchange and was assigned a personal consultant who explained to me the
high interest rate and the risk involved. I was new to foreign exchange investment
but was tempted by the high interest rate. In less than a year that country
revalued its currency twice. The bank consultant
never call to warn me. By the time I withdrew from the investment, I suffered
a great loss. It was a costly lesson.
The supermart at the diamond block is NTUC FairPrice.
It is one of the oldest, or perhaps the oldest NTUC FairPrice supermart in Singapore. It was originally
known as Pioneer Industrial Employees Union (PIEU) supermart. The Head of the
union was Phay Yew Kok. He was wanted
for cheating but he absconded and disappeared completely.
Recently I took a walk down memory lane in Taman
Jurong. I retired 20 years ago and I took a bus to the place where I had fond
memory. Bus No 98 from Jurong East Bus Interchange stopped at Corporation Drive
in front of Block 116/117. I looked across the road and could not find familiar
landmarks. In fact, I was disorientated. There was block No 101 but where were
the remaining blocks. Then I realized that the present Block No 101 was a new
building. I remembered the old Blk 101 together with other blocks of 2 storey
shophouses and the diamond shaped blocks of high rise flats were on the
opposite side across Yung Sheng Road
In fact, the present Blk 101 has occupied the site of
former Shaw Taman Jurong Theatre. Behind the theatre was the 15 stalls hawker
centre. There was also a Toto booth by itself. It was operated by an Indian hawker. The food
centre has been replaced by a 2 storey market and food centre. Facing Yung An Road was Jurong Town Community Centre. The community
centre building has also been upgraded to a larger building and is now known a
Taman Jurong Cummunity Club.
Next I was looking
for block 107 where my office was located. I remembered the building was
opposite Taman Jurong Stadium. I walked to Corporation Road and found the
stadium. Opposite the stadium across Corporation Road were new blocks of
building under construction. They blocked
the view of my former office block of shophouses. I looked up and saw the high rise diamond shaped
flats. I was confidence then that I was at the right place. I went towards the
tall buildings but could not find a single 2 storey shophouses. They had been
demolished and replaced by new high rise flats and multi storey carparks.
The high rise diamond shaped flats and the NTUC FairPrice Supermart were still there
During my visit, I managed to cover only 2 areas. I hope to go
back to Jurong to make new discoveries another time.
