Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

Katong Park. We have always enjoyed visiting Katong Park at Meyer Road in the 1960’s, and even our parents were there in 1959 while dating. The many rides at the playground on one side, wide open green fields, and the windy breeze where the seafront was (before reclamation). We recall the maze-like entry bars that faced the Hotel Ambassador (before it became Duke then no more), preventing bicycles from entering, we believe. In our minds, Katong Park as it was then, lives forever. 1959 - Our mother in the darker cheongsam with her younger sister at the main thoroughfare at Katong Park, with dad taking the photo 1962 - enjoying the breeze at the seafront at Katong Park 1962 - the older of us at 2 years of age with Hotel Ambassador at the background 1962 - posing by the stage structures

May 1951. Here is our late aunt, dad’s youngest sister. She was then just 11 years of age when she and the family were visiting Bedok Beach at low tide. She must have had a lot of fun walking barefoot on the wet sand. Our mother tells us that after the family plus moved into our Bedok kampong house from 1954 and when we boys were young at around the mid 1960’s, this aunt of ours would be frequently bringing us over to the beach whenever it was evening and at low tide to help dig up La La clams. We can imagine how fun it was then. And yes everyone was barefoot too! . And because both she and our mother were the cooks in the house by then, we are pretty sure dinner was especially tasty that evening! The back of this photo reads "20 May 1951". Location at Bedok Beach at low tide. La La clams, for illustration only. Photo not ours.

July 1968. A birthday to remember by. Our parents pulled out all the stops for this one. The older of us was turning 7 and just enrolled into Primary One at St Stephen’s School in Siglap (that school is still there). Invitations went out to all the children, but kept within the family at this point in time. The birthday tea party was held between the higher house on stilts and the lower section, just outside the kitchen and at the foyer at our Bedok kampong house. The birthday boy even had his cake and ate it. The aunties looked on proudly and in the background stood the old vintage fridge acknowledging it all – likely a Philco. 1968 - Our parents lighting up the candles 1968 - notice the old fridge behind 1968 - Birthday boy having his cake 1968 - group photo pose with the house behind

We were very gratified to receive this text out of nowhere giving us immense encouragement : "Hi, I just finished listening to the episode of Chronicles of Old Singapore podcast about your Bedok Kampong House. I enjoyed  the episode and loved your idea of curating stories based on a sense of place .... and listening to the episode brought back some memories about the reclamation of land that is now Marine Parade. All the best for your project!" That project is now the Our Bedok Kampong House - Singapore FB page and this blog...  Thanks to Dr Loh Kah Seng and his efforts at Chronicles of Old Singapore YouTube  Channel and this recording some 11 months ago to help preserve the memories of our nation as we progress beyond SG60!

We take it for granted now but back in the day, listening to the radio required a license. Issued by the Department of Broadcasting, Malaya this annual license fee of $12 is evident with this non-transferable 1956 Broadcast Listening Station license our late father had kept in his records.

Born on 11th July 1897, our grandmother would have been 128 years this year.. Here she is with her first 3 grandchildren in July 1966, just after her 69 th birthday, in the verandah of our Bedok kampong house

January 1974. It was the first few weeks of the older of us boys’ entry into secondary school having passed our PSLE. Since I had been at St Stephen’s School in Siglap, a Catholic mission school, I continued into St Patrick’s at East Coast Road for my Secondary education with the rest of my friends from primary school. Having just attended a St John’s Ambulance presentation that Saturday morning, we had to decide which ECA (extra curricular activity as they were named in those days) to join when one is in Sec 1, either a sports or uniformed group. Was deliberating on the choice as I walked towards East Coast Road to take my bus back home to our Bedok kampong house when I passed by the scouts display by their standalone den to my right. Here I was witnessing what I did not know was a backwoodsman cooking demonstration. Open fire, and rice cooked in hollowed-out sections of bamboo internodes grabbed my attention immediately! Then the Scoutmaster approached me, and he also happened to als...

Loving this 1961 view of our Bedok kampong from the verandah of our kampong house (with our young mother carrying the first born). The roofs, either attap or corrugated zinc all had a certain character to them, and the swaying coconut trees made the place idyllic.

This week a special mention goes out to a first cousin of our father and paternal aunties, who is celebrating her 85 th birthday. That year 1940 saw the birth of five baby girls within the extended families, with our late paternal aunt and her among them. They grew up together at Kampong Soopoo before the move to our Bedok kampong house in 1954 and often hung out together, even with the move to Bedok. Often going to the nearby Bedok beach or even visits to the Botanical Gardens, she was close to our aunts especially, even as they grew to adulthood. Eventually she and her husband became godparents to the older of us. With their children, they were frequent visitors to our Bedok kampong house, too. Her family (now totalling almost 20) is close knit and at 85, ‘Kai Neong’ is now a great grandmother twice over. So ‘selamat hari jadi to you, panjang panjang umur’ ya!