This picture showed my uncle's wedding in 1986.My mum, who was second from the left, was the bride's maid. The wedding was held in the house that my mum and her relatives stayed in. It was a big house that stayed more than thirty people. Each household of four to six stayed in their own huge bedroom but they shared the common areas such as the living hall, the kitchen and the toilets. There were lots of space for the children to play. They even had a bedminton court right in front of the house as you can see from the photo. The kids would sometimes use the bedminton court to play catching or street soccer as well.
During special occassions like this wedding, everyone in the family will join hands to help in the preparation. The adults would cook for the guests, who could add up to hundreds of them from the kampong, while the kids helped to decorate the house. Everyone in the family looked forward to such occassions as these were wonderful opportunities for all to catch up, not forgetting the nice and delicious food. The families were very close and the kids spent their whole childhood together.
During the 1990s, the government bought back the land where my mum's kampong was situated. As my great grandpa could not find another big piece of land to house everyone, he asked that all nuclear families applied for their own HDB flats. Since then, my mum and all her cousins were separated and settled down in different parts of Singapore.
