Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's part 3.

22. The house of a leading Malay musician. He had 3 sons. The youngest Ahmad, was a close childhood friend of mine. The 2nd son was Dahlan.

23. This corner terrace was the home of an Indian Muslim family. The two sons Salim and Mat were family friends. Salim was one of the naughtiest kids living there. He often got into all sorts of trouble and
disappeared from the scene. His older brother Mat was just like “baba” Ref#15 and we treated him almost like a family member. Baba and Mat ( nicknamed Tikus) used to play mahjong with my parents and other family members, myself included. They learnt how to
play really well from the two old masters. As they played, they spoke in either Pasar Malay or in Cantonese! That’s how to learn a language…through a game situation or commom pastime.
24. This house facing Guillemard Road was the home of my dear friend and one of the most colourful characters that lived in Siang Lim Park. His name Charlie Tan Boon Seng..the late. I have blogged a little about him in my post titled” One day when we were younger”. Read the post HERE. This larger than life figure deserves a major blogpost dedicated to his memory. He led an exciting life. Whenever our kampong people saw him approaching they would whisper..." Tua kow lai liao ! Tua kow lai liao! " Why did they refer to him as "Tua kow" ( big dog - hokkien connotation for someone holding an important, senior post or a person with powerful authority )? Was it his 2 meter height and size or was there more than meets the eye? Find out in my special post about this special man. He had a younger brother Ben who was also a teacher like him. I knew Ben too.

25. The house where some supposedly “ bapoks” lived. One was called " Jeffrey ". 

26. House of another kampong friend Milan Loh. Milan, in modern times, rose to be President of the S'pore Tae Kwon Do Federation. The Adviser for the TKD federation is my good friend Dr Lau Teik Soon, former S’goon Gardens MP.
27. Have you heard of a politician named Mak Pak Shee in the 50’s and early 60's? This was where he used to live. In the 1955 General Elections, he won the Geylang seat under the Labour Front (LF) led by David Marshal. The PAP only contested 4 seats winning 3. LF went on to form the Government with David Marshal becoming the 1st Chief Minister of Singapore. Mak Pak Shee was appointed Asst Minister for Labour and Social Welfare. I was aquainted with his sons Kok Weng and Kok Kay.

28. In our kampong, many of the families knew my mother well. Perhaps, because of our strategic location, housewives and grandmas on their daily walk to the nearby makeshift “market” ( Ref “M” ), would stop by to chat or gossip with my mum. She had many friends. One of them lived here…the house of a genuine Bibik who spoke Cantonese and Baba Malay. Bibik’s son was Kok Poh, a studious boy who was not allowed to mix with other kampong kids. There were other kids in similar straits too. Bibik was a very good “See-sek” and mahjong player and she, as well as a few others, were regular visitors to our home. I will remember her fondly as she always had good words and a soft spot for unk Dicko…from when I was a kiddo!

29. This is the “Big “ one! See the red star on the map? It was along this row of houses that the biggest Gunfight in Siang Lim Park history erupted on Thursday, 5 August 1965. Did you notice the date?

It was only 4 days after this major incident that Singapore separated from Malaysia ...on Monday, 9th August 1965! What a momentous and unforgettable week that was.

Anyway, what really happened on that fateful day of August 5 1965?

The full report was in the Straits Times papers the day after ie..6 August. I have been searching among my original archives but have not found the clips yet. Certainly some of my files could have been misplaced or lost over the years or even inadvertently sold to karang guni men by family members or by my previous maids. My home has undergone major renovation several times. I can't blame any of them if they had done that as the old papers were not labelled or organised properly at that time. 1965 to today 2009 is a 45 year timespan and most people would have thrown out such "junk" anyway! Fortunately...not me ! Otherwise readers will not be able to enjoy the ' tons' of interesting and captivating articles and pictures I have lovingly saved. Another resource I have are my personal diaries from those early years.For a personal eye-witness account of that day...check out my next post tomorrow.

Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's, part 2.

11 House facing Guillemard Road where Agnes lived. She was a family friend and was a regular at our home.

12 Albert Liew, another old family friend and regular visitor, lived here. In his compound he had some very good guava trees of the red variety and a most tempting “buah kedong-dong” tree with lovely fruits. His kampong nickname, which still sticks till this day ( we remain in touch ), is “buah long long ". Yes..that's what we all fondly called him.

13 This was the home of a well-known Malay film actor Aziz Jaafar.He starred in many Malay films from the 50’s, 60's onward. When he wasn’t acting, he was just like anyone of us ordinary folks in the kampong.
We kampong folks were very proud that we had him in our midst. His home was just a minute walk from ours. This legendary actor passed away in 2005, aged 73. I will do a separate post about him.

14 An Indian family lived here. Yaswant and Yanti the two sons were our childhood kampong friends. Their home had a very fragrant jambu mawar tree.

15 Another Indian family lived here. The son, Terun Kumar, whom we fondly call “baba” till today ( we are still in touch) is about my younger brother’s age. Of all the kampong kids, he was the closest to us and was treated almost like an adopted son of our family. My late parents, and that included all of us, were very fond of him. So, a major blogpost huh?

16 A very loving chinese couple lived here with their two young kids. He was a driver of a private school bus and she a good homemaker.Tragedy struck one day when they went to a picnic at Pasir Ris.He got into difficulty in the sea and drowned. The devastated poor wife took it
upon herself to bring up the family after that heart-rending event. She learnt driving and took over the role of the late husband. Not many women could pass driving in those days.

17 The house of Mr Seow Cheng Fong who lived with his wife and a pretty daughter. Later, he lived all alone when mum and daughter moved out. Mr Seow or “old man Seow” was one of the most respected figures of our kampong. He was an educationist, lecturer in Literature, theatre and drama and a Shakespearean expert. One of his very dear comrade in politics and close friend was none other than C V DEVAN NAIR, our late former President. Seow Cheng Fong was a founder-member of the Malayan Democratic Union ( MDU) around 1946. Unk Dicko was close to him. He will be covered in some upcoming major posts.

18 This was the corner house at the other end of our same row. My fellow residents of our kampong will remember they had the largest red Jambu Ayer tree which covered the whole compound and outside. Many of us used to climb the tree to pluck the plentiful fruits.. without permission. The family members would sometimes yell weakly and all would descend. But they allowed us to pluck with bamboo poles tied with hooks.

19 Home of my childhood friend William, about a year or two younger than me. He was a gentle giant, good-natured and mild mannered. I received shocking news that he passed away ( sudden illness ) when I was away at OBS in 1969. We were still living there then. Next to his home lived some women of whom my late mother and others referred to in Cantonese as ”tah pow por”. Know what that is? Don't know? Time to learn some Cantonese...haha.

20 There were only two shops in the whole of Siang Lim Park. This was the Indian “mamak” provision shop. The owner and boss was very close to us as we were just opposite him.

21 This was the other provision shop owned by a Chinese family. They were not as popular as “mamak” because of two reasons:- their prices were slightly higher and they were not as friendly.

[ Don't miss part 3...next post ]

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..... ]