It was raining (as what the beloved Brian Richmond liked to say) cats and dogs this morning and so I had to fetch my daughter to NJC. The sky was dark and the traffic chaotic along Dunearn Road.I asked my daughter if she knew that there was a song by the Carpenters which had this line: Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down - which of course she hadn't. I was hoping the DJ on Gold 90 FM would play the song.
But at the bus stop outside Nanyang Girls' School, I saw something which lifted the blues. There were these school children with huge umbrellas, and they were helping to shelter other students who alighted from their cars, so they would not get wet. Now isn't that a thoughtful act. Bravo to these kids.
Unfortunately, because of the rain and the stressful traffic, I did not note their school uniforms. But I guess they must be either from NJC or Nanyang Girls.
19 comments:
When I was at Sembawang, the bus stop was at least 2 kilometres from the operations area. The office girls had no problems. They each carried a small umbrella in their hand-bags. I also carried one umbrella with me, knowing how unpreditable terrain and the weather was. Should I forgot to bring an umbrella during a raining day, I would wait from a samaritan to a come along, driving a car. One raining day, while taking cover in a bus-stop, I was thinking to myself, should I cut off a large banana leaf from a tree, located near a path, which led to my working place ?
There is this website -
http://www.popculturemadness.com/
You can check all the music hits from way back till now.
But you can't listen to them though. No freebies.
I am sure there will be lots of memories for you there.
Chun See, you must really keep up with time. I think if you had asked your daughter if she's known the song "Just Another Maniac Monday", she might have a clue. Carpenters? Yes, Karen had such unique voice. It's a shame that she had to go so young ....
I wonder what could be the reason that men do not like to be seen carrying umbrellas?
They rather prefer to get a bit wet on their shirt or share an umbrella with a lady.
Peter-You are spot on. Most men including me do not like to be seen carrying umbrellas because they are so inconvenient especially when the rain stops.Nowadays when I go out I usually put a fold-up umbrella in my haver-sack.
Peter, I would prefer sharing an umbrella with a lady over getting a bit wet on my shirt any time.
im an ex nanyang girl and those people are usually nanyang councillors [equivalent to prefects] who use school umbrellas to ferry us from cars to the school gates on rainy days!
Thank you faithieee for that clarification. That's a wonderful tradition. Wonder if other schools practiced that?
My parents went over to visit my brother David who was working for a bank in Jakarta. One day they went to a shopping centre to have their lunch. When they wanted to return home, heavy rain fell. My parents wanted to buy few umbrellas from the mall itself. David told them: "Don't need to buy. Just follow me". All proceeded to the entrance. True enough many locals wiu umbrellas in hand, were waiting to
shelter those, who needed to go to their cars in open car park, for a small fee.
Faithieee said:
>...those people are usually nanyang councillors...
That means they are rostered to do it. So it looks like a forced tradition. Most people have extra umbrellas in their cars so I feel this is not necessary. Instead they should give priority to sheltering students who alight from bus stops without umbrellas.
yeah its kind of their duty to do it.. our bus stop has a sheltered walkway all the way to our sch so they dont usually shelter ppl alighting from buses i think..
Come on Victor. Everyone knows that the most vulnerable moment is when you get out of the car and open your umbrella. In comparison, the bus usually stops right next to the bus shelter and your exposure is much less. Give our young people some credit lah. They are not so dumb as you think.
And for once, can you pls not be so 'contrarian'. Rostered or not, it's a kind act nonetheless. We oldies are always so fond of criticizing young people for lacking in civic-consciousness etc. Now we see something positive, instead giving positive stroke, you pour cold water.
Yalor. This Victor arh... if you haven't anything nice to say, then dun say anything at all lah! Learn some manners from the Nayang girls! You really tired of swinging from tree to tree izzit? LOL.
Faith, so sori that 我冤枉了你们。我真该死。但是我不晓得真实情况吗。有冒犯之处，请多多原谅啊。
Chun See would like us to be more generous in our praises to the young, instead of shifting attention to the subject of umbrella, so three cheers for the younger people. Actually many oldies are not that public-spirited and I admit, I am one of them.
I wonder if it is posible for you to blog more about the old old schools in Singapore? From what I see you seem quite famillair with the Dunearn-Bukit Timah Road area... can you please write some memories about Chinese High, Nanyang, HCJC, NJC etc.? Would be lovely too if yo ucan recount whatever that happened during the SCMSSU Riots @ Chinese High. Thanks a lot((:
Sorry. Of the schools you mentioned, I only know about NJC. I blogged about ACS and Braddell Rise School b4. Maybe NJC later. My bro blogged about Bartley twice.
i am studying in nanyang now, and we no longer have that tradition. though i am not sure who were the ones sheltering others. may be my school mates, but we definitely do not have a roster to do it.
i am a current student of nanyang, just happened to chance by this blog. it may be a little late to say, but i would like to clarify that there ARE people who are doing it, except not on a roster. perhaps the councillors of the older generations have started this thoughtful act, but nowadays it is not them anymore. the other day i was sheltered by this junior from basketball and i was really touched =)
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