Siang Lim Park - My Early Kampong Days ( 50's -70's )

INDEX TO PLACES IN SIANG LIM PARK ( circa 1950’s-1970’s)
This is based on Dick Yip’s recollections as of 24 Oct 2009 on the amended
location map drawn by hand. It shows the layout as it roughly was in the 1950’s
onwards.

Y = Corner house # 94. That was the home of our Yippie family from long before W W 2. It was strategically located. Everyone seemed to know us, especially my dear mother whom they respectfully called “ ah Yee ”.

1.  This is not not the number of the house. It’s my own simple code to identify certain interesting spots. This was the home of our long-time opposite neighbour who dealt in watches.
2. Home of a rich retired towkay who was the Godfather of my younger
Sister, Flo. We called him “ Kai Yeh”. He had a son named Steven.
When his old wife passed away, he lived on with his 3rd wife .
She had an adopted daughter named Rose who studied at Tg Katong Girls School.
She requested me to tutor her in English for $10 a month ( 1965-66 ).
Rose was my first ever pupil in tuition and I wasn't a teacher yet. Only qualification....
Unk Dicko had scored an A1 for English in Cambridge O level Exams, one of only two

who achieved that in my year, out of a few hundred who sat. It was rare in those days.

 

3. Diagonally opposite was this corner unit located next to the Malay
keramat. Ownership changed hands many times. This was reputedly
the most haunted house in Siang Lim Park…and I personally saw
some of the most eerie and scariest things to justify that label.
( Will require a full blogpost to tell the story ).

4. The Malay keramat behind and next to the haunted unit. This
keramat was related to the other one at Reference # 10. Both the
keramats had a very long, early history and pre-dated the pre-war
houses in our kampong.

5. This was also the house next to the keramat but suffered no spirit
or ghostly problem.

6. Home of my former Primary school classmate Tang Yew Kay. By sheer
coincidence or whatever, we both won the GES PTA Scholarship
Award for Best all round student …only 2 top Awards, in 1960. Both
his older brothers were teachers while a sister was a nurse.

7. On this corner unit lived a beautiful Eurasian lady named Jeannete.

She was one of the best dressed and best looking ladies in our kampong,
with birdnest hairdo, nice outfit and makeup. 

I remember saying "Hi Janet !" when we kids were playing near her unit and

she would  always "Hi -----" back to me and us. She was very friendly

and had a sweet disposition.

8. This was the house of my elder brother’s good friend and school mate,
Sum Peng Kong. He was a very good athlete and footballer in GES.
He later became a traffic cop, looking resplendent as he rode his
Police Norton bike into our kampong lane ( sand, earth, broken stones ).

9 Here lived Eddie, my childhood kampong friend. We used to play
marbles, used homemade catapults to shoot birds, fly kites etc.
He recently retired as a primary school principal. He is a true-blue Peranakan.

10. This was the other keramat linked to Ref # 4. It will take a major
blogpost to talk about these two historical Malay tombs and some
of the strange happenings connected with them.
[ Much more to come..... ]