Times of My Life

Paper bags were used during the 60s, 70s and early 80s. They were then replaced by the current plastic bags. In the past, most products or companies advertisements were placed on the paper bags. Of course most of us will remember those bigger paper bags used for the mooncakes boxes.

Look at these 2 paper bags found in my mother’s house. They are probably 25 to 30 years back.

1. Chee Seng Sesame Oil;

Take note of the old telephone number and the number of digit then. Also the old address 937 Serangoon Road. This Chee Seng Sesame Oil probably has a very long product life cycle. They have been here since 1943 though started off as coconut oil instead of sesame oil. Here is their company history  and their double pagoda logo reason.

2. Heng Kee Lemon Juice ;

This was my favourite lemon juice in concentrated form, to be mixed with water. My mother used to buy a bottle of this lemon juice when she was out shopping. Note the address printed on the paper bag - Capitol Shopping Centre, Stall No.52 and $1.30 per bottle. Stall No.52 - those who been there before in the 80s will remember how the place like. Maybe Peter and Chun See can shed some lights.

Let’s see when the paper bags were made and who made them;

So don’t you think every paper bag tells a story? In the past, I used to say to my mother why was she keeping all these paper bags like garung guni…now I’m the one keeping it haha. Now I understand when there are aplenty - it’s like rubbish, and when it’s gone - it’s like treasure!

No no, I’m not talking about that HEROES TV series on Monday! It’s my old HERO brand fountain pen. Sad to say many students nowadays don’t use fountain pen or may not even know/seen one too!

I started using HERO fountain pen since Secondary school, think around Sec.1 or 2. Sometimes I got my fountain pen leaking, so my shirt pocket may be stained. The worst case was the ink bottle cap was not tighten properly thus my whole school bag was filled with the blue ink!

The HERO 336 Fountain Pen;

This is probably the most common fountain pen found here. It was released in 1968. The fountain pen probably costs about S$1.20 (I think)? This HERO pen resembles that of PARKER 51 (American brand).

The iridium nib tip was very tough and we like to use it as a dart. I can use it as a flying dart on the class table or chair. It’s fun playing with it, anyway, what other things can we played with at that time…

For those that have used the Hero fountain pen before, their refill system is probably most memorable;

Above photos credit : Chinapenking

When comes to refilling the pen, sometimes there will be a spill and we need those white blotting paper. Oh my son my not even seen one yet haha. Of course the other item that comes to mind when refilling is the ink bottle;

As seen on the packaging, this HERO brand ink and fountain pen was manufactured in Shanghai, China.

See the Chinese Tradmark below;

The side view of the box;

And the unique cap with the HERO embossed on it;

I wonder if I can still find this old HERO fountain pen at Sungei Road…

Credit : Chinatown Heritage Centre

The porcelain type of pillow on the right, hollow with 2 oval holes on both sides, was the type of pillow my Godmother used when we were staying at Beatty Road. It’s rather small in size compared to those new pillows we used nowadays.

I’ve tried sleeping on it but it’s hard to sleep on it and it’s cold too. When I tried to turn to my side, my head fell off the pillow. I don’t understand how my godmother managed to sleep on it so many years.

The one on the left is also a pillow but of better quality. Maybe it’s more expensive than the porcelain one, so not many could afford it. But even now, pillow price can range from a few dollars to hundred over dollars…and you won’t know how it suit you until you buy it and used it.

In the foreground of the above photo, you can also see the type of fan my godmother used. That is the normal types of fans made of probably bamboo leaves (correct me if I’m wrong) that most household will have. But now, how many of us still have it??

…cont’d from Pt.1

I’m talking about the old Roxy and Palace Theatre…funny right…they used to call it theatre instead of cinema. These 2 theatres are located along the same East Coast Road on the same side but opposite to the Odeon Katong Theatre. Both theatres are demolished.

If we walked along East Coast Road from Katong Shopping Centre to Still Road, this stretch was known as ‘The Roxy Area’. It was also the traditional ‘Heart of Katong’. From this, what can see how popular is the Roxy Theatre back in the 50s and 60s.

Take a good look at how the ‘landmarks’ changed its look over time… sad to say I’ve not been to any of these 2 theatres for a show but only passed by.

Roxy Theatre

This old theatre was there before World War 2 and much much older than me. Let’s check out some old photos;

Credit : Fairypoint

When I see the above photo, I doubt it’s Roxy Cinema in Singapore as it looked totally different. If it was then it must be very very long ago. Sad to say there isn’t much photos of the old Roxy in Katong. Luckily after searching for sometime, I managed to find another old photo which resembles the above;

Credit : Donor N Lloyd, Australian Was Memorial

The above shows the Roxy Theatre circa 1945. Read more about Roxy Theatre here.

When the Roxy Theatre was demolished, I’m not sure. The land now is occupied by Katong Plaza / Roxy Square and the back portion of the land is Grand Mercure Roxy hotel. Take a look now and you cannot never visualise how the old Roxy Theatre sits in there.

Palace Theatre

This is another old theatre along the East Coast Road which is demolished now. Take a look below see how it looks like in 1960;

Credit : National Archives of Singapore , PICAS

You are still able to see the theatre in 1990 as shown in the photo taken from Ceylon Road ;

Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

Understand that this theatre in her later years was used more for live performances. Probably in the 90s, the name of the theatre was also changed to Paradise Theatre. Below shows the Paradise Theatre in 1994;

Creadit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

The theatre was demolished and now a Eastgate building in its place;

These 2 theatres Roxy and Palace were separated by a road called Brooke Road.

Let me wish all friends here a Happy 2008 New Year before I begin my first post for this year.

Katong Shopping Centre;

So when was it built? Yes, 35 years ago, opened in 1973, it was one of the nearest shopping centres from my home in Haig Road back then. I loved to visit there during Saturday especially after my NCC Air ECA (now known as CCA) at the Haig Road Camp.

When my dad bought a 5rm flat at Haig Road in the early 70s, I was so happy as it was within walking distance to so many shopping area there like Katong Shopping Centre, City Plaza, Tanjong Katong Complex, Parkway Parade - of course some were built later.

This 35 years old shopping centre used to be full of textiles and shoes shops in the early days. The popular Oriental Emporium was located at one corner occupying 2 floors. It was fun shopping there especially before the Chinese New Year.

Below is how it looked like in 1994;

Photo Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

Now the whole place especially the basement and ground floor, are full of eatery shops. But I must said some of the eateries shops served value for money food. The good old Oriental Emporium, and many textiles and shoes shops were gone… This used to be a good place to know some Tanjong Katong Girls School students haha.

Luckily this old shopping centre still retains its old look and not much of a makeover like most other shopping mall. The main structural change is probably the addition of a lift at the corner near the Haig Road.

This is how it looks now(photo taken Dec 2007);

The eateries at the basement;

Somehow as I’m very much older now, this shopping centre seems to have ’shrink’;

Odeon Katong Shopping Complex;

I wonder how many still remember the old Odeon Katong Theatre (Cinema) here before this Odeon Katong Shopping Complex was built? For how long the old Odeon Katong Theatre was here, I really don’t know. If I will to base on the 1988 Edition of Singapore Street Directory, it was still here in 1988. However the 1998 Edition of the Singapore Street Directory, it shows Odeon Katong Shopping Complex instead. So it must be between 1988 to 1998 that there was a makeover.

This is the old Odeon Katong Theatre in 1960;

Photo Credit : National Archives of Singapore, PICAS

Frankly I’m not too sure if there is a mix-up of dates as I recall that in the early 80s, the new Odeon Katong seems to be there already. During the Chinese New Year, I remember I went up to the cinema by escalator to book 3 days advance tickets for a movie. It was a norm to book advance tickets up to 3 days and usually the queue was extremely long during the Chinese New Year period. Haha, maybe I’ve got the years wrong myself….anyway…

Here is the 1994 look of the Odeon Katong Shopping Complex;

And the updated look in 2007 below;

I didn’t realise that the cinemas inside were gone…until I dropped by last month. See what the whole building becomes;

Can’t see…haha…let me tell you: 80% of the building occupied by Cornerstone Community Church! In fact, a number of old cinemas in Singapore have been converted to Church.

Here is the escalator leading to the old Odeon Katong cinema;

There is some changes to the road when the Odeon Katong Shopping Centre was built.

Before the Odeon Katong Shopping Centre was built, the Mugliston Road was terminated before the canal at the Katong Shopping Centre Carpark Entrance;

Now after the Odeon Katong Shopping Complex was built, the Mugliston Rd was extended below the building and joined with the Ean Kiam Place;

I don’t know how long these 2 buildings will last especially the Katong Shopping Centre. Those old buildings surrounding are going and gone one by one…

to be continued in Pt.2…

The above shows the simple Christmas Tree in 1968. I was 6 years old then. See the difference of the Christmas Tree compared to now. Also take note of the old ‘hi-fi’ set (radio with record player) the Christmas Tree was placed on. Now we are even using the LEDs for the Christmas lights and the decoration looks much better. But again, that was almost 40 years ago when my Godsister and I posed for that photo.

Celebrating Christmas was much simpler and I remember occasionally, my Godsisters would bring me to attend their companies’ children parties. It was the usual lucky dips, magic shows and singing. Orchard Road was not so well decorated compared to now and lots of buildings were still not built yet then.

Note : With this, I end this year 2007 posts. I wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008 New Year. Hope to see all of you here again in 2008!

Credit : National Archives of Singapore

This was the first type of phone my Godparents had in the 60s/70s. No choice of color for the phones back then, I think. Not many households are able to afford a telephone; my parents do not have one too.

I remember my Godparents got engaged those telephone cleaning lady to clean the phone every now and then. The cleaning lady would carried a hard bag like those cosmetic makeup bag, containing all her cleaning kids. She would changed the white color mouth piece ‘filter’ and then sprayed some ‘fragrance’ onto it. And they wore those gloves when doing the cleaning of telephone.

So what does STB stands for? It stands for Singapore Telephone Board. And its logo back then has a swallow bird - don’t know why?

Even the telephone carried the logo, as shown on the telephone above.

Back then the bills envelopes are like this;

See the above envelope. So in 1971, it was still STB and the postage back then was 6 cents!

OK, Singapore had its first telephone service in 1879, almost 128 years! The British were providing the telephone services until 1955. In 1955, STB was formed.

TAS (Telecommunications Authority of Singapore) provided overseas services while STB on local services. In 1974, both merged to form Singapore Telecom.

So when did we first have our push button phone? That should be August 1970. By early 1980s, all rotary phones were replaced by push button phone. Regret didn’t keep one of those rotary phone or the first generation of the push button phone with the Telecom logo at the bottom.

Here is the First Day Cover for the 100 years of Telephone Service in 1974;

So what will be the next change be?

First thing comes to mind is the Root Beer when one mention A&W! And I love that Root Beer Float!

This followed by their waffle with ice-cream on top. I love this more than their Coney Dog (hot dog);

You have probably read about A&W in Chun See post and Aroma Cookery.

Most of us knew that the first A&W store opened at Dunearn Road in 1966. It was the first fast food from US to step into Singapore and later expanded throughout the island and including the zoo. Due to competition from other fast food chain, business was affected. In 1999, the outlet at the Singapore Zoo was closed down. By 2002, there were only 7 outlets around the island. So did A&W finally closed in 2003 or 2004? Not sure. You may probably still find A&W in Malaysia.

How many of us know what ‘A&W’ stands for? The company name was taken from the last name initials of partners Roy Allen and Frank Wright. See the history here and here.

The last A&W I still can find in Singapore was at the Changi Airport Transit area (can’t remember which terminal). In some records found on internet, in 2003 the A&W outlets are found at;

• A & W Changi Airport T2
  Airport Blvd Changi Airport Passenger Terminal 2
• A & W City Plaza
  810 Geylang Rd. #01-00 City Plaza
• A & W Cuppage Mall
  Orchard Rd #01-K3
• A & W Woodlands
  Blk 548 Woodlands Dr. #01-20
• A & W Tampines
  Blk 201D Tampines St. 21 #01-1155
• A & W Tampines
  Blk 205 Hougang St. 21 #01-133 Heartland Mall-Kovan

I’m most bewildered by the outlet at Tampines Blk. 201D. As I’m staying near there, but I’ve not got the chance to eat at that outlet. It was a very small outlet (with aircon installation but you can’t feel the aircon type) and once I went in, I started to perspire. So I was out without having ordering anything. That outlet even got Nasi Lemak in it’s menu! But think it lasted only about 1 year or so…

Do you still remember this outlet at Bukit Merah (besides the old HDB HQ)?

Photo Credit : Designed For Living, HDB.

Here are some old glasses from A&W found during the July Singapore Heritage Fair;

So what is left now are just cans and cans of Root Beer that we can buy from the supermarkets;

These are the 2 traditional pastries I’ve eaten during my childhood. My godparents used to buy them home when they came back from shopping or marketing. Probably during that time, there were no such craze as ‘curry that puffs’, ‘roti-boys’, ‘bread that talk’, ‘donnuts that need to queue’, etc…

No doubt there were many types of pastries then, but these 2 are my favourites because of their unique shapes, designs and probably packaging. Though they don’t taste fantastic back then, but.. not too bad and still can finish the whole piece or more.

Some of the traditional cake shops still sell these pastries but they are not so commonly available. Let’s take a closer look at the first one;

These are still wrapped in the traditional plain pink color paper. I like to ‘peel’ them off one by one and eat them as shown above. But this one I bought, though look alike, the taste is not the same. It is very much like sugar taste now and after taking one ’slice’, I gave up.

Now the second one - the round brown one. It’s still the same shape but I’m not too sure of the word is the same compared to the past haha. No doubt, it’s rather soft when you peel off the paper at the bottom, but this one taste even worse than the first one (to me). I took one bite and throw away the rest.

I’m not too sure if the above are made for offering instead of eating. The taste is longer the same old traditional taste I’ve eaten…sigh…

Credit : SPH, The Straits Times.

Do you still remember the above posters put up in most government bodies? Of course not in the current era, it happened in the 60s/70s - in Singapore haha. Long hair males were frowned upon in the past.
You may laugh it off now, but in the past it’s no fun at all. Male artistes with long hair were not allowed to appear on TV too; male with long hair will also be stopped at Woodlands immigration checkpoint and turned away until they had their hair cut. Think that was around 1972.

Well probably our government is trying to stop the Hippies fashion and habits infiltrating into our country. Besides the long hair, there was another icon of the hippies - the peace sign! Most of those fashionable men with long hair, wore a peace sign necklace;

Here is a guide on how the hippies looked like;

Credit : Ruth Bronsteen. The Hippy¹s Handbook.

So lucky me, when I was in Singapore Poly, it’s already 1979. I still able to keep my long hair but just long enough to cover my ears and slightly below the shirt collar. Below shows the long hair me in Poly days during the late 70s and early 80s;