Picnic at Paradise Island

I found another 3 old photos of my father and his buddies. The first 2, where they are in swim-wear, has these words written at the back of both photos; “Picnic at Paradise Island, 26 Oct 1947”.

The 3^rd photo, where they are in office attire, has these words written at the back; “Picnic at Pasir – something, 28 Nov 1948”. I can’t make out the last word. Looks like Ris which has been scratched over and re-written Elias. My guess is that this photo was taken in Pasir Ris Beach.

Related post.

My mother in Cheongsam

I understand that the folks at the museums are organising an exhibition on the cheongsam called, “Are you in the mood for cheongsams”. Whilst I am in no position to comment, I do have in my possession some old photos of my late mother in cheongsam. These photos are probably from the 1940’s; before I was born, and hence I don’t recognize most of the other people in the photos. I think it was fashionable for young ladies of that era to take go to the photo studios to have such photos taken.

I have posted these photos to my Good Morning Yesterday (book) Fan Page here. Enjoy.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. I do not have the photoshop skills to fix the 'defects'. My mother is seated.

My mother is on the right. I wonder who is the kid she is holding. Too small to be my brother Chun Chew. The 3 young men are her younger brothers. I think the writing at the bottom right says, "21st June 1947"

Anyone got similar photos to share?

Prime Minister’s Visit

In the Straits Times today, there is a section devoted to our former prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew – High 5 for LKY: Five essays on former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s places in history.

One of the essays was about community centres. It reminded me of his visit to our kampong, Lorong Kinchir in 1962. As I was only ten years old then, I cannot recall much other than the usual fanfare. But I do know that my father was involved in the welcome party. My father, as one of the few residents who could speak English, probably played a big role in liaising with the authorities. Furthermore, he, together with our village chief, a Mr Low Thiam Aik represented our kampong in the Serangoon Gardens CCC (citizens’ consultative committee).

I was very happy to be reconnected with one of Mr Low’s grandchildren, Eng Leong, who had read this blog. Just two days ago, I met up with him and we spent almost an hour at a Yishun coffee shop trying to recall the people and places of our kampong. He shared some of his family photos and gave me a spare copy of this classic which I had been searching high and low for. It was taken at our kampong’s community centre during the prime minister's visit.

Besides my father who is seated on the extreme right, my Seventh Uncle who is seated on the extreme left and Mr Low who is on PM Lee’s left, I could not identify any other faces even though many of them looked familiar. You would notice that besides PM Lee, there is one other person not wearing a ribbon on his chest. He is seated second from the right. Hence, he is likely to be a visitor with PM Lee’s entourage and not from our village.

Question. Who is this gentleman?

Related post: Remembering September 11th

Have you seen this tiger?

I guess it is appropriate that the first quiz I post in the Year of the Tiger should be related to this magnificent animal. Thanks to Russ Wickson I am able to do that. I received this photo from him in the email yesterday. Unfortunately, he himself cannot recall when or where this photo was taken. He wrote;

“Where it came from I can no longer remember, but it has been there since 1967 when I was posted home. I actually sent it to the Asia Pacific Brewery (Tiger Brewery) some years ago but have never had a response, but no big deal, who am I in the larger wheels of motion?

I wonder if the vehicle still exists, unlikely, but said in the nicest possible way, who knows in Singapore? If you have a few minutes please publish it on your site, see what response one can get.”

So does anyone know where and when this photo was taken? This technically, is not a quiz because I myself do not know the answer.