for e record

Your dad used to live along Orchard Road up till the age of 6, around e site of e erstwhile OG Orchard Emerald, opposite Specialist's Shopping Centre. Your grandfather & granduncle ran businesses in Chinatown. e family was rich, able to afford servants & a house in e Orchard area. Your greatgrandmother was a sinseh who would give free consultations, medicines & even angpows to e poor.

By e time your dad was 6, your grandfather & granduncle had gambled away everything. Singapore was also hit by recession after e Korean War. The family had to move into an attap house owned by your grandfather's friend in Hougang, near today's Blk 232 Hougang Ave 1 (where your maternal grandmother, her eldest son & his family were resettled after e government took away your mother's kampung land) in e Kovan area. There was no electricity or plumbing, & 10 households shared a well.

Your dad attended Pei Dao primary for half a year. The school was in a house owned by e female principal's mother, & e principal's bedroom would be converted into e tuckshop everyday when they sold ice cream & snacks from e room using e bed as a display counter. There was a temple nearby where wayangs would be staged from time to time. These were big events in those days & people would invite friends & relatives to visit them & play mahjong & enjoy e performances whenever there was a wayang in their village. Your dad's teacher at Pei Dao primary would ask e class monitor to declare a half-day so that he (e teacher) could go off to hold afternoon mahjong sessions before e night time wayangs started. e students would be more than delighted to run off & play & so they looked forward to e wayangs coming to e temple =P

One of your grandfather's mahjong & drinking kakis was Wang Zhenfu (unsure of hanyu pinyin, dialect name H|e|n|g C|h|i|n S|o|o), who would come to e house at night for mahjong sessions. He was then e principal (e second in e school's history) of e primary section of Sin Ming High School (today's Xinmin Primary & Xinmin Secondary), & that is how your dad got to transfer into Sin Ming for e rest of his primary school education.

Your grandfather was an alcoholic who could do nothing except gamble, & remained jobless. Your grandmother washed clothes & looked after kids from other families in order to earn some income. Your dad started working when he was 7, selling ice cream after school & earning 2 cents for each sold. In one day he could earn about 50 cents, which he would give to your grandmother, & she would give him an allowance of 5 cents for his breakfast. It was enough to buy something to eat (like 2 slices of bread with kaya jam) or something to drink, but not both. When business was good you dad would earn more & get 10 cents for his allowance (33 years later your mum would give you e same amount for your daily allowance, which would be enough to buy a cup of drink or 1/3 of a saucer of fried rice in e Tao Nan canteen, or 1/4 of a blue ballpoint pen from e Tao Nan bookshop run by your dad's Sin Ming schoolmate =P).

Your aunt (your dad's eldest sis Mang3 Lang1 - Teochew; other sisters are Mang3 Guet4 & Mang3 Siang1, unsure of all spellings) dropped out of Sin Ming when your dad was 9 to work in a factory, as the family could no longer afford to educate girls. She sorted coffeebeans, picking out rotten ones, earning 60 cents for each tin sorted (e tins are e rectangular metal ones that kerosene is sold in, like those industrial grade ethanol tins that you had problems tipping over to pour e contents out when making 70% swab alcohol in your honours lab). In one day she could earn about a dollar (much earlier on your mum had also mentioned about helping her to sort coffeebeans when your dad's family was desperate for money, but according to your mum it was 10 cents per tin sorted).

Your dad started to sell rambutans (years ago there was mention of he & his friends climbing fences & trees to pluck rambutans when Shin Min Wanbao interviewed him), chye tow kueh & other stuff to increase his earnings. At night, he & your uncle (Tong1 Kee4 - Teochew) would go round collecting condensed milk tins from rubbish heaps & wash them with water from e well before selling them to coffeeshops for 1 cent per tin. In one night they could earn 20 cents. Your dad would sleep early & wake up to study at 4am before going to school, & managed to stay within e top 5-10 of his class despite having to work both afternoon & night. When he'd saved enough he bought a bicycle for 5 dollars, which allowed him to cover a greater area & sell things in more kampungs. This also allowed him to travel as far as your mum's kampung (located around e site of present day Xinmin Secondary in Hougang Avenue 8) - at that time his eldest sis had already been married off to your mum's eldest brother, & that is how your parents got to know each other.

When your dad was 12, your grandmother had cancer. About 1-2 years later she passed away when he was about 13-14 (as your dad had told you before, & also recounted in e Shin Min Wanbao interviews, e family had no money to buy her a coffin & it was e school & teachers who chipped in with donations to help them out). From then on he would follow hawkers to e night market to sell things in order to earn more money, but with no time to study your dad failed secondary 2 & was ready to drop out of school.

recorded on 310305 evening on e way home

[ filed under: thewonderingstraycat ]