Growing Up In Joo Chiatt

I lived at Joo Chiat Road with my grandmother, an uncle and his family since I was born until 1957. Behind the house was a small kampong where Chinese, Malay and Indian families lived side by side in harmony. As a kid the kampong was my playground and kids learned to speak each others' language easily. A Malay friend's mother not only spoke hokien dialect fluently but also learned to play mahjong and si sek pai ( 4 coloured cards sample below) with her neighbours.

Fronting my house was a vacant area. Actually it was part of the house with wooden pagar (fence) and flower pots on stands on both sides of the pagar. During the war the wooden fence was removed. Illegal hawkers set up stalls there every morning and cooked food hawkers got free water from us. Whenever there was a raid by the Hawkers Department they took refuge in my house. My grandmother was a friendly lady. Kampong folks took advantage and used our house as a short cut to Joo Chiat Road. At peak time in the morning it was like a public thoroughfare.

My uncle's friends were shopkeepers, traders and hawkers in Joo Chiat area. At evening time our house was like a club house. They came to chat and drink beer and hard liquor. But their actual motive was to gamble later. The played pah kow (3 cards), poker or mahjong when there was enough kaki (players). Occasionally two games were played at the same time in the house. It was like a gambling den. My uncle did not gamble as he was the horli (a person who shuffles and distributes cards to the players like a croupier in casino) and collected taxes from the betting pool. I learned the game and at times relieved him as horli.
I could still remember three players clearly. One was the proprietor of a furniture shop aka panjang (lean and tall). He lived nearby. The other was a business man aka ah sia (a rich heir in Teochew dialect). The last guy was the famous laksa hawker aka jangok (he had a few strands of long hairs growing from his chin). The first two guys were opium addicts. Coincidently, there was an opium den behind my house. They always had their puffs first before coming to our house from the back door to join the other players.

Si Sek Pai (Chinese four coloured cards)

In the 1950s Joo Chiat area had many secret societies from gang 24, 18, and other numbers. Their members then were mostly youngsters. They were quick tempered and often resulted in fights. The more serious gang fights were over collections of protection money. When there was a gang war innocent bystanders were common victims. Sometimes I was tipped off not to go near certain area due to impending gang fight. Below are a few newspapers cuttings about gang fights in Joo Chiat. There were much more incidents of gang war in 1950s. So, Joo Chiat area was not a good place to raise a school kid like me.

Newspapers Cuttings of Gang War in Joo Chiat 1950s

Telok Kurau English School (TKES)

Telok Kurau English School was the only English school in the eastern part of Singapore before 1950. It was situated at Lorong J Telok Kurau. I attended that school from 1945 to 1950. I still remember the two-storey timber building with many coconut trees in the vicinity. I understand the area was a coconut grove before the school was built in 1926. Further into Lorong J there was a cattle shed. Everyday the cowherd drove the cattle to graze outside the area and had to pass through the school. Needless to say, there were cowdung everywhere on the road. Walking to school had to be very careful. Anyway it was quite common to step onto the cowdung. The school had a large playground stretching from the school building to Lorong H Telok Kurau. The playground was used for morning physical exercise, footballs, games, athletic practices and annual school sports.

The school gardeners and caretakers lived in quarters within the school compound nearby the school hall. They were allowed to rear chickens but confined to the quarters area. There was a peon (office boy) whose name was Rosland. He was a good natured person, always smiling and obliging. School record stated that Mr Lim Lan San was the first teacher of the school in 1926. When I was there in 1945 he was the vice principal of the school. He lived at Joo Chiat Place and his son Lim Eng Hock was my school mate.


Typical Government primary school buildings in those days.


At background people watching the school sports from Lorong H Telok Kurau


Front sitting from left: Mrs Seow Peck Leng, Mrs Desker & Mr Lee Keng Yew. Mr Lim Lan San sitting fourth from right and the Principal Mr Retnam sitting next to Mr Lim. Back row standing were all trainee teachers posted to the school.

There were two teachers in the school who impressed me. There were:

Miss Boey: I forgot her name as all the school boys addressed her by her surname as Miss Boey. She was a spinster and a very dedicated teacher. She lived in a lane off Changi Road behind a block of building at Telok Kurau Road and Changi Road junction. I was in her class in Standard One. On one occasion a few of us went to her house to play. That was how I came to know where she lived. The narrow lane was not there anymore. It was a private road and the whole area is now replaced by new buildings. Once I saw her teaching a student lessons in the class. After some time she appeared frustrated and trying to control her emotion. Finally she broke down and cried. Later I came to know that no matter how she taught him, he still failed to understand her teaching. A year later, I was told she passed away from an illness. As the saying goes "the good die young".


L to R: Miss Boey & Miss Chia

Mr Lee Keng Yew: I remember him very well because our paths crossed a few times. The first was during the Japanese occupation. He was a school teacher at Koon Seng Road Choon Guan School teaching Japanese and I was in his class. He was tall and thin and had the habit of going straight to the wash-room to wash his hands after each lesson. I believed he wanted to wash away the chalk dusk on his hands. After the war, he was posted to teach at the Telok Kurau English School. During my time the primary school education was seven years, from Pr. I to II and Standard I to V. In 1948 he was teaching Standard III and I was promoted to his class. I remembered his good habit and observed that he was still the same. I also learned that he washed his hands after handling money. Teacher in class collected supplemetary fees from students but not in Japanese school. In fact, his good habit was also known to all his colleagues. During the school holidays he took the class on an excursion to the Botanical Garden. His family also came along. He drove a British made Austin car and parked at the void area near the staircase.


At Singapore Botanical Garden
Mr Lee Keng Yew sitting on the extreme right. His wife on the left and his son at the front turning to look at the camera.

Our paths crossed the third time when he was the Principal of Haig Boys School. I was courting my girl friend (now wife) who was his school clerk in 1957. He had good memory too. When he first saw me in his office, he remembered that I was his student at TKES. He was suprised when I told him that he also taught me Japanese too at Choon Guan School. My memory on the above lingers on and old photographs help to refresh my minds of the past.

Next post: My Joo Chiat Environment

Nullar Road - 2

Concrete staircase from Nallur Road to the beach

I passed Nallur Road every week on my way to Upper East Coast Road. It was quite boring seeing the same scene over and over again. Recently I browsed throught an album that had pictures of my in-laws' house at Nallur Road. It brought me memories that was about half a century ago. My children were very young then and my in-laws helped to look after them during the day. The beach was within walking distance and very often our children played there building sand castles and digging sea shells. When not playing the sand we walked and run on the beach. Unlike Changi beach, there were very few outsiders. Those frequented the beach were residents of Nallur Road and a nearby Chinese kampong.


You know who

A windy day at the beach

Nallur Road was then a no-through road. The houses there were mostly bungalows with large compounds. My children were very lucky that their grand-parents lived there. They enjoyed the open space riding bicycles and running around. Furthermore, I had a dog and 2 rabbits for them to play with. They also played with other kids on the road. Children made friends easily and the adults got to know their neighbours through them.



My nephew like to climb tree

Notice the large open space of old bungalow house

When my eldest daughter was 2 year old we celebrated her birthday and invited friends and their children to her birthday party. It was my first time holding a birthday party for kid and was at a lost. I had to think of the games children played and made the props myself. It was stressful but worth it as I made all the kids happy that day.

My daughter's birthday party.
The children above now are fathers and mothers of their own

The sea at the end of Nallur Road has gone due land reclamation. The bungalows on both sides of the road made way to a number of condominiums. At the twinkling of an eye about 46 years have passed by. The landscape have changed and I am getting more grey hairs. Now when I pass Nallur Road happy scenes flash through my mind.

Photo Quiz

I was going through my old photos when I saw this picture. My grandson then was a few months old. Now he is ten. I wonder how many of you can still remember this scene.


Quiz:

1 Where was this place?
2 What was the name of the place?

KING OF FRUITS

During the Japanese occupation in Singapore, we were living in our rubber estate at Chai Chee, Changi. Within the estate was a durian plantation. The trees were all very tall. During the durian season, there were many durians hanging down from the branches. We had a specially built hut not far from the trees. We slept over night and when the fruits dropped we had to search for them.

Recently I saw pictures of durians growing at the foot of the trees. Whoever owned them need not wait for the fruits to drop for they were there for the picking. I had been to a number of durian plantations in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, but never come across such trees. Pictures below show durians growing at the foot of the trees and tree trunks. I was told they were wild durian trees and were found in the Malaysian jungle. The Malay name for the fruit is Durian Batu. It is also known as durian kura kura (bear fruit at the foot of the tree).

Tiger Year

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. In fact, it is less than a month from now. But, my wife and I shall not be in Singapore. It will be the first time that we broke the tradition to be away instead of staying at home to welcome family members, relatives and friends who came visiting annually.

This new lunar year will be the year of the Tiger. I like the strong, brave and courages tiger. It evokes my memories that my eldest child was born under that zodiac sign. It also gave me the inspiration to paint a family of tiger. I am not am artist and do not have a canvas and oil paints. So, the wall was my canvas. Instead of oil paints, I used ICI or Nippon wall paints mixed with postal colours. My handiwork is shown below.



chuan jia fu

Loan Sharks

"Parliament to get tough on loan sharks" was the prime news in today's Straits Times, Saturday November 21 2009. Looking back, my school literature book The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare had a money lending story. Shylock was a money lender. He was worst than today's loan shark. He demanded from Anthony, a pound of his flesh instead of the money borrowed.

In 1950s I came across different category of money lenders. To begin with, there was the Bibik (Nonya) money lenders who makan bunga. Makan bunga literally means eat flowers. It actually means gain interest. The Bibik were not from rich family. Most of them were widows or outcasts as depicted in the story of 'Little Nonya' tv show. They were poor and had to support their family. Lending money business gave them flexible time to look after the children as well as seeing clients. A Bibik money lender usually carried an umbrella in her hand while going on her rounds to look for prospective clients and also to collect money from her borrowers. She knew all her borrowers well and lending money was based on trust. My wife's aunt was a widow with a child. Her husband died when the child was still very young. So, she became a money lender to earn interests to feed the family. Mother and child survived on the interest earned until the child was of age to work. Next was the strong arm type of loan sharks. They set up illegal loan companies. I remember one in Joo Chiat area. He was from my kampong and so were all his runners. His borrowers were mostly trishaw riders and street hawkers. In those days borrowers were given the full loan amount. Unlike today, a borrower did not get the full sum as he had to pay upfront for the first installment of the loan. Loan payment then was weekly and there was no harrassment of payment. But when a borrower was 2 weeks in arrears, he was hauled up to the loan company's office and beaten up. He was released only after a stern warning to pay up.

Another type of loan shark was known as 'sapuloh dua'. It means that for every $10 borrowed, $2 interest was charged. Usually the borrowers were white collar workers. In those days we had our salary in cash which was put in an envelope and called 'pay packet'. On pay day, all office workers had to queue up at the cashier's counter to take their pay. But, outside the cashier's office was loan sharks looking eagerly for their clients. Those who wanted to avoid them would collect their pay on another day or when the loan sharks were not around. There was no strong arm method to get payment. But I do not know how the problem was solved between them.

Today's loan sharks used a different method to get their money back. They used unrelenting and ruthless ways of harassment in getting the debtors to pay up. Sometimes innocent people was victimised and private as well as public properties were vandalised.