Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

Our late father had two friends he considered close, and Uncle Ismail was one of them. They were childhood friends, both living in Kampong Soopoo (off Kallang Road) where they grew up from the 1930’s to 1950’s, before we moved to Kampong Bedok and he to Siglap. Later on we would move to Marine Parade and he to Bedok South respectively. The thing about close friendships is that any pause in seeing each other is just a comma in a sentence, continuing in tone and vibe whenever they had the chance to meet. Anyone can simply watch them both interacting like it was a continued conversation. Our father listed Uncle Ismail as one of his references whenever he needed to fill in any forms, and sending and receiving greeting cards were the norm in those days.  Hari Raya visits were especially nice with the lontongs for us to devour and in the many years of friendship, our extended families and his became as close. His last card to us was in 1992 and sadly Uncle Ismail passed on in 1993, with ...

By 1972, us boys would have approached our tween years at 11 and 9. Influenced by our father’s love for music (he was after all in Radio Malaya, then RTS), we started listening and enjoying the newest EP vinyl records (45rpms) in our Bedok kampong house once we loved what we heard on the radio. We even started buying those lyric song books (some with guitar chords) from the nearby mama shop to sing along with those songs. 3 EPs come to mind that we kept standing by the turntable to listen to again and again that 1972 year. ‘Beautiful Sunday’ by Daniel Boone, ‘Black and White’ by Three Dog Night and everyone’s favourite, ‘Puppy Love’ by Donny Osmond (it was a remake of the Paul Anka original which we only found out later).. Here are the clips to share! Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone (1972) Black And White by Three Dog Night (1972) Puppy Love by Donny Osmond (1972)

Back in the 1950's and after World War 2, Junior Technical Schools were established to provide vocational education to train and build up a skilled workforce for Singapore’s industralisation efforts. With studies disrupted by the war and Japanese occupation, our late father managed to enrol into this JTS in 1950 as the first cohort in the radio department at 20 years of age, and we believe it was the one at Balestier. JTS were the predecessors of today’s Polytechnics and ITEs. He graduated a few years later and joined Radio Malaya in August of 1953, his only employer that later morphed into the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation when he retired in 1985. We’d like to share these precious photos of him and his course mates as we believe these recollections contribute to our collective heritage of the beginnings of Singapore’s growing economy. We only found these precious photos after his death. It was his gift to us to encourage us all that no matter how humble one’s beginnings are, ...

We always wondered why our Bedok kampong house had no telephone. Whenever urgent calls needed to be made or received, it would be at our neighbour Kak Min’s home. When calls came for us, she would so kindly walk out of her home, cross the compound and called out to us across the fence to come over her front gate (a walk out and around the bend to get there).  Some time ago we discovered this document of March 1957 which showed that our late father had indeed attempted to install a phone in the house actually. This application to the then Singapore Telephone Board, predecessor of Singtel, showed the annual fee to be $252.50. This was likely too high a price to pay compared to the anticipated usage, so the telephone was never installed, considering having a phone was a luxury in those days. At least for us as he was drawing a Radio Malaya technician's pay and was the sole breadwinner. Application for telephone in 1957 but did not proceed Kak Min our neighbour at the fence with our fa...

We were just months before finally moving out of our Bedok kampong house in October 1974, when the Coca-Cola Yo-Yo craze hit us. The Russell Yo-Yo with the Coca-Cola brand printed onto it sides was every young person’s goto ‘status’ symbol then, and we kids were similarly hooked. Us boys managed to have some degree of skill to do the ‘sleeper’ and ‘walk the dog’ routine but not master them well! We are sure many still have their yo-yos or at least played with them in those days. Interestingly these yo-yos can still be purchased today, and everyone is just waiting for the craze to return, as it did once every other decade! Dymo-printed with the date in 1974, the writer's personal yo-yo!

These ladies became mothers in their early 20’s at our Bedok kampong house – they bathed and cleaned us, clothed us, cooked for us, fed us (even slapped us when our mouths refused to swallow our meals!), disciplined us (yes caning was common especially among the boys!). They made sure we grew up well and now we kids have aged well, from 53 to 64 years old. Two of our mothers are no longer with us. Nevertheless we look back in fondness and recollect those times we children would run around in the house and garden without a care in the world, but at the end of the day we would always run back to our mommies. Happy Mother’s Day to Mom / Mommy / Mee.. thank you for all your love in the world for us. (note please: our youngest cousin (in the total of 6) was not yet born in these photos)

One downside to living in a kampong house – the mosquitoes! We all must sleep in mosquito nets for a good night’s rest without disturbances but sometimes we do hear the relentless buzzing sounds when we lie too close to the sides. These nets are hung from the ceiling housed in a canopy with a round cane holder at the top. By day we would simply swing it to one side and have them holdbacked. Some of us would have the rectangular-shaped one where hooks on the walls on each corner of the bed would hold up the net.  Oh well it’s time to go to bed now in our Bedok kampong house for the four of us cousins but one more photo please before we do in this 1968 photo! 1968 - us brothers with our cousins (all children of the 3 siblings in the house)

We chanced upon this amazing website set up by the NUS Libraries Historical Maps of Singapore (NUSLHMSG). They have digitalised and archived all the old maps of Singapore and allows us to peer into our past and the places and locations we wished to identify. Of course we cannot help but try to locate our Bedok kampong house in the different year versions! You can click here to go find your own treasured place.. https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg/ (we have posted screenshots indicating where the house was and do not claim ownership of any sorts to these wondrous maps) Please note: All content included on their site https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg/ is the property of NUSLHMSG or its content suppliers and protected by Singapore and international copyright laws.