Memories of growing up in the 1950s
-
May 2, 2012 - ST Forum
I WAS amused by the account of Professor Kua Ee Heok's childhood days in a riparian town in Johor ('Baby boomers turn 65'; last Saturday).
Unlike Prof Kua, I grew up in Singapore, living in attap houses in the 1950s when television, iPads and the Internet were unheard of.
My childhood days were spartan, where we had only our 'charcoal iron' to iron my school uniforms passed down to me by my elder brother.
The only music we enjoyed was from the faithful gramophone, which played songs by Doris Day on the 7-inch record running at 45rpm.
We lived in a Chinese kampung and the thought of visiting a 'bucket toilet' was an unforgettable experience even to this day.
The early community centres were wooden huts with zinc roofs, and on weekends, they would come alive with cowboy cinema shows featuring John Wayne. It was an open-air cinema and the noisy projector whirred and stopped every 30 minutes as the projectionist had to change to a new roll of film.
You paid 10 cents if you were sitting on the same side as the projector, and five cents if you sat on the other side of the screen as the image was blurred. You brought along your own stool and when the rain suddenly came, you would have to grab your stool and run for your life.
We took the rickety Singapore Traction Company trolley buses to school, and it was sheer joy to board a crowded bus as we could avoid paying 10 cents to the conductor, who literally kicked us out if he found that we had exceeded the distance.
The old Raffles Institution in Bras Basah Road brought back happy memories of our school days, when we could have a plate of mee rebus for only 10 cents, or 15 cents with an egg thrown in.
Unlike the children of today, we had to resort to second-hand books bought at the old bookshops near Waterloo Street.
Life was tough in the 1950s, but most of us made it to university because of our dedicated headmaster and caring teachers, who saw to the holistic development of every child, even those from homes with poor parents.
Heng Cho Choon
-
bucket toilet was always scary for young kids.
-
1950s full of riots and communism
-
Fajar Generation, The: The University Socialist Club And The Politics Of Postwar Malaya And Singapore
The University Socialist Club (USC) was formed in February 1953. In the 1950s and 1960s the USC and its organ Fajar were a leading voice advocating the cause of the constitutional struggle for freedom and independence in peninsular Malaya and Singapore.
The Fajar Generation tells the hitherto neglected story of a remarkable group of men and women who advanced a radical agenda of anti-colonialism, democracy, multiculturalism and social justice through the agency of the USC.
Through personal memoirs and analytical essays the contributors to this collection illuminate the roles that they played in that extraordinary era of political turmoil in the modern histories of Malaya/Malaysia and Singapore, where different strands of nationalist thinking and competing political formations battled to define and shape the character of the future nation states.
http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.aspx?SBNum=048185
May 13 Generation, The: The Chinese Middle Schools Student Movement And Singapore Politics In The 1950S
The May 13 Generation was the first belonging to the immigrant communities from China to grapple with the issues of being Malayan/Singaporean, breaking irrevocably with the received wisdoms of their elders, and in a political climate where their explorations were deemed to be subversive.
This book comprises the recollections penned by the participants of the era of the 1950s, where their generation was in the forefront of the anti-colonial movement, and the work of academic researchers who have examined the historical framework and context of the period, as well as how it has been made to fit in to the country's mainstream history.
The researchers have also examined the students' cultural expressions, whether it is in art, drama, dance or literature and found to be socially engaged, and grappling with the question of who they were as a people.
The cultural explorations of that period have been forgotten or repudiated. It is revealing just how this amnesia and silence has become so set. It is also impossible to imagine the demands that age had put on this generation of youths.
http://www.selectbooks.com.sg/getTitle.aspx?SBNum=051670
The May 13 Generation & The Mighty Wave -
speech by Mdm Loh Miaw Gong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f9DDo2Aspk
-
So compared to 2012, which decade better?
-
I like the 50s at least I'm young and things are simple.
-
Yes I like 50s too where the women were simpler, can control and complain less.
-
no comments since I was from the 1985 era..
-
You also didn't get to see craps like Naruto the pang sai. Not to forget just 50¢, you can eat porridge and char kway teow which can be packed in banana leaf where the hawker knocked bamboo sticks to sell them. (Quite unique way of "markting").
-
Originally posted by M the name:
You also didn't get to see craps like Naruto the pang sai. Not to forget just 50¢, you can eat porridge and char kway teow which can be packed in banana leaf where the hawker knocked bamboo sticks to sell them. (Quite unique way of "markting").
50cents was price of the 70s.
In the 50s; 15cents no egg/ with duck egg 20 cents/ with chicken egg 30cents. Can always byo eggs so cheaper.
Dun think you kids know about the duck egg and chicken egg difference.
-
Last time no crowded mrt.
All walk.
-
50s, you mean when we had communists??
-
Originally posted by TehJarVu:
50s, you mean when we had communists??
now we have terrorists.
-
Originally posted by charlize:
Last time no crowded mrt.
All walk.
there are plenty of omnibuses and pirate taxis or trishaws for short distance.
pirate taxi 5 cents from Delta Road to Old Market cheaper than 10 cents bus ticket.
-
Last time no Hsien Tao "rule" sickapore, no minister was the highest paid
-
Originally posted by winsomeea:
Last time no Hsien Tao "rule" sickapore, no minister was the highest paid
in the 50s Sg still under the Brits.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
in the 50s Sg still under the Brits.
Oic.
Yeah, no wonder some of the oldies said they prefer Brit to rule in sg.
What's omni buses?
-
bus is short of omnibus(50s term); guess many dun know even in the bus forum.
-
OIC
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
May 2, 2012 - ST Forum
I WAS amused by the account of Professor Kua Ee Heok's childhood days in a riparian town in Johor ('Baby boomers turn 65'; last Saturday).
Unlike Prof Kua, I grew up in Singapore, living in attap houses in the 1950s when television, iPads and the Internet were unheard of.
My childhood days were spartan, where we had only our 'charcoal iron' to iron my school uniforms passed down to me by my elder brother.
The only music we enjoyed was from the faithful gramophone, which played songs by Doris Day on the 7-inch record running at 45rpm.
We lived in a Chinese kampung and the thought of visiting a 'bucket toilet' was an unforgettable experience even to this day.
The early community centres were wooden huts with zinc roofs, and on weekends, they would come alive with cowboy cinema shows featuring John Wayne. It was an open-air cinema and the noisy projector whirred and stopped every 30 minutes as the projectionist had to change to a new roll of film.
You paid 10 cents if you were sitting on the same side as the projector, and five cents if you sat on the other side of the screen as the image was blurred. You brought along your own stool and when the rain suddenly came, you would have to grab your stool and run for your life.
We took the rickety Singapore Traction Company trolley buses to school, and it was sheer joy to board a crowded bus as we could avoid paying 10 cents to the conductor, who literally kicked us out if he found that we had exceeded the distance.
The old Raffles Institution in Bras Basah Road brought back happy memories of our school days, when we could have a plate of mee rebus for only 10 cents, or 15 cents with an egg thrown in.
Unlike the children of today, we had to resort to second-hand books bought at the old bookshops near Waterloo Street.
Life was tough in the 1950s, but most of us made it to university because of our dedicated headmaster and caring teachers, who saw to the holistic development of every child, even those from homes with poor parents.
Heng Cho Choon
i recal lthe 50's too..................so good hor................
the Brits were running the place...................
S'pore was still free of LKY's tyranny....................
back then, Depeche Mode was starting to get famous..................
-
Originally posted by Susanteo2011:
i recal lthe 50's too..................so good hor................
the Brits were running the place...................
S'pore was still free of LKY's tyranny....................
back then, Depeche Mode was starting to get famous..................
Depeche Mode vs Bros........which side you at? That's my era......Fire Disco......Tea Dance.......I love it.....
-
Originally posted by Paxonboard3173:
Depeche Mode vs Bros........which side you at? That's my era......Fire Disco......Tea Dance.......I love it.....
Sgreans love Depechek mode.
-
Originally posted by Clivebenss:
there are plenty of omnibuses and pirate taxis or trishaws for short distance.
pirate taxi 5 cents from Delta Road to Old Market cheaper than 10 cents bus ticket.
Sian.
No more trishaw now.
-
interesting
tell me more about the 50s
-
Originally posted by Paxonboard3173:
Depeche Mode vs Bros........which side you at? That's my era......Fire Disco......Tea Dance.......I love it.....
Bros ????
my standard where got so low to listen to Bros...................