i grew up in a paya lebar kampong. my address was 139g paya lebar road, singapore 14 (?). my parents had rented a room from an old couple whom we called chew sim and chew chek (auntie & uncle chew). my kampong was next to a huge red dirt track beside what is today the institute of technical education (ite). we called this track ang-tor-lor or red mud track in hokkien. it eventually became the pan island expressway. mine was a very disorganised yet charming kampong with small clusters of zinc and attap houses. within each cluster, there was a communal compound where families would meet and chat in the evenings. my cluster had a communal well and a fowl hut where my landlord reared chicken and ducks. we occasionally harvest fresh eggs from these fowls :-)
my home was a small zinc roofed room. it was a simple one room with a bed in the center. being located in the midst of muddy and wet wastelands, the place was infested with houseflies and mosquitoes and we had to sleep in mosquito nets. once a while, we do get wild animals coming into our compound. there was once when we found a python coiled in our food basket in our kitchen. apprently, the python had laid some eggs in food basket. chew chek eventually released the python and the eggs into the fields beside ite. our food had to be covered to prevent houseflies from buzzing around them. my pass time as such, was catching houseflies using plastic bags. as kids, we would share secrets on catching houseflies. one of the most effective method would involve putting a rubber band in the plastic bag and catching the housefly from its rear. in the evenings, our neighbours would burn rubbish and dry leaves and the smoke would help to keep the mosquitoes at bay. i would once a while throw my plastic bag of houseflies into the fire...
i think there were about 4-5 families living in the same compound as us but vividly i could only remember an indian family and another chinese family. the indian family had an abusive father and 2 kids. the kids were called maliga and thumbi. i remembered how the mother always roll their curried rice into balls in her palm when she fed thumbi. as for the father, he would flog his wife whenever he came home drunk and often we would hear screams coming from their room. the mother committed suicide by hanging herself using her sarong from the beam in their rented room eventually. that was about all i remembered of them; my chinese nighbour had a few children that always pick fights with my sisters (think one of their kids was called michael...) and whenever such fights or dispute happen, my mum would cane my sisters... (regardless of who was rite or wrong, my sisters were always blamed for getting into the way of michael and his gang).
i grew up being very attached to my landlord, especially chew sim; i mourned her death some 30 years later in 1999 (Nov 20). she was like a grandmother to me. they had 3 children. the eldest daughter is called nancy aka ah lan. she was a hairdresser and would eventually give me free haircuts during my teenage years. i cannot recall the second daughter's name (think it is lucy) except that as a small kid, i had problem pronouncing her name, what came out was leh-lio (or radio) and it became her nickname :-). their youngest was a son (again cannot recall his name). this son eventually stole my mum's jewelleries. we kept quiet abt it because we did not want to spoil the good relations with chew sim and chew chek.
life was simple then. i climbed trees, played with chicken and ducks, fished in the streams, etc. i remembered how the neighbourhood would congregate together to eat either green mango or buah jumbu plucked from the trees and soaked in sugar, chilli and black soya sauce. also, i remembered how the small dirt track leading to my house would be layered with red paper on every chinese new year after all the firecrackers were lit. that was before firecrackers were banned in 1973.
we did not have clean water flowing from taps. our water was obtained from a communal well that was located beside an fowl hut that was used to keep chicken and ducks. it was about 20m from my zinc house. once or twice a year, i remembered my landlord climbing into the well to wash the moss off the walls of the well. i always look forward to these occasions for it was when i would have the chance to peer into the well to look for my fish (i once caught a longkow hee - fish from the drain - and dropped them into the well...).
we did not have gas. our cooking was done on a kerosene stove. it was considered a luxury compared to most families who would collect wood from the surrounding and cook by burning these wood.
we did not have electricity. at night, my mum would light a little wick placed in a kerosene container that would burn through the night. it was also this same lighted wick that we would use to navigate our way to the toilet at the back of our home.
we did not have good sanitary and toilet system. our toilet was a wooden enclosure built on an elevated concreted slab. on this slap is a hole where we would squat and shit into the pan at the bottom. it was certainly smell galore and the whole place would be infested with huge black houseflies. and to make things worst, worms were common in those days and you certainly do not want to imagine what you can see squirming inside the pan! it was certainly a superbly grotesque sight by today's standard. but well, it's a norm during those days. and one of my greatest fear was to drop into the sai-tang (pan) that was filled with shit... on a daily basis, we would have the sai-long people come to collect the pans of shit.
not too sure of the exact reason but i believe it was because the government has issued some land compensation package and to clear away squatters like ours that my family eventually moved out of the kampong in 1973. we had to put up with my aunt in toa payoh temporarily while awaiting for our flats to be completed. it was kinda sad for me cos i had planted a mango seedling and nurture it to about my height when i had to move out. the kampong was eventually demolished to make way for development in the mid-late 70s.
we eventually moved to marine parade in jun 1974 and i remained there till i moved into my current house in sep 1998.
my home was a small zinc roofed room. it was a simple one room with a bed in the center. being located in the midst of muddy and wet wastelands, the place was infested with houseflies and mosquitoes and we had to sleep in mosquito nets. once a while, we do get wild animals coming into our compound. there was once when we found a python coiled in our food basket in our kitchen. apprently, the python had laid some eggs in food basket. chew chek eventually released the python and the eggs into the fields beside ite. our food had to be covered to prevent houseflies from buzzing around them. my pass time as such, was catching houseflies using plastic bags. as kids, we would share secrets on catching houseflies. one of the most effective method would involve putting a rubber band in the plastic bag and catching the housefly from its rear. in the evenings, our neighbours would burn rubbish and dry leaves and the smoke would help to keep the mosquitoes at bay. i would once a while throw my plastic bag of houseflies into the fire...
i think there were about 4-5 families living in the same compound as us but vividly i could only remember an indian family and another chinese family. the indian family had an abusive father and 2 kids. the kids were called maliga and thumbi. i remembered how the mother always roll their curried rice into balls in her palm when she fed thumbi. as for the father, he would flog his wife whenever he came home drunk and often we would hear screams coming from their room. the mother committed suicide by hanging herself using her sarong from the beam in their rented room eventually. that was about all i remembered of them; my chinese nighbour had a few children that always pick fights with my sisters (think one of their kids was called michael...) and whenever such fights or dispute happen, my mum would cane my sisters... (regardless of who was rite or wrong, my sisters were always blamed for getting into the way of michael and his gang).
i grew up being very attached to my landlord, especially chew sim; i mourned her death some 30 years later in 1999 (Nov 20). she was like a grandmother to me. they had 3 children. the eldest daughter is called nancy aka ah lan. she was a hairdresser and would eventually give me free haircuts during my teenage years. i cannot recall the second daughter's name (think it is lucy) except that as a small kid, i had problem pronouncing her name, what came out was leh-lio (or radio) and it became her nickname :-). their youngest was a son (again cannot recall his name). this son eventually stole my mum's jewelleries. we kept quiet abt it because we did not want to spoil the good relations with chew sim and chew chek.
life was simple then. i climbed trees, played with chicken and ducks, fished in the streams, etc. i remembered how the neighbourhood would congregate together to eat either green mango or buah jumbu plucked from the trees and soaked in sugar, chilli and black soya sauce. also, i remembered how the small dirt track leading to my house would be layered with red paper on every chinese new year after all the firecrackers were lit. that was before firecrackers were banned in 1973.
we did not have clean water flowing from taps. our water was obtained from a communal well that was located beside an fowl hut that was used to keep chicken and ducks. it was about 20m from my zinc house. once or twice a year, i remembered my landlord climbing into the well to wash the moss off the walls of the well. i always look forward to these occasions for it was when i would have the chance to peer into the well to look for my fish (i once caught a longkow hee - fish from the drain - and dropped them into the well...).
we did not have gas. our cooking was done on a kerosene stove. it was considered a luxury compared to most families who would collect wood from the surrounding and cook by burning these wood.
we did not have electricity. at night, my mum would light a little wick placed in a kerosene container that would burn through the night. it was also this same lighted wick that we would use to navigate our way to the toilet at the back of our home.
we did not have good sanitary and toilet system. our toilet was a wooden enclosure built on an elevated concreted slab. on this slap is a hole where we would squat and shit into the pan at the bottom. it was certainly smell galore and the whole place would be infested with huge black houseflies. and to make things worst, worms were common in those days and you certainly do not want to imagine what you can see squirming inside the pan! it was certainly a superbly grotesque sight by today's standard. but well, it's a norm during those days. and one of my greatest fear was to drop into the sai-tang (pan) that was filled with shit... on a daily basis, we would have the sai-long people come to collect the pans of shit.
not too sure of the exact reason but i believe it was because the government has issued some land compensation package and to clear away squatters like ours that my family eventually moved out of the kampong in 1973. we had to put up with my aunt in toa payoh temporarily while awaiting for our flats to be completed. it was kinda sad for me cos i had planted a mango seedling and nurture it to about my height when i had to move out. the kampong was eventually demolished to make way for development in the mid-late 70s.
we eventually moved to marine parade in jun 1974 and i remained there till i moved into my current house in sep 1998.
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