May 2, 2012 - ST Forum
I WAS amused by the account of Professor Kua Ee Heok's childhood
days in a riparian town in Johor ('Baby boomers turn 65'; last
Saturday).
Unlike Prof Kua, I grew up in Singapore, living in attap houses
in the 1950s when television, iPads and the Internet were unheard
of.
My childhood days were spartan, where we had only our 'charcoal
iron' to iron my school uniforms passed down to me by my elder
brother.
The only music we enjoyed was from the faithful gramophone,
which played songs by Doris Day on the 7-inch record running at
45rpm.
We lived in a Chinese kampung and the thought of visiting a
'bucket toilet' was an unforgettable experience even to this
day.
The early community centres were wooden huts with zinc roofs,
and on weekends, they would come alive with cowboy cinema shows
featuring John Wayne. It was an open-air cinema and the noisy
projector whirred and stopped every 30 minutes as the projectionist
had to change to a new roll of film.
You paid 10 cents if you were sitting on the same side as the
projector, and five cents if you sat on the other side of the
screen as the image was blurred. You brought along your own stool
and when the rain suddenly came, you would have to grab your stool
and run for your life.
We took the rickety Singapore Traction Company trolley buses to
school, and it was sheer joy to board a crowded bus as we could
avoid paying 10 cents to the conductor, who literally kicked us out
if he found that we had exceeded the distance.
The old Raffles Institution in Bras Basah Road brought back
happy memories of our school days, when we could have a plate of
mee rebus for only 10 cents, or 15 cents with an egg thrown in.
Unlike the children of today, we had to resort to second-hand
books bought at the old bookshops near Waterloo Street.
Life was tough in the 1950s, but most of us made it to
university because of our dedicated headmaster and caring teachers,
who saw to the holistic development of every child, even those from
homes with poor parents.
Heng Cho Choon
i recal lthe 50's too..................so good
hor................
the Brits were running the place...................
S'pore was still free of LKY's tyranny....................
back then, Depeche Mode was starting to get
famous..................
