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.