Be Prepared 2 - You are now a scout

Flag Breaking Ceremony

Livingstone Patrol meeting

The 32 Raffles Group was led by an adult leader who was not from our school. Top photo shows him standing beside the flag pole. The British NAAFI was in the background. It was situated along Beach Road opposite RI. After the flag breaking ceremony we met at the scout den for a short briefing. Above photo shows Livingstone Patrol meeting. The guy without uniform was a new recruit. We started each meeting by singing scout songs and also learned to sing new ones. At each meeting I learned new scout crafts and trainings such as tying scout knots and pitching tents. Hiking and camping were discussed and planned for the school holidays.

Livingstone Patrol had a log book to record the various activities carried out at each meet. We took turns to log the book. I looked forward to my turn, as it was a source of delight for me not only to log but also to decorate the pages with sketches. The log book was kept in a large wooden chest together with scout equiptments in the scout den. Wish I could see the log book again to delve on my handiworks once more.

Be Prepared

32nd Raffles Group

Livingstone Patrol

Raffles Institiution had two scout groups, the 2nd Scout Group and the 32nd Scout Group. I joined the latter as I had class mates there. Being a new recruit, I was known as a tenderfoot. I took the Scout Oath:

"On my honour, I promise to do my best

to do my duty to God and the Queen (under the British rule your allegiance was to the Queen)

to help other people at all times and

to obey the scout law."

I was in the Livingstone Patrol. At the first meeting, I noticed there were seven of us and three of them were my classmates. They joined the year before and had 2 badges each. The leader, Ong Teng Hong had many badges stiched onto his left sleeve. One of them was a Queen's Scout Badge, the highest award achievable in the scout movement. He was very friendly, unassuming and jovial. I enjoyed his leadership and company. I was taught some scout crafts to pass the Tender Foot test. This was the first obstacle before going for the Second class, First class and other badge

April Fool

Is this the face of a fool you see?
Face is the fool of none but thee!
And if this joke for harm you take
Pardon me for April's sake.


Every year in school, we played April Fool jokes on one another. It's only once a year and I laughed at others who fell victims. Sometimes, I got tricked too. I like the above four lines which was sent to me by a friend from Klang, Malaysia.

Back to school

Form teacher Low Kee Pow (front row 4th from right)
Class 9Y of 1954 Raffles Institution

When law and order were established we returned to live in Joo Chiat. I attended Choon Guan School at Koon Seng Road to learn Japanese language and writing. I studied Hiragana which was the easier version of Japanese script. The other script, Kata Kana with Kanji was for higher classes. I also learned to sing some Japanese songs. The first song was Kimi Gayo, Japanese National Anthem. Then came 'arukay arukay'. I am not sure of its meaning. It could mean 'walking' as the song was sang when the class walked round and round the playground. There were many other songs such as 'Heitai San Konichiwa' (greeting Japanese soldiers), Kutsu gu Naru and Momo Taro San. My favourite song was 'Momo Taro San'. It was from a Japanese Folklore. There were four characters in the story. Momo Taro San, the little boy and his three friends, a bird, a monkey and a dog. They fought the demons and won. The moral of the story was good over evil. For non school song, I can only remember 'Sinanoyorau', a Japanese love song.

When the British returned to Singaopore, I was registered in the Telok Kurau English School for my primary education. In 1951, I was promoted to secondary school at Raffles Institution It was situated at the junction of Bras Basah Road and North Bridge Road. The school had a very good reputation and I felt elated putting on the school's badge and the white uniform. Wearing long trousers to school also helped my ego that I was an adolescent. I went to school by Singapore Traction Company bus No. 22. It was always crowded and very often I had to stand all the way to school. There were uniformed groups in the school such as cadets, scouts and St John ambulance. I signed up for the cadet corps. During the drill at the school field, I found the world war two .303 rifle was too heavy for me. I must admit that I was a weakling then. I paid $10 to the school to get out of it. It was a lot of money at that time. There were two scout groups in the school, the 2nd Raffles Group and the 32nd Raffles Group. I signed up with the latter until I left the school in 1954.

Chinese New Year At Chai Chee

Chinese New Year then was subdued. There was no fire crackers to welcome the new year. Children and adults had no new clothes and shoes to put on as time was hard.
Re-union dinner was confined to family members within the house. There was no visitors as public transport was scarce. Furthermore, our friends and relatives were scattered in different parts of the island. There was no ang pow for the children. We lived in fear as there was rumour of Japanese atrocities in other parts of Singapore.


Chinese New Year In Early
Post War Years

Preparation started in earnest a few days before the Chinese New Year. Children and adults had their hair cut. Parents bought new shoes for the children to visit relatives and friends. Fire crackers came in two sizes. The big ones, red in colour came in a square packet. The small ones, red and green in colours came in a rectangular box. The noise of fire crackers could be heard a few days before the new year. It became more intense as the festival drew nearer. The din of the crackers continued to the end of the festival. On the last day, just before midnight there was heavy firing of crackers on the road. Shops in the neighbourhood challenged one another to show off. The road was filled with thick smoke caused by the fire crackers and motor vehicles had to move very slowly to avoid accident and fires. When the firing of crackers stopped, the neighbourhood was extremely quiet. The road was carpeted with red papers from the crackers. But, the festivity went on with friends and neighbours gathering inside the house to gamble.

Granpa's Rubber Estates

The War Period
My grandfather owned a rubber estate and a facotry to process latex into rubber sheets, in Chai Chee, Changi. He employed Javanese workers to tap latex from the rubber trees. They were housed near the factory as they had to start work before sunrise each morning. In the afternoons they collected latex from the trees and brought them in containers to the factory.

Manufacturing of rubber: Latex collected from the trees were put into flat metal trays and mixed with formic acids to coagulate and harden the rubber. The solid rubber went through a pressing machine with two rollers to make solid rubber into rubber sheets. The rollers could be adjusted to obtain the required thickness. Next, the rubber sheets were put through a similar machine to press out a design. The last part was to put the company's name onto the rubber sheets by using a stencil. The wet rubber sheets were taken to the two storey smoke house to dry. The final product were packed into bales and exported to Europe and America. During the war, production of rubber in the rubber estate stopped completely.

Grandpa  evacuated all his families from Joo Chiat Road to his rubber estate in Chai Chee. The 2 storey smoke house and one of the workers' quarters were hurriedly converted into dwellings for us to stay. Both buildings were close to each other. The smoke house was on a higher ground which slopes down to the workers' quarters. Third grandma and her children lived in the converted single storey workers' quarters. The rest lived in the 2 storey smoke house. We dug an underground air raid shelter. As there was no time to dig a large one for everybody, it was decided to put only the children and women there. The men had to hide somewhere, usually behind the rubber trees. When we heard the 'alarm' signal (wailing blasts signal) that an air raid or shelling was imminent, all lights were put off and we went immediately to the air raid shelter. Once inside there was complete silence. All of us were very frightened and waited anxiously for the Japanese planes to go away. Men hidden under trees looked up towards the sky for Japanese planes as well as smoke trails left by the firing of British anti aircraft guns. When the 'all clear' signal (continuous blasts) sounded, we left the shelter for home. The air raid shelter was covered with coconut leaves on the top as comouflage. It was dark, stuffy and warm, and often flooded on a wet day.

News came to the estates that Japanese forces had landed in Singapore inspite of the causeway linking Singapore and Johore was blown up by the British. Fierce fighting continued for a week. Finally the British surrendered to the Japanese Imperial Forces on 15 February 1945 which happened to be first day of the Chinese New Year. Basic food items such as rice, cooking oil, sugar and salt previously obtainable easily and cheaply were then hard to come by except through black market. We had to supplement rice with tapioca and sweet potatoes from our vegetable garden. Meat came from my mother's  poultry and pigs farm. She also made coconut oils for cooking. There was a wet market which was about 600 km from our house. Occasionally we went there to buy provisions such as rice, sago flour and others.

I remembered how my mother made coconut oils. It was a very simple process.

Method

1 She grated some coconuts(can't remember how many) into a container and added some water. A piece of white cloth was used to squeeze out the coconut milk into a pail.

2 She covered the pail of coconut milk and kept it overnight.

3 Next morning she scooped the the scum of oil above the water and put it into a kwali(Chinese frying wok) to cook until oil was produced.

4 The contents were allowed to cool before the sediments in the oil was removed. The oil was put in bottles by means of a funnel.

My elder brother worked for the Japanese military and every evening brought home cooked rice and coffee given by the Japenese. My father sawn rubber trees for fire wood. I liked to swim with other kids in the stream nearby. We also catched fish, prawns and eels there. The water was cool and clear, and appeared clean until animal carcasses floated down from upstream. Fronting the house was a very tall mango tree (buah quini in Malay). The fruits were very sweet with a very strong mango smell. I loved the fruits and always waited for them to drop. But, I had to be quick to pick them up or the pig would eat them. There were bushes and undergrowth around the mango tree. The pig could smell the fruit better than human eyes could see.

Water supply was from a well, about 200 meters from the house. It was a crude well with undergrowth inside and around the mouth of the well. My mother fell into the well once. Fortunately, she got hold of the undergrowth and shouted for help, and was rescued. A properly constructed well with cement apron and concrete wall was far away. Many villagers used that well and was often crowded. Occasionally my mum would go there to wash clothes. We had a latrine but no bucket. In fact, it was not necessary. The faeces would be eaten by the pigs. Papers and news prints were scarce and leaves from nearby trees were used as toilet papers.

The rubber estate had many durian, rambuttan, mango, jackfruit, pomelo and other fruit trees. During the durian season, a small wooden hut was built near the trees. We made torches out of dried coconut leaves. At night my dad and I would be in the hut waiting for the fruits to drop. We got a good harvest when there was a strong wind. Not only we had to listen to the durians' dropping but also to keep the mosquitoes away. In the morning we brought the fruits back and distributed them to family members and friend.

When the situation in Joo Chiat became normal again we returned to our old home to start our new lives under the Japanese occupation.

No 73 Joo Chiat Road (continue)

I grew up at No 73 Joo Chiat Road. The best time for me then was before WWII. I was below school going age and had a carefree life with no stress and worry, and everything was taken care of by the adults. I like to play marbles, hide and seek and spinning disused bicycle wheel (wheel frame without spokes) with a bamboo stick. I could keep the wheel going for a long distance without it falling to the ground. It took some skills to balance the wheel and to change directions, either to the left or to the right and also on non metal road where the ground was rough and undulating. I also liked to play spinning top (gasing in Malay) and challenged with friends to see whose top could spin longer. But I disliked playing striking match because it was dangerous. Each player tried to knock out his opponent's top with his own. While doing so, it could accidently hit somebody instead. Having played with friends the whole day, I usually returned home with my clothes dusty and dirty.

Left to right: My elder brother, I and my parents.

Before WWII, the people who lived in the house were my two grandmothers, my uncle and an aunt (from second grandmother), my parents, my elder brother and me. My four younger sibblings were not yet born. Grandfather lived nearby along the same road with third grandmother. He came to the house occasionally for visits. I remembered going to Happy World amusement park with my parents. The park was a popular entertainment place for adults and children in the eastern part of Singapore. It had a mixture of both the western and the easterm entertainments such as Chinese opera, bangsawan(peranakan opera), cinemas for Chinese and English movies, a caberet and a joget(dance) also called ronggeng. Ronggeng was like a caberet. The different was that it had an open dance stage with Malay dance girls. Dancing with the girls were paid for in the form of coupons. Malay dance music was provided and sometimes accompanied by singers. There were gaming, shops and photo studios in the amusement park. The photo above was taken at one of the studios. At the centre of the park was an indoor covered stadium for sports matches such as boxing, wrestling, and basket ball. In 1952 it was the venue for the world badminton championship, The Thomas Cup. I was a scout and our troop was asked to be on duty as ushers and I watched the matches free. I felt very proud when we won the Cup.

Towards the end of 1941 I registered for primary school in Choon Guan English School at Koon Seng Road. But, World War II had already started. On 8 December 1941 Japan invaded Malaya (now West Malaysia) and on the same day dropped the first bomb in Singapore. The people got panic and many evacuated from town and suburban areas to the rural areas where it were safer.

My grandfather had a rubber estate in Chai Chee, Changi and he moved all his families there.