LESSONS FROM THE TUCK SHOP (SCHOOL CANTEEN) – by Edmund Arozoo

Greetings from Adelaide!

I started to write my memoirs of life in a kampong more than fifteen years ago but had put it on the back burner numerous times. However through Facebook I was fortunate to become friends with persons with similar interest in Singapore’s nostalgic past. On my visits back to Singapore I was privileged to meet and chat with two bloggers who have inspired me not only to contribute with posts and comments on fb but also rekindled my interest to finish what I had started. I like to extend a big THANK YOU to Jerome Lim and Lam Chun See. I also found Chun See’s book “Good Morning Yesterday” an inspiration. Here is a snippet that I penned recently that I like to share on their blogs. 

With Lam Chun See when I visited Spore in Dec 2013

For the past month or so I have been watching an interesting TV series – “The Brain”. This series from China showcases the unbelievable potential of the mental abilities of the contestants.  Witnessing their mental recall capabilities was jaw dropping for me!  Fast approaching seventy my memory recall does pale in comparison – only a slight fraction of theirs indeed.

Often I do question my memories of the “old days”.  I deliberately left out the adjective “good”. I acknowledge that life was simple but challenging then, especially for those of us from humble beginnings. Reading the many posts and comments on the various Facebook group pages, I realised that there are many out there who remember their own “rustic” years. However nostalgic emotions sometimes do tend to colour our memories. Maybe we were young and saw things through childhood innocence.

Perhaps too as kids we were protected by our parents, who in their little ways tried their best, as we were growing up, not to make us feel that we were poor.  I may be wrong but I also feel that the society then was different. I don’t recall being snubbed by “the rich”. Maybe we knew our places and accepted each other.  A leveller at that time if I recall correctly was the beach.  The rich would drive their cars right up to the beaches like Tanah Merah, Changi etc . The other families would arrive by bus with their home cook meals and simple unchilled drinks etc.  But all the kids would have the time of their lives till it was time to return home either by car or bus, all sunburnt.

Having spent twelve years in the same school I should have more vivid memories of my school days. But all I have are snippets here and there and a few photographs as reminders. But what I clearly remember is that the majority of my schoolmates came from similar “rustic” backgrounds. Personally I was taught not to feel sorry for the limited “pocket money” I took to school each day being often reminded that some of my classmates had to contend with so much less. Looking back I often chuckle when I recall that if you dropped your coins through the holes in your pocket that were caused by the marbles you carried – the response would be “tough”. You learnt the hard way to cherish the few coins you were given. When the time came for school fees to be paid, the notes were carefully wrapped in a knot tied at the corner of a handkerchief. This was to ensure we did not lose the money easily.

For sure there would have been more memorable moments of those carefree schooldays but I cannot recall as much as I would like to. However there is one incident that has always been dominant in my mind and I am reminded of it whenever I witness poverty either first hand or on TV.

This occurred while I was in primary school. It was a normal “recess” break and the “monitors” or prefects were diligently performing their duties to ensure order and that we were safe in getting our hot meals to the tables in the tuck shop / canteen.  We were all having our meals when suddenly there was a shout followed by a commotion.  Looking out we saw the prefects running out and chasing a student. They soon caught him and brought him back to the canteen. Then we realised what had happened.

The student was a classmate and his family, if I remember correctly, had a farm in Ponggol. On that day he did not have any money for a meal and probably did not even have breakfast at home. Unknown to us, this perhaps could have been the norm for him for most of his school days. But on that day the pangs of hunger overcame him and drove him to snatch a large triangular “curry puff” from the Indian stall that also sold bread, Indian cookies and of course our favourite “kachang puteh”.

As he was brought back to the canteen I witnessed the humiliation on his face and that expression I will never never forget! He was made to face the Indian stallholder probably to apologise and perhaps make arrangements for reimbursement for the curry puff. This was witnessed by everyone in the canteen.

What ensued always stands out from this unfortunate incident. I witness compassion. The Indian kachang puteh man, who possibly was by no means rich, looked at the poor unfortunate boy and saw the anguish on his face. Then in a typical Indian manner with a slanted twist of his head and a wave of his flat palm rolling at the wrist he signalled that it was okay – he did not want any payment and allowed the boy to keep the curry puff. The boy was then marched to the principal’s office and what happen after I cannot recall.

These are two striking lessons I learnt from this unfortunate incident that I will always remember.  Firstly how hunger can drive good persons to do things in desperation. I can understand when I read about people doing things they normally would not do, when they become desperate especially on seeing their children crying in hunger.

On the other side I also learnt that day that you do not have to be rich to be compassionate, understanding and benevolent. Perhaps this is in fact the essence of the “kampong spirit” that in our memories was prevalent in those days. I must confess that I often chuckle when I read of attempts to recreate this spirit which I feel was lost with the eradication of kampongs. It was the environment of the rustic surrounds and firsthand observation of the everyday struggles of most families that were the basis of this spontaneous compassion. Observing the elders of the household – our parents, grandparents etc. and their empathy for the neighbours perhaps also does flow down and shape our own behaviour towards others. In addition experiencing the kindness our neighbours extended to our own family completes the cycle of goodwill.

The whole world has changed and with the current abundance of affluence and affordability the plight of those in need are often not obvious. The average person cannot relate to this and thus perhaps the spontaneous responses that were around in the past are not forthcoming. These are my perceptions. I may be right or completely wrong so I will leave you, the reader to make your own judgement. In my heart I will always cherish the lessons I learnt in the tuck shop.

Here one day, gone the next (Braddell Rise School compound)

It’s finally happened! They’ve completely demolished the buildings that once housed my beloved primary school – the Braddell Rise School.

 Although Braddell Rise School itself had ceased to exist for a number of years now; having moved to Toa Payoh and adopted a different name, the old buildings had been retained and housed a number of different welfare homes such as the Minds Tampines Home, and the Society of Moral Charities. Hence, over the years, whenever I drive past this place; especially when I was on the MacRitchie Viaduct, I could catch a glimpse of my alma mater where I enjoyed many fond childhood memories.

Sorry, the date on the new photos should be 29/8/2014

Still I am comforted by two facts. One, the buildings were not torn down to make way for another condo; but for the expansion of its neighbour, the Assisi Hospice. Two, they had not done this earlier. When I first blogged about BRS in November 2005,  I speculated that when they started building the MacRitchie Viaduct, they certainly would have to clear this piece of land. But to my pleasant surprise, they did not; and over the years, I was able to visit it a few times. And in fact just last year, I was there with my friend James Seah for a photo shoot for an article in the Straits Times.

Still, I cannot help but feel a tinge of sadness when I pass by this place now and take a habitual glance towards where BRS once stood and realize the harsh reality of life in Singapore. We simply have no room for sentimentality on the little island ‘paradise”.

PS – You can read more about my memories of BRS, as well as those of my classmates Kim Aii Chan and Lee Sock Gek in my book, Good Morning Yesterday.

The Ying Fo Fui Kun building at Telok Ayer Street

It was reported in today’s Straits Times that tunneling works for the construction of the Downtown Line had caused cracks to appear in the walls of the Ying Fo Fui Kun building at Telok Ayer Street; a building which was gazetted for preservation as a national monument under the Preservation of Monuments Act in 1998.

Did you know that this building used to be a Chinese school? As it happens, I have a neighbour, Mr Yong, who is a retired teacher; and he graduated from this school in 1954. The name of the school was Ying Xin School (应新学校).

Mr Yong's (at age 13) graduation certificate

I was unable to find out much information about this school until, by a stroke of luck, I stumbled upon an article in an old book that I happened to possess. The book was The Straits Time Bilingual Collection, Vol 1, which I bought in 1982. In it was an article written by Tan Ban Huat entitled, Mandarin becomes the lingua franca of the Chinese here (华语学校，源远流长). The article traced the teaching of Mandarin in Singapore up to the time of the Japanese Occupation; and ended with these words:

“The Japanese Occupation of Singapore saw the temporary setback of Chinese education. However, during the post-war period, Chinese schools mushroomed and by the 1950s, Mandarin had become the lingua franca of the Chinese-educated. By the same token those who could not converse in it were considered uneducated!”

Although the article made no mention of Ying Xin School, it was accompanied by this gem at the end.

Yin Sin - one of the earliest schools to teach Mandarin

Final goodbye to BRS (my primary school)

Oh  no! Did you read this article in yesterday’s Straits Times? The day that I had dreaded has finally arrived. They are going to tear down the buildings that once housed my primary school, the Braddell Rise School. According to the report, a new six-storey Assissi Hospice will be built on the site where a few remaining blocks of BRS still stood. 

It’s quite ironic actually. During the 4 years that I spent in BRS, from 1960 to 1963, I actually saw the Mount Alvernia Hospital being built from scratch next door. After BRS moved out, the current Assissi Hospice was built on what was formerly our sports field. And now, our ‘neighbours’ have completed swallowed up what little remains of our beloved BRS. It would be even more ironic if someday, some of us ex-BRS boys and girls were to come back and spend our ‘sunset’ days in this very place.

Still, I am thankful that they had not done this earlier. When I first blogged about my memories of BRS in November 2005, I had speculated that, with the construction of the nearby Lornie Viaduct, they would surely tear down the old buildings soon. Since then I have had the opportunity to visit this place with two of my former classmates; and many former BRS students have also visited the site and shared their comments in my blog. Some have suggested that I write another book, collating memories of former BRS students. I told them I was too busy and it would be too much work. Perhaps that’s one project that we cannot postpone any more.

PS - Here are links to previous posts related to Braddell Rise School.

1) BraddellRise School

2) Myrecollections of Braddell Rise School

3) Returnto Police Catch Nuns

When We Wore No Sports Boots – By Peter Chan

Prior to 1969 under -16 year players wore no boots when they represented their schools at competitive rugby and football. This seems strange when we see kids today as young as 7 wearing branded sports attires. What was it like to run bare-footed? Was it painful for the big toe when you kicked the ball without boots? Somehow we conquered all pains.

One rugby tournament that I recall playing without boots was the Junior 7-A-Side which was held at the People’s Association Sports Field in Kallang. The sports field had one major characteristic; plenty of weeds and “Touch me not” (Mimosir). It was certainly not fun running bare-footed over “Touch me not”.


The preliminary matches were played in the morning, starting at 8 am. However the S-finals and Finals were played at the unearthly hour starting at 3 pm. That day, we missed our afternoon school session. The schedule was selected because there were no flood lights and there was a need to accommodate the senior (17 years and above) and junior (below 16 years) competitions. As a result the Finals ended in semi-darkness. The crowd size was small because the afternoon school session students were not allowed to leave school. Only those faithful to the game turned up.

Photo 1: Wong Chai Kee of Raffles out-jumped a St John player during a line-out. Raffles colours were apple green jerseys and black shorts. St John’s colours were similar to the Scottish football club, Celtic. We did not wear boots. Beyond the fence is Nicoll Highway and the future National Stadium (c 1969).


It was at the People’s Association Sports Field that Singapore schools first heard of St John’s Comprehensive School, a school for the education of British kids whose fathers were working for the British military. Other than its name, nobody knew where this school was located and this would be the first time many local school players came face to face with “Kwei-lo”. They were taller and bigger size. We were told their physique was due to the consumption of beef and potatoes whereas we consumed rice and chay kway teow. Today things are better - many school rugby kids are just as big as their British contemporaries due to better diet.

Photo 2: The Seniors wore boots. The Finals between Raffles and St. Andrew’s School in the 7-A-Side Championship played at the People’s Association Sports Field (c 1969).


Looking back to that game against St John in March 1969, Raffles met them in the S-finals. In the other S-finals St Andrew’s met Dunearn Technical. In 1969 we were 15 years of age but the St John players looked as if they were young adults. The games were played on a knock-out basis and each school was allowed to field two 7-A-Side teams.


I was a member of the B Team which was actually the Raffles” A –list” for tactical reasons. The other team members were Ho Lin Meng, Wong Chai Kee, Tan Geok Ser, Tay Eng Kiat, Lim Kim Nguan, Cheong Wai Hin, and me as the winger. We knocked out Victoria School, Sang Nila Utama, Whitley Secondary School and Queenstown Technical by comfortable margins. Unfortunately the other Raffles A team was knocked out by St Andrew’s B team in the second round.


The other day I had a conversation with John Rubery, the former St John rugby player’s hooker. John is now a sculptor by profession. John remembered playing against Macpherson Secondary School and Tanglin Integrated School. After knocking out St Joseph Institution in the Q-finals, St John triumphantly walked off the field thinking they were already in the finals until their dreams were shattered by their teacher-in-charge who told them they were to meet Raffles in the S-finals, the team they feared most in this competition.

Photo 3: On the left Mr. Dhillion, the neutral referee for the Finals between Raffles and St. Andrew’s School at Bras Basah Road. Bare-footed (c 1968).


During a recent reunion, some of my former team-mates touched on the game against St John. The sore point was about the referee. The referee was the teacher-in-charge of St Andrew’s School (Photo 4), the other S-finalist. There was no neutral referee, probably because many Singapore schools at that time did not have qualified rugby coaches and teachers often doubled-up as referees***. Many penalties were awarded against us but little against St John. As a result, it became so ridiculous that St John was attacking and Raffles were defending for most of the time. Mr. Puhendrien our sports teacher had his arms up in the air but there was little he could do.


The game against St John was not incident-free. In order to stop the bigger physique St John players from advancing, we had to resort to two players tackling one St John player - one went for the upper abdomen, the other for the legs. Because of this, punches were often exchanged. At half-time there was no score and in the second-half both teams went all out. It looked like the match was heading into extra time until Higden, the burly St John centre-half received a ball from a loose scrum in front of the goal-post and dived through a mass of players to score the only try. With the conversion, St John beat Raffles 5-0.
 

Photo 4: Mr Ee Teck Peng (in his trade-mark navy blue shorts and red t-shirt) refereeing the match. Eng Kiat from Raffles tackled Widgery, the St. John scrum-half.


St John marched into the final and met St Andrew’s School. St Andrew’s School won 13-8. Some of the Saints players were Sng Eng Seng, George Thomas, Wong Chin Tung, Ng Kok Cher and Leow Kim Suan. The winners and losing finalists received their medals. I asked John whether he kept his silver medal. He told me it was placed inside a fully articulated model of him made in fiberglass and resin. The same sculpture was later cannibalised by his then girlfriend - perhaps recycled is a better word - as the head in her own sculpture.


In 1970 the rules changed: lower secondary students were allowed to wear boots. I paid $15 for my pair of PUMA boots from Champion Sports Shop at Bras Basah Road. There were only two brands of boots at that time; PUMA and ADDIDAS. Since schools in those days had no policy of subsidizing the purchase of boots, we relied on 3 instalments to complete the purchase. Even the school black shorts we wore cost $2 and another dollar went to Mr. Arasu who sewed the school crest on it. Only the rugby jersey was on loan but had to be washed and returned after the season was over. And the next time we faced another “Kwei-Lo” school, it was the Singapore American School.


Though we were poorly dressed, there was fun in the competitive sport. Would today’s young students dare play bare-footed?

*** There was Mr. Seet Khoon Hiong of Dunearn Technical School and Bro. Sylvester of Saint Joseph Institution who doubled-up as referees.


Related posts.
1) Showdown at Woodsville 35 years ago by Peter Chan
2) St Andrew 1961 by Tim Light

And they called us car park attendants

If you traveled along Dunearn Road from Eng Neo Avenue to Adam Road, the most prominent landmark that you will pass by is the beautiful, sprawling new campus of the Nanyang Girls’ School. Do you what institution used to occupy this piece of land?

Answer: Singapore’s first junior college, the National Junior College. This year (only a few more hours left of 2009 even as I hammer away at the keyboard) marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of NJC and yours truly was one of the 572 seventeen-year-olds who formed the pioneer batch of students from all over Singapore. To commemorate this occasion, a group of my fellow NJC-69ers decided to put together a book compiling our memories of those two years spent in a place that no longer exists in Singapore’s ever-changing landscape.

Thanks to Good Morning Yesterday, an unknown kid from an unknown kampong called Lorong Kinchir got to pen two stories in this special book titled, And they called us car park attendants. Both stories have been told in this blog (see links below) before and so I shan’t repeat them.


Time does not permit me to share with you my other memories of NJC, except to say that I enjoyed my two years in there, even though at that time a few of us were branded traitors by our former school. Good thing I am one of those you would call a “blur sotong” and so I did not even know about it until recently.

Interestingly whenever I think of NJC, pictures of two other places come to mind. One is the huge field next to our campus. During the initial months, before we had our own canteen, we had to trudge across this huge field and climb a long flight of stairs to have a lunch in the tuck shop of the neighbouring Dunearn Technical School. The other place is the former Ministry of Education complex at Kay Siang Road. I remember nervously going there to collect and submit my application forms. I think I also attended an interview there.

What did I enjoy most about NJC? The two things I blogged about - the badminton and the outdoor activities club. I also treasure the opportunity to meet new friends from diverse backgrounds, such as the group from Bartley Secondary. I even got to know some boys from Malaysia as well as friends from the Chinese stream.

And here’s wishing all friends and readers good health and success in all that you do in 2010.

Happy New Year everyone!

Related posts:

1) Memories of Pulau Tekong
2) Kampong badminton
3) Bukit Timah Heritage Trail

4) NJC's 40th Anniversay Dinner

5) 40th Anniversary of NJC's 1st Gunong Tahan expedition

6) Great reunion after 40 years

Return to “Police catch nuns”

The other day, I visited my primary school, the Braddell Rise School, with two former classmates Aii Chan and Sock Gek. Both Aii Chan and I have blogged about our beloved BRS here and here. It was also the first time that we have visited this place after more than 40 years. At that time, we used to call our school “mata lai siku” in Cantonese, which means “police catch nuns”.

When I blogged about BRS in 2005, the premises was occupied by MINDS (Tampines branch). This time, the tenant is the Society of Moral Charities (SOMC). Interestingly, whilst the ladies could remember much about our classmates and teachers, I fared much better when it came to places. Here is a sketch of the layout of BRS which I recall from memory, as well as some photos that we took.

Oops .. that should be 'principal'. But too troublesome to change lah.

I believe all the buildings within this complex are from our time. I don’t think any new buildings have been added because none of the tenants stayed for long. We were surprised to see that the place was much smaller than we remembered and the blocks were so close to each other. This reminds of a tall tale that one of my Primary 3 classmates told us. This chap claimed that he had seen a snake which was as long as the blocks in our school!

Can you see that huge tree? We spotted many red saga seeds at the base of the tree. I have a strong suspicion that this huge saga seed tree* is the very same one that was already there during our time. Many kids, including boys like me, liked to pick the saga seeds and play a rather girlie game which I will describe another time – or maybe one of you readers would like to take up this ‘assignment’. If my suspicion is correct, then this tree must be more than 50 years old! Can a saga seed tree survive that long? In that case, perhaps we should recommend to the National Parks Board that they gazette this tree as a "heritage tree". In fact it stands only half a kilometer or so from the famous Braddell Road Angsana tree.

This is a view of part of sports field. The second photo is from the National Archives collection dated 1955. I remember it was much bigger than this. Maybe part of it has been given over to the nearby Assisi Home or Marymout Road. On the right was a fence. Across this fence used to be some bungalows belonging to Caucasian families. As I mentioned in my earlier story, when we played hantam bola, sometimes the ball went across the fence and some brave soul would have to climb over the fence to retrieve it, risking certain punishment if caught.

I also remember this statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus perched on the roof of Mount Alvernia hospital. The hospital was constructed during the years when we were at BRS, which would be around 1960 to 1963. At that time, the statue faced the main road and when you passed by Thomson Road at night, you could see the statue bathed in soft blue light. Now they seem to have shifted the statue and it is no longer visible from the main road.

After we bade fond goodbyes to our former school, we made a short visit to the nearby MacRitchie Reservoir. Those days, our teachers often brought us for ‘excursions’ here. We would line up in pairs, holding hand and crossed the road to enter the park from a point just opposite the school.

Our last stop was the Saint Theresa’s Home. Aii Chan and Sock Gek were quite excited to see it because they used to live at a kampong just next it. At that time, it was called The Little Sisters of the Poor and the kampong was called called Hai Lam Sua (Hainan Hill). The present location of Hai Lam Sua would be around the Lakeview Estate. Even as I write this post, I suddenly recall that in those days, we used to call the Thomson Road area Hoi Lam San which is the equivalent in Cantonese. I was surprised to learn that there used to be a cemetery here which served as a playground for the two brave little kampong girls. Apparently, besides the huge, mainly Cantonese cemeteries at Bishan, there was also a smaller Hainanese one here.

As we bade our farewells, we promised to try and round up more former BRS students for a gathering to remember our beloved BRS. And one question lingers … would the authorities demolish it? I hope not.

*The saga seed has a very romantic name in Chinese. Do you know what is it? Answer here.

Response to suggestions that there used to be a badminton court between blocks 2 and 3. (posted on 04 Aug 2009)

Below is a photo showing Block 2, with Mt Alvernia Hospital in the background. On the left is Block 3, the highest block. As you can see, the gap between the two blocks is very small and the slope is very steep. Unless, block 2 has been rebuilt to bring it closer; it is unlikely that the badminton court could have existed here. And judging from the buildings which we saw on that day, I don't think anything new has been built. Mostly it was just retrofitting, I believe. Plus there simply isn't enough space to house 3 blocks and a badminton court.

My Recollections of Braddell Rise School by Kim Aii Chan

1950 photo of Braddell Rise School nearing completion

Introduction

This article is contributed by my primary school classmate Aii Chan. As some of you may know, I went to Braddell Rise School for 4 years from 1960 to 1963 and have blogged about this school previously. Aii Chan read my story and contacted me. Since then we have exchanged emails and managed to unearth many old memories of BRS.

*****************************************************************

Years: 1959 – 1964 (6 years)

Location of BRS was 2-3 bus-stops away from home (Thomson Road), so to save the 5 cents bus fare (for extra use in the school tuck-shop) quite often we (my sister & I) walked to/fro school.

School Principal was Mr Marriappan (I thought we had a temporary one in early years before his arrival, a certain Miss Guin or Miss Quin (Caucasian lady) ??

List of class teachers

Pr.1 Miss Koh (children with neat handwriting – received a sweet each) Pr.2 Mr Seto Mun Chap (he taught us sewing !! really unique)

Pr 3 Miss Josephine Gomez (v. lively teacher, brought her favourite students (me included) out a lot and even to her home near Farrer Park swimming pool)

Pr.4 Mr Chew Wai Choon (yes he taught us to sing Yellow bird with his guitar. We loved also his Art lessons becos we moved our desk into 4’s )

Pr. 5 Mr Chia Kah Hock, thin (not tall) soft-spoken

Pr.6 Mr Pang (drove a red sport car like a playboy, can be quite fierce esp. to the boys) Our Chinese teacher was Miss Ong and I think she stayed v. long because she also taught my nieces many years later.

School Tuckshop

On entering the first stall sold kueh kueh and otak in banana leaves, then came the old Hainanese lady who sold cakes/biscuits, tea and coffee, then the drink stall of Fong Jie who kindly gave us cold water foc, the mee pok lady (her niece called Lily was in our class for some years), the Indian Mee siam stall then the sweet stall (our favouriteJ)

Girls Toilet (2nd Block)

Facing the entrance door are table-tennis tables, we have to go early to “chop” the table for our group of friends to place. The toilet doors can be quite difficult to lock esp. for young children and I remember one girl called Elsie (who stayed across the school, at the corner of MacRichie Reservoir, she was in my sister’s class) got locked in the toilet for some time !! After this, we all got frightened and never went to toilet alone during recess time. Near to the girls toilet was the Indian Jaga’s home or storeroom (?).

Girls Toys

Some of the girls also played the kuti kuti but I think it was considered more for the boys, for us I remember that we sewed our own 5 stones (triangle cloth-made filled with red seeds from the angsana trees growing in the school ground) and we also played group skipping : 2 girls turning a long rope while a 1 or 2 girls jumped inside.

Memorable events

School sports days (since Miss Gomez came, our sport days included also Folk dancing. I was involved in this in Primary 3 we wore a standard white blouse but Miss Gomez made us red skirts from a type of fluffy paper) and I remember also some concert days which took placed in 2nd block with a piano esp. when Singapore merged with Malaysia in 1963 and there was a song which went like this:

Let’s get together, sing a happy song
Malaysia forever, ten million strong
Land of the free, marching as one
Ready to go in every way, so let’s get it done, get it done!

We’re all in the same boat, sailing as we go
???????????????????????
we’re ready for merger, let’s open the door
To Malaysia forever, ever more.

Chorus:

Malaysia forever, ever more, united for Liberty,
Homes of the happy people Just you wait and see,
wait and see !

** You can hear this song on YouTube here.
I also remember singing at a school concert with Catherine and another girl (Lim Poh Lan ?): Isles of Capri (must have been either Primary 4 or Primary 5)

The BRS sports field was situated at the back of the school at the highest point. Today it would be the Assissi Home and the Marymount Road

Unpleasant memories

Early years, when the mobile Dentist van came and we queued up for the nurses to check our teeth. The primary 1 classes were situated in the first block where we could see the arrival, then fear set in our little heads!

During primary 2, Mr Seto picked me (with a few others) to be School Prefects. I ended up being assigned to make children pick up papers/other rubbish on the school ground during recess time. This was really difficult because being only at Primary 2 (also shorter than the other kids), so much younger - how could I get the other “bigger” ones to obey me? I tried always to get the lower primary ones to do that but they were not always around. Quite often I ended up picking the papers or rubbish myself!!

Of course this was only the first initial years, on getting older with each passing years, it was easier to get the others to obey J During Primary 5 or 6 years Catherine and I even helped the primary 1 or 2 teachers to look after their classes in their absence: it was great because we felt like teachers and the “little” kids respected and obeyed us too!

Conclusion

BRS brought to me more pleasant than unpleasant memories : A great school!

Related post: The first English song that I learned

The first English song that I learned

To my more senior friends; can you remember the first English song that you learned? I am not referring to those nursery rhymes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Baa Baa Black Sheep that they taught us in school. Well I can; and it’s a song from 46 years ago.

It was blogging about that feathered visitor earlier that reminded me of this English song that I learned in 1962. I was in primary 4 in Braddell Rise School. Kampong kids of that era do not listen to English songs. Other than a few nursery rhymes, we never sang English songs.

But my teacher at that time, Mr Chew liked to sing English songs. One day, he brought his guitar to class and taught us this song. Surprisingly, after 46 years, I can still remember the lyrics ….. well at least some parts of it.

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend, leave your nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You’re more lucky than me.

……

Wish that I were a yellow bird.
I’ll fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird,
So here I sit, nothing else to do.


The song was Yellow Bird. Have you heard it before? If not, you can listen to it here.

More On Bartley Secondary School - Lam Chun Chew

Gangsters

Before I enrolled in Bartley, the school had a gangster problem. When I started study in the school, this problem seemed to have dissipated, thanks to the enforcement of discipline by our fierce principal Mr Jesu. He would not hesitate to call for the police if he knew any of his students took part in this nefarious activity.

A case in point. One of my primary school mates named Ah Leng, a Hainanese boy, whose father owned a coffee stall in our kampong, was misguided into a secret society. In fact he was a smart boy doing well in the primary school and when posted to Bartley, things changed. He was caught by the principal for taking part in a gang fight outside school and was referred to the police, ending his school career in a most unfortunate way. Later on, when I was working in the port, one day a stevedore called me: “Lam – how are you?” I turned around, and to my surprise, I found my long-lost friend, Ah Leng calling me. Imagine; a bright kid with a good future before him had turned into a hardened labourer, eking out for a living .. to hell with organised crime!


Me (extreme left) and some of my buddies trying our best to look 'cool' and macho.


Teachers

One of our most colourful Indian graduate teachers was my Physics teacher, Mr Chettiar. He graduated from Travancore U, southern India, with a science degree. A tall, bespectacled and skinny guy with a moustache, he had a very boring dress sense. He liked to wear white long sleeve shirts, with white pants to match, throughout the year, with an occasional switch to grey trousers.

Mr Chettiar, I must say, was a benign teacher. When he got angry with naughty students, he would grimace, raising his right hand high, pretending to execute a karate chop, not quite reaching the culprit’s neck, causing a ruckus in the process. When coming to his lesson, he was like being charged with a megawatt of energy, moving swiftly from one end of the black board to the other. Just to quote one incident during his physic lesson, acting like an Indian Enstein explaining a theory of the universe, he would enthusiastically expound with a heavy Indian accent : “angalar aaxe + angalar wwhy (angle x + angle y) ….and so on and so forth…One board of calculation not enough, he rubbed off, starting another full black-board of calculations, and finally the answer. Meanwhile, I was in twilight zone. One of my class’ smartest chaps, P Chiew sprang up and said: “Mr Chettiar, I think there is a shorter cut to find the answer!” Mr Chettiar: “Oh, is it. Come and do it on the board”. P Chiew went to the black board and wrote out all the calculations and out popped the answer, done only with half a black board. Mr Chettiar felt embarrassed, and unsmilingly said: “Well the calculation is short, but still quite misleading; and worse not clear!” The class became very quiet after this.

Another lady bespectacled Indian teacher named Mrs Bess, was really a beauty, as pretty as a Bollywood star. She taught us English in the lower form. A very quiet, dignified, composed person who drew plenty of unwanted attention from the male population, especially from the Indian teachers. There was another short, very good looking lady teacher (Chinese) who drove a sport car to work (forgot her name), who one day requested a mini library behind the class-room, so as to improve our English. At once Mr Jesu granted her wish without much query. It was rumoured that this lady was from Penang and was formerly working in an airline. To the disappointment of everyone, she taught only for a short period and left the school.

Indeed there were many stories of my school, but I would like to stop here, and for further inputs, I would like to fill them up in the comments section.

Bartley Secondary School – Lam Chun Chew

Many schools in Singapore are named after the place in which they are located. Whitley Secondary, River Valley, Dunearn, Naval Base, Bukit Merah are just a few examples. The strange thing is that, many of these schools have been relocated to other places, so much so that their names no longer reflect their geographical locations. Whitley Secondary School is a good example. It used to be located at the junction of Whitley Road and Dunearn Road. However, it was shifted to Bishan some years back and the land is now occupied by the Singapore Chinese Girls School. Another example is its neighbour, Swiss Cottage Secondary School which was shifted to Bukit Batok.

Recently I passed by Bartley Road and found that a great deal of construction was taking place at the location where my alma mater, Bartley Secondary School used to stand. They are constructing a new MRT station there. I thought to myself - Bartley is probably going to suffer the same fate as Whitley and Swiss Cottage, by being relocated to one of the HDB housing estates and thus losing its historical character. Later, I was relieved to learn that Bartley was only shifted ‘next door’ to Jalan Bunga Rampai.

I take this opportunity to share with you about my days in this school.

This is a 1960 photo of our class, Sec 4A. I am standing on the extreme right. Behind us is the Gurkha camp at Mt Vernon. To see a clearer version, please click on it to go to the Flickr.

Bartley Secondary School was born in the same year as my younger brother Chun See; 1952. It was named after a British Government Official, and started as a co-ed school with 81 boys and 10 girls. The girls left in 1956 to join the all-girls Cedar Secondary School a stone’s throw away. My sister Pat is from Cedar, incidentally.

Like the rest of my siblings, I went to Braddell Rise School in my primary school. But from 1957 to 1960, I attended Bartley Secondary School. Although my father was an old boy of ACS, he did not send me there. I do not know why. But all my 3 younger brothers went to ACS in secondary school. Maybe it was too far, and thus transport cost was too high at that time.

The first two years I spent in Bartley were my happiest because most of the time I indulged in seeing my school soccer team, led by Quah Kim Siak (Quah Kim Song’s elder brother) beat the daylights out of other secondary schools. The school also had a very dedicated gymnastics teacher – Mr Loo. Even weaker students under his charge could perform simple basic gymnastics such as head-stand, parallel bars swings, jumping over the vault-horse, whilst stronger students were able to perform advanced gymnastics.

Our school also pioneered the National Police Cadet Corps with the first unit being established in 1959. It was founded by a teacher by the name of Bobby Kway, who later joined PSA, the Port of Singapore Authority as a senior officer. (Any young people below 30 can tell me the old name of PSA?)

The school had many Indian graduate teachers with colourful personalities, including the principal. Among the teachers, we had a Chinese maths teacher who was an expert magician (more about him later), a Caucasian Geography teacher, a motherly Chinese language teacher and others. This school also had a fair share of naughty boy students with girls confined only in the two Pre-U classes.

My main idea of writing this article is to encourage other senior bloggers to share their nostalgic experience of their alma maters.

……. to be continued.

Braddell Rise School

I studied in Braddell Rise School (BRS) from Primary 2 to Primary 5 from 1960 to 1963. So did my siblings and my cousins (the Ng family). I don’t think any of you reading this blog have even heard of BRS. It was situated next to Mt Alvernia Hospital at the junction of Thomson Road and Braddell Road. It was a small coed, primary school. It was closed down a number of years ago.

Today its premises are occupied by the Tampines Home (MINDS). It’s quite inconspicuous. If you passed the area, you might not even notice it. Even this appears to be a temporary arrangement. A great deal of construction is going on around the area. I believe they are constructing a viaduct to join Braddell Road to the Lornie Viaduct; and hence I really do not expect this landmark to be around for long. So I went down recently and took a couple of pictures.

(The tall buildings in the background are part of Braddell Rise Estate)

How come Pr 2 to Pr 5 so odd? Actually I was admitted to Anglo-Chinese Junior in Barker Road in 1959. But after 1 year, my parents transferred me to BRS because ACS was too far from our home in Lorong Chuan, and my elder brother David was in BRS and could look after me. In 1964, my brother was admitted to ACS Secondary in Barker Road and so my parents tried to transfer me back to ACS Junior. However, there were no more places and so I went to ACS Primary in Coleman Street instead. It was a scary experience for a kampong kid to take a long bus ride from Lorong Chuan to North Bridge Road, alighting opposite Capitol Theatre, cross several streets to get to school. My father brought me to school on Day 1 and after that I was on my own. Fortunately, I only had to spend 1 week there because an opening came up in ACS Junior and so back I went to Barker Road.

During the 1 week in Coleman Street, I got to know a round-headed kid by the name of Simon Chu Chun Sing. One year later, we were reunited when both of us got admitted to ACS Secondary. To this day, we remain good friends, although separated by several thousand kilometers; he in windy Scotland and I in sunny Singapore. Besides the round-headed kid, I also got to know a long word, ‘courtesy’. I remember this banner with the words, “Courtesy begets courtesy” prominently displayed in the school. Everytime I drive past this building I think of these words.

Today this building houses the Nation Archives

Coming back to Braddell Rise School - what can one recall about school more than 40 years ago? Apparently quite a bit to my pleasant surprise.

First the staff.

Our principal was a Mr Marriappan. In Primary 3 our teacher was a Mr Tan – he turned out to be a brother of my 11th Aunt. He was quite bald; which was uncommon those days. He told us, he came from a poor family and couldn’t afford shampoo and used to wash his hair with laundry soap or sabun. (I suspect his theory is not correct. Nowadays everyone can afford shampoo, and how come so many baldies?). In Pr 4, we had a Mr Chew. We liked him. He used to bring us, a few of his favorite pupils, for ‘excursions’ to places like Botanical Gardens in his Ford Prefect. He also taught us how to sing Yellow Bird. He once told us a story of Dracula – the girls were so scared, they huddled together, 2 to a chair. Wait a minute – was that Mr Tan??? But Mr Chew was also quite fierce. Many of the boys got slapped. I got slapped once; not on the face though, but the back of the head. My protective brother David witnessed it and it seemed to hurt him more than it did me.

How about the other students?

Most were kampong kids from the neighbouring areas like Kampong San Teng (Bishan), Thomson Road and Potong Pasir. Unfortunately, I can’t remember any of my friends from that era except 3 kids with Christian names. Those days, it was rare for people to have Christian names. One was my good friend Daniel who lived at Bartley Road. The other 2 were girls by the names of Freda Neo and Catherine Yap. Hope they are reading this blog.

Then of course there is sports and games.

We had 4 ‘houses’ named after the roads around us – Braddell, Lornie, Thomson and Caldecott. The sports field was located behind the school at the top of the hill where the present Assisi Home and Hospice stands. Sports Day was quite memorable. We had sack race and ‘fishing ping-pong’. The sports field was also where the boys played our favorite ‘bola hantam’ where we try to hurl the ball at our opponents – certainly not a game for the faint-hearted. I remember there was this left-handed chap from Potong Pasir, His throw was really powerful, and left an ugly red mark on our backs. Sometimes, the ball would land in the neighbours’ bungalow compounds, and some brave soul would have to scale the fence to retrieve it. The bungalows usually belonged to Caucasian expatriates and were located where the present Mary Mount Road is.

Towards the end of my stay in BRS, which was around 1964, I once peered over the fence of our sports field and saw, in the distance, a huge piece of land being cleared by bulldozers for as far as the eye could see. Bear in mind that this was 1964, and it was indeed a rare sight for this kampong boy. I didn't realize it then. I was witnessing history being made. They were building one of Singapore’s earliest HDB estates – Toa Payoh.

Another game we loved to play was kuti-kuti. These were tiny plastic animals which we used to fight each other. Basically you take turns to try to flick your animal on top of your opponent’s. The winner of course gets to keep the opponent’s animal. I am afraid it’s a bit difficult to explain, but if you were from my generation, you know what I am talking about.


Finally the Food

What trip down memory lane is complete without describing the food. One person at BRS we all loved was the friendly drinks vendor called Fong Jie. She was often dressed in white. She allowed us to mix our drinks of different colours; e.g. cherry, orange, sarsi or ice-cream soda and so on to form 1 full glass. The other person we loved was the pineapple drinks man who operated his stall outside our school gate. One glass of pineapple drink cost 5 cents. On days when we were broke, he gave us free drinks: minus the pineapple cubes of course. There was also an Indian sarabak stall outside our school. We like to watch the cook prepare the pratas and toseis. What amazed me was the water. The Indian workers who ate here simply scooped the water from a big rusty 55-gallon oil drum. Amazing isn’t it.

Talking of tuck shop food, ACS takes the cake. There were 3 stalls that we loved; the macaroni, beef noodle and curry rice stalls. The curry rice was a bit too expensive for me, so I can only recall the smell. As for the macaroni, it is served with minced pork – simply the best. To this day I seldom take macaroni. Why? Because I just can’t find anything close to the one at ACS.

The beef noodle came at 2 prices; 20 cents and 30 cents per bowl. For 20 cents you get 3 thin slices of beef, whilst for 30 cents you get more of course. However, even at 20 cents, we were allowed 1 additional helping of the delicious soup. But my friend Chun Sing was quite brave; he went for repeated helpings.

In 1969 I went to National Junior College. We were the pioneering batch. Well, the food there wasn’t exactly memorable (or maybe there were distractions? I don’t know.) Anyway, I only remember the long walks across the football field, up a steep slope to reach the canteen in Dunearn Technical School during the first few months when our own canteen was not ready. I often lunched with my good friend Leong Soon Wah. He often teased me for my love of pineapples. Unfortunately, we never kept in touch after JC. Must try to track him down one of these days.

So there you have it. My memories of the little known Braddell Rise School. Our school’s motto was: BE READY TO SERVE.

Now I have a confession. How do you think I am able to recall details like this from more than 40 years ago?

I still have my report book!