Pasir Ris Beach in 1950s

The Straits Times Thursday 31 July 2008

When I saw the article on the left published in today's Straits Times, I cannot help thinking of the good old days when we had picnic after picnic at Pasir Ris beach, especially at the stretch between the PA Pasir Ris Holiday Complex and the Pasir Ris Hotel (already demolished). There were a lot of trees to provide shades. Besides having picnics, we also swam in the sea and camped by the beach overnight on week-ends. My previous blog also showed combined picnic by boy scouts and girl scouts at Pasir Ris beach.









In middle of 1950s Singapore's first Mayor
organised a picnic at Pasir Ris Beach for his staff and
their families. I and my then girl friend were there. Photo on the left shows some City Council staff and their families resting under the canvas shade.













Three ladies were taking a stroll fronting the carpark. The cars were mostly Morris or Austin of various models. A Baby Austin or A40 was behind the lady on the right. There was no Japanese car then.












The sea was very safe for swimming then as the swimmers in the background could testify.




No need to say, you know who lah!








The beach had to be very clean on that day as the mayor himself was there to ensure it. The man with long pants in the background was the Mayor. You can also see a cleaner cleaning the beach behind the lady in the photo.

4th of July

4th of July family dinner celebration at the back garden.











Displayed of fireworks fronting home

American Day of lndependance celebrated in a grand fashion in big cities in US as seen in the TV. There were long parades and floats with music and celebrities, and thousands of people gathered on both sides of the road to give cheers and applauses. My experience in an American suburb was different. The day before the celebration we drove in the neighbourhood and discovered a parade route. Residents reserved places with chairs fronting their homes on both sides of the road to watch the parade. I did not see the parades as it was held in the morning and everybody in the house got up late. However, we had a family dinner to celebrate the 4th of July as shown in the photo. In summer at 7.30 pm it was still daylight. Earlier on, my son bought about US$100 worth of fireworks from a stall at a mall's carpark for the celebration at night. Where we lived very few families participated in the fireworks, except those with children. Neighbours not taking part came out to watch the fireworks and chat. We had a friend living in Anaheim, just behind Disneyland. After finishing our fireworks we drove there to watch the fireworks from Disneyland. The fireworks is comparable to what we had in Singapore during the National Day display. It was very colourful and brilliant with many different formations. It started at about 9.30 pm just before closing time. We watched for about 10 minutes and was invited to the house for supper. That ended my experience with the 4th of July celebration in America.

Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts Picnic

In 1953 the Livingstone Patrol of the 32nd Raffles had a combined picnic with a Girl Scout group. It was arranged by a mutual friend who knew the Scout Mistress. Pasir Ris then was still a semi jungle. The coastal area was full of coconut trees with some clearings. We pitched our tent in one of the open area as shown in the left photo.

Group Photo

A story telling

Ooops! I forgot my line.

A guessing game (charade)

A blind catching a blind

Poor fellow! Anyway we all had fun.

Another group photo

Scout Signalling Competition

Flag Semaphore is used for conveying information by visual means. Information is encoded by the position of the flags. It is used between ships, and ships to shore and vice versa, especially during daylight.

32nd Raffles Signalling Team

The 32nd Raffles group entered a few scout crafts competitions with other scout groups. They were tent pitching, bridge building, signalling and others. I remembered the signalling competition well for we practised very hard for it. Everyday after school, we would go to the field behind the school building to practice sending and receiving morse code and flag semaphore. The competition was held in St Andrew School ground at Woodsville Road. They were all in morse codes which were in dots and dashes to represent letters and numerals. Morse codes came in the form of sound, light flashes and hand held triangular flags movements known as semaphore.

Each team was split into 2 groups with each group sending a fixed messange to the other. The team that send the message with the fastest speed and accuracy, would be declared the winner. I forgot which scout team won. Most likely we lost.

A Rope Bridge Anchor

Last Friday 23 May 08, I walked passed St Patrick's School on the Marine Parade Road side and saw a group of boy scouts climbing onto a rope bridge anchor. It's the same type of bridge anchor that we built during our pioneer camp at Bedok. I could not help going into the school compound to snap the above picture. Intitially, I was stopped by the leader. But, after my explanantion that I was a scout before and the bridge anchor brought me fond memory, he allowed me to do so. As in the photo, the boys were still tying the knots to the upper part of the anchor. I passed St Patrick School very often and hope to see more scout activities from the boy scouts.

Scout 1 -Camping

Livingstone Patrol had annual camp at different parts of the island. The most memorable camp was at Tanah Merah hillock behind the Changi Prison. It was my first scout camp and I learned to be independant. I cooked and washed for the first time. Not bad eh! We had our camp at the small clearing facing the sea. It was breezy and water supply was from a nearby spring coming from the hill. We used the water from the spring for cooking, washing and bathing.

Visitors in scout uniform

Hey, I can cook!

Wow, my cooking it's yummy!

Guests walking to the camp

Guests enjoying my cooking!

Continuous flow of spring water

Washing up

Last day of camp

Preparing to break camp

Scout Pioneer Camp

Combined Pioneer Camp April 1953

Building A Rope Bridge

I was encouraged to enroll for the Second Class Badge. I learned various scout crafts and passed the test for the badge. I also had scout standard badges, like Handiman, First Aid, Astronomer and Despatch Rider. For Pioneer badge, I attended a combined camp conducted by the South Western District. The camp was held at Bedok English School ground but the activities were carried out across the road opposite the school. Our final test was to build a rope bridge. The combined troop was divided into 2 groups. Each group built an A-frame structure. Next was tying the rope to the 2 A-frame anchors standing apart at a certain distance. After completion we checked the tension of the rope. It was good and a scout was sent across from one side to the other. The scout master, a teacher from ACS was satisfied with the construction of the bridge. It was all team effort and we were given the Pioneer Badge Class certificate each. It enabled us to purchase the badge from the Scout House at Armenian Street.

Pioneer Badge Certificate