Great World...recapturing the fun of childhood !

At the opening night of the recreated Great World Amusement park at Sengkang, I made it a point that my 3 older grandkids will get some exposure of the heady excitement of those days, 50 odd years ago.
I am referring to the tikam stalls and the stalls offering games that required some " skill " to carry out the challenge. Yes, it's actually a challenge of sorts but always tilted heavily in favour of the stall operator nevertheless.
Despite the not so obvious disadvantages known or unknown to the potential participants, many simply could not resist the " it looks so easy, mum...I want to try it! " attraction.
So, many doting dads and mums and grandmums like my wifey queued up flashing shiny $ 50 notes to buy more than the required number of tokens. Each token cost $3 which is the minimum for any game or tikam stall.

One of the popular 'skill' stall is the shooting gallery. There are 3 air-pop guns that shoot the bottlecork out of the muzzle. The targets are any of the 3 pingpong balls placed on a bottle each.
It look pretty easy and straight forward before trying. The distance is slighty 2.5 metres only.
This white-haired gentleman was the first to have a go. He looked every inch an ex-SAF trained commando. Taking proper careful aim...remembering all the shooting cues, he readied, steadied, aimed and fired. Three times...pop, pop and pop. He missed all 3 times !
The ping pong balls never shifted an inch.

The guy looked at the gun examining it closely and decided to change for another. His earlier failures goaded him.

He tried taking even better aim but I was sorry to see him miss all 3 shots again.

Meanwhile, my grandsons were watching all this and one of them was hooked.

He wanted very much to have a go probably encouraged by all his playing with the recent fad of

"nerf" guns.

We encouraged him.

Though Unk Dicko was once a classified sharpshooter, I left him alone preferring for him to enjoy the experience on his own.

Unk Dicko carrying the younger grandkid who seemed mesmerised by everything there...the sights, the sounds and the ambience of wonderland.

Probably the most popular attraction in the park is the Bumper Car rides.

Queues started forming as soon as it was opened. Even adults got into the act!

Each car seats 2 persons and cost $ 6 each person. They are controlled electronically. As soon as it starts, an old-time song will be played like "papa loves mambo, mama loves mambo" over the system. The duration of the ride lasts as long as the song lasts.

The fun and thrill in Bumper car rides is to move your car in ways to bump into other cars.

That's why they are called bumper cars.
Much enjoyment, laughter and yells result.

Be prepared that your kids will ask for several repeats like mine did!

This is definitely one activity that reminded me so much of the fun we used to have in those bygone worlds of old.

Now the kids and also older adults get a chance to live or relive those days.

Unk Ringo had come out with this interesting water attraction...a self-powered boat ride.

This is only for kids and is very safe.

Very shallow inflated pool that provides another super dimension of fun for kids.

There are many other attractions in the park. Those who have not been there should make it a point to visit and relive your golden past again.