Ah Yam, our friendly provision shop owner

-

We remember delightful trips (very short walk) we made from our Bedok kampong house to the local provision shop (where Cold Storage is now along Bedok Road) next to the Indian barber (another story) and where the bus stop is. And one of just two shops then. We call the owner ‘Ah Yam’ (Mr Yeo Hong Eng in his book ‘The Little Red Cliff’ in pg 47 identified him as his relative Uncle Yam and the shop was called ‘Swee Aun’).

Ah Yam was a most friendly man with a disarming personality. We remember him almost always dressed in a white singlet and drawstring pyjama trousers with vertical stripped blue prints.

3 things that has been imprinted onto our minds from those visits: His ease of use of the daching (those were the days of kati weight measurements), that amazing tin above him where he keeps his cash hung by pulleys and counterweights and how he writes down payment credits onto customers’ 555 booklets for records and future payments!

From time to time he would ride over to our house with purchases our mother and aunties made like rice, sugar etc that we could not carry home because of the weight. He wouldn’t just deliver and leave. A little chitchat about how each other’s families were doing would usually happen not just at our house but also at the shop. Such was kampong life interactions.

From such encounters, our mother found out that one of his daughters provided primary school Mandarin second language tuition so at night we boys would make our way to the shop for the lessons. Over time she would come to our house as well.

This writer had the pleasure of meeting Mr Yeo a few months ago and it is so interesting that a memory of long past has a current connection! Wherever Ah Yam’s family is now, we wish them well!

Photo credit to the estate of Jo Elliot and Mr Lam Chun See (Good morning yesterday)
https://goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com/

Photo credit to the estate of Jo Elliot and Mr Lam Chun See (Good morning yesterday)
https://goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com/

Photo credit to Carousell and tacokittens.files.wordpress.com (middle photo)


The writer and Mr Yeo Hong Eng in September 2024 posing with his book 'The Little Red Cliff'
https://yeohongeng.blogspot.com/

Comments

  1. LKS23 October 2024 at 01:50

    Terrific post on the shopkeepers we all remember. I am writing a book on the history of shopkeepers in Chinatown. This is an great blog Dennis, excellent work and all the best to you and your family! Kah Seng

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"I Play And Sing" at our Bedok kampong house

-
Image
Here is some ‘claim to fame’ for us: In 1971, we (at aged 10 and 8 then) were thrilled to turn on our black and white TV at our Bedok kampong house to watch Mel & Joe Ferdinands compete in the RTS Talentime then. We most remembered them singing the song “I Play & Sing”. At that time, they lived further up from our place at Bedok Road at the Bedok Walk area and we took the same bus to our primary school then, St Stephen’s (at Siglap Hill). Unfortunately by the time the school bus arrived at their place, all seats were taken and they had to stand but Joe was really friendly to us and smiled mostly! (these days standing not allowed but those were the days) (photos not ours)
Read more

Hair, There and Everywhere.. at old Bedok kampong

-
Image
“What?  You brought him back from the barber without him having his hair cut?”, this writer’s (the older brother) mother asked my father incredulously as he brought the by-now dried eyed little boy back from the ‘frightening’ experience at the barber’s to our Bedok kampong house. “He refused to have his hair cut, so I brought him back…” was my father’s honest reply. Babu (or Mr in Indian terms as explained by former neighbour Ronald Ho) was our preferred go-to barber for all the male-folk in the family, not the Chinese one situated a little farther along. Babu’s shop was located near (or next to) Ah Yam’s provision shop, along Bedok Road (Ah Yam's story was posted on October 16, 2024) and just where the bus stop is (now Cold Storage). He was mostly dressed in a white short sleeved shirt and had a genteel and calming way about him. He was great, but not the aura of his shop and equipment! As a little me recalled, I intensely disliked seeing the chair which had a fear aboding loo...
Read more

The Ritual of burning Kemenyan

-
Image
Each Thursday evening around 6pm, our grandmother would have someone from the household burn some kemenyan incense on a holder and carry this burner to every room and corner in our Bedok kampong house. We knew this was a spiritual practice but just recently informed by our mother that this act appeases the spirit owners of the house.... can still recall the distinct smell and incense smoke as this post is written.... 1955 photo of our Bedok kampong house with our grandmother (58 years old here) posing.. Kemenyan incense burner/holder (photo not ours)
Read more