Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

While most of us would throw and dispose off those Chinese New Year greeting cards mailed to us of long ago, somehow our late father did not. And now we are so blessed to be able to take a trip back to yesteryears to see some of these cards. Sent by relatives and friends from both here and Malaya, here are cards from the 1950’s to share with you all. Most of them here are made more like mini-postcards and printed only on one side. This card is undated (envelope missing) but we can circa it in the mid 1950's. It has multiple sides with cover and back as well, unlike the above cards which are more mini-postcard like. The lady in the front is an anonymous model. This card was recently colourised beautifully by AI. Circa 1955. It was common in those days to use generic models' faces on cards.

Located just behind/next to (depending on one’s orientation) the Bedok Rest House at our Bedok Laut kampong where the Bedok corner was, was a concrete three-storey house us fellow kampong folk called ‘Sa-chan-lau’ (3 storey building in Hokkien 三 层楼 ). Sa-chan-lau, listed as 2B Bedok Road was just next to our Indian neighbours at 4E. We walked by this place each time we left our house to go onto or return home via the main Bedok Road, and it seemed a place of mystery to us until now. Many thanks to our recent interactions with new friend and former neighbour Mrs Jackie Munro who lived in this house, we have a story to tell about this building. She and her Royal Air Force (RAF) husband moved into one of the 8 flats inside this house (believed to be owned by a Chew family) in October 1967 as newlyweds. There were 3 flats on the ground floor, 2 on the first floor (or 2 nd storey, where they lived) and 2 on the top floor or 3 rd storey (we used the British term ‘floor’ until 1983 when w...

In those days kelongs (a wooden structure in the sea a distance from shore, with wooden poles or stilts used to construct a funnel-like structure to guide the fish into the net in the centre of the kelong to be caught, then sold by the fish farmer). They were a common sight all over the Singapore coastline and for us living near the Bedok beach, it was a daily sight to behold. While we do not have a photo depicting one where we lived, here is one taken in 1959 off Katong Park at Meyer Road where our mother, her sister and her cousin posed for the camera when they made the trip there. See the kelong in the distance.. 1959 photo colourised from original black and white

This photo of a quiet stretch of sun-soaked shoreline along Upper East Coast Road going towards Bedok corner where we lived (where the Bedok army camps are now) sees those gentle waves rolling in to shore, meeting the coconut trees swaying in rhythm and tandem with them - in a scene that invokes from within a stillness, settling our busy thoughts and racing heartbeats, giving one absolutely peace of mind, bringing us back to those lovely days gone by. Based on some investigation and AI research on Copilot the photo could have been taken between 1955 and 1962 because by 1963 the coastline would have begun to disappear due to land reclamation works. Also the red car helped in the identification and was likely a Hillman Minx Series III (1951–1956), a British car. Thanks to Mr Yeo Hong Eng for sharing this photo with us.

Like many children in the 60’s we too owned the old Chung Khiaw Bank bronze animal coin banks. It was a great way for our parents to start inculcating into us the habit of saving money. Our animals were the Frog and the Rhinoceros. We also had another smaller plastic coin box of a boy holding a large piggy bank. Just twist off the head and the coins (it is only for the smaller coins) can be retrieved. And like quite a few other grown-up, grown-old kids now, the Frog and the Rhino are still with us in our current respective homes! Juxtaposing our 1969 photo in to lend context to this post. The boy bank was taken off the internet, the background bank photo was also taken off the internet and adjusted with AI

Our cousin, just 8 years old then told us this interesting story. In December 1958 when our paternal aunt got married, she happened to be the first one in the family to do so but at that time our father, the oldest sibling was still unmarried. There is a Chinese tradition to be followed when such a situation happens. Our mama (grandmother) instructed that the bride and groom walk under the older brother's trousers, literarily. The purpose of this ritual was to show respect to the elder brother.  We checked that the Chinese word for "trousers" sounds like the word for "wealth," so the item is also associated with bringing prosperity. The trousers are typically hung across the main door of the family home and the bride and groom had to walk underneath as they enter the house. In our case it was a pair of pyjamas our paternal aunt and Ah Tio walked under as they entered our Bedok kampong house! Our mother told us it wasn’t a brand-new pair! While we don’t have phot...