THE YEARS -1940's, 50's , 60's...by Patrick Teoh
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Thanks...to add on...
We survived the hot weather with nake top without fan. Air cond are never heard of. A wet towel over our back was the best way to cool ourselves.
We walked to sch regardless the weather condition, without any complains.
Those in the afternoon session queue outside the classroom and rubbed shoulders with the morning session in the classroom when the latter finished the session.
Teacher whacked us with ruler and we dared not to tell our parents. Otherwise will ganna whacked second time at home. We would still go to the sch next day.
For outing, we waited patiently for the bus. Bus ticket conductor must knock metal part of seat to ask you to pay money (so noisy and yet no one complain). The ticket punched with holes to indicate the journey.
If too many of us going out, it would be more worthwhile to get a private taxi (ba wan che) but have to cram into it like sardine. But we are happy to take a car instead of bus!
When we saw the 36-doors vehicle :yikes: , we all run away.
We played qu-chee qu-chee using bottle caps and othelo using the 'meat' of the bottle cap.
[Ai yo, a lot to add... someone else to continue pls]
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nonKiasu:
36 doors this Guy is sure very rich ....he carry black gold :rotflmao: :rotflmao:Thanks...to add on...
When we saw the 36-doors vehicle :yikes: , we all run away.
We played qu-chee qu-chee using bottle caps and othelo using the 'meat' of the bottle cap.
[Ai yo, a lot to add... someone else to continue pls]
Babies feed on condensed milk and they still grow chubby and cute
the better one have Wood's \"fai chai swui\"
Baby chair is made out of wooden box free from grocery Uncle shop
Busy Mom let 4 months baby self feed, with towel tuck below bottle.
We got to collect free milk powder in Paperbags....
We buy whitechick for 5 sen each and feed them with \"croakroaches'
caught running around the backyard squash into a bottle ... :faint:
We can slide down 12 steps of a HDB staircase in one leap all the way down
10 floors faster than the lift .. :evil:
Our enrichment classes is the field with a basketball court with no net
and it absolutely free and available 24/7....peak periods is 4 to 6pm everyday
when the whole HDB block of children congregate,no supervision needed
we self regulate with an ocassional small injury :boogie:
A family trip to the Changi point beach is like a trip oversea
:snuggles: :hugs: :hugs: :celebrate: -
kekeke… only the poor knows what is that 36-door vehicle. Ya, it carried ‘gold’, a great fertilizer in the field. And it’s free! My boys can’t imagine how our toilet was then and how the poo was being removed daily.
Actually, I didn’t add in the free orchestra symphony during every raining day bec it’s only applicable to the poor. We used up every pails and basin in the house to hold the dripping rain thru our roof! Used to hate this free music but now, sort of missed it. -
What is 36 door vehicle? School bus??!!
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peapot:
What is 36 door vehicle? School bus??!!
No, it's a truck. The truck will travel household to household to collect poo. Each door contained a poo container. At each household, the poo collector will get 2 emtpy containers from 2 doors, carried them thru a stick at shoulder, one at each end. Don't know how to say....the way he carried was like the shao lin monk carry 2 buckets water from the river. Walked thru our house door to the toilet, replace the filled container with the empty one. And hei, yo, hei, yo, carried the filled one back to the truck, again like the shao lin monk carrying water. But of course, the containers were closed. But still deem smelly.
Actually, I can't remember exactly how the truck looked like now (e.g colour, etc) bec we all ran away when the smell reached us first before the sight. -
Oh! I see. Thks for explanation.
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Oh ya, some images of life back then still remain…
Applying for a passport was a whole day affair sitting at the "naturally ventilated" passport office at Empress Place.
Dating girls was by trial and error. We would estimate a time when her parents were not home, then go to a public phone with some 10-cent coins and call her home (we called from public phones because we were afraid that a protective parent may ask Singapore Telecoms to trace our home number, and we would be found out). If her parents picked up the phone, we would quickly hang up. Try again the next day.
I still remember that dial phone we had at home. Dial a digit by pushing the dial clockwise then wait for the dial to go back anti-clockwise to original position, then dial the next digit. Sometimes we would get impatient and use our finger to push the dial back to original position faster. Crosslines were not uncommon, so sometimes we got to hear other people’s private conversations!
The occasional late night laksa and rojak, the weekend family trip to Orchard Road open air hawker centre (opposite the 2-storey Cold Storage building), were all special treats. Always couldn’t wait to dig out the inner lining of bottle caps to see what picture was printed there, hoping to win something.
Cold Storage’s most direct competitor was Fitzpatrick’s.
No electronic musical instruments yet, so the RTS band used those blaring trumpets for every song in their "variety shows". Oh my gosh…and the bands were made of old guys wearing ugly grey suits with black lapels.
TV wasn’t 24 hours and daily broadcast commenced only in the evenings. There were only four channels: RTS 5, RTS 8, RTM 3, RTM 10. For some strange reason, TVs always came in their own cabinets with four legs.
In my earlier years, when we fell sick and needed to sponge ourselves with warm water, the only way was to boil a kettle of water, then mix it with cold water in a basin to get warm water.
My neighbour had a white Fiat 124, always parked behind my parents’ yellow Datsun 100A.
Marine Parade didn’t exist yet. It was still the sea.
Bata’s "Badminton Master" was the trendiest pair of shoes one could wear to school, but they had to be whitewashed with Kiwi every now and then.
Brylcreem was the most popular hair dressing for guys. Crocodile was the most popular underwear.
Stealing my neighbour’s jackfruit from the tree was much easier back then, because hidden surveillance cameras have not be invented yet.
Having 10 bucks made me feel rich. I saved hard for a whole school year just to reach 10 bucks.
We never bothered about the ethnicities of our classmates or neighbours. We all got along just fine.
Those times will never come back… -
Scorpion:
Scorpion :please:Oh ya, some images of life back then still remain....
Applying for a passport was a whole day affair sitting at the \"naturally ventilated\" passport office at Empress Place.
Dating girls was by trial and error. :love: We would estimate a time when her parents were not home, then go to a public phone with some 10-cent coins and call her home (we called from public phones because we were afraid that a protective parent may ask Singapore Telecoms to trace our home number, and we would be found out). If her parents picked up the phone, we would quickly hang up. Try again the next day. :imsorry:
I still remember that dial phone we had at home. Dial a digit by pushing the dial clockwise then wait for the dial to go back anti-clockwise to original position, then dial the next digit. Sometimes we would get impatient and use our finger to push the dial back to original position faster. Crosslines were not uncommon, so sometimes we got to hear other people's private conversations! :slapshead:
The occasional late night laksa and rojak, the weekend family trip to Orchard Road open air hawker centre (opposite the 2-storey Cold Storage building), were all special treats. Always couldn't wait to dig out the inner lining of bottle caps to see what picture was printed there, hoping to win something.
Cold Storage's most direct competitor was Fitzpatrick's.
No electronic musical instruments yet, so the RTS band used those blaring trumpets for every song in their \"variety shows\". Oh my gosh....and the bands were made of old guys wearing ugly grey suits with black lapels. :love:
TV wasn't 24 hours and daily broadcast commenced only in the evenings. There were only four channels: RTS 5, RTS 8, RTM 3, RTM 10. For some strange reason, TVs always came in their own cabinets with four legs. :snooze:
In my earlier years, when we fell sick and needed to sponge ourselves with warm water, the only way was to boil a kettle of water, then mix it with cold water in a basin to get warm water.
My neighbour had a white Fiat 124, always parked behind my parents' yellow Datsun 100A......
Marine Parade didn't exist yet. It was still the sea.
Bata's \"Badminton Master\" was the trendiest pair of shoes one could wear to school, but they had to be whitewashed with Kiwi every now and then. :imcool:
Brylcreem was the most popular hair dressing for guys. Crocodile was the most popular underwear. :evil:
Stealing my neighbour's jackfruit from the tree was much easier back then, because hidden surveillance cameras have not be invented yet.
Having 10 bucks made me feel rich. I saved hard for a whole school year just to reach 10 bucks. :rahrah:
We never bothered about the ethnicities of our classmates or neighbours. We all got along just fine. :grphug:
Those times will never come back....
First post so Nostalgic
You sound 'rich' from back then ...got car ...got TV ...go Fitzpatricks
got 10 bucks ..........you know what is 10 bucks back then
our TV is the black and white from the Neighbours window ,
\"Slamp shut \" when the crwod start building up ...
we kids just walk away still smiling ...happy to catch a glimpse of our idol :rotflmao: :rotflmao: -
Hi Kiddo,
Actually, I wasn’t from a rich family. Both my parents were common salaried workers.
Fitzpatricks was a once a year thing. So was going to CK Tang for CNY shopping.
Yeah, 10 bucks back then seemed like so much money!! Nowadays just go to KFC and its gone at once.
Haha…your neighbour must be really sick of people peeping into his home. If the same thing happened now, they would probably call the police. -
I vaguely remember a Cold Storage near the current Holland V bus stop. Hope it is not my imagination!
Outram Pk and People's Pk were where we go for our wkend outings...later there was Yaohan @ Plaza Sing....probably the 1st supermart + dept store + amusement centre.
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