St Joseph Institution
In 1965 I was in Secondary 2 in Saint Joseph Institution. SJI was situated at Bras Basah Road.
The shops along Bras Basah Road is famous for 2nd hand school books. These 2nd hand school books stores sells mostly old 2nd hand books. You could sell your old books to these stores at a low price. They also sell some brand new books, which are mostly text books. Nestled in the row of shops is a camera shop called Cathay Photo store. During my time, electronics shops have a reputation for fleecing customers and it seems that this bad name still exists today. I bought my first camera from this shop. Later when I found out that one of its function was not working to my satisfaction, I brought it back to this shop for repair (I could not remember what the defect was). When I went to collect my camera, I was disappointed that the same defect exists and that the shop still wants to charge me for the repair. After hesitating I gave in and paid. But I learnt an important lesson in this experience i.e when something is defective make sure it is a verifiable and obvious one. If a defect is intermittant and not so obvious, the repairer can simply return the same item to you without repairing. Later on I apply this principle to all my things especially to complicated things like electrical equipment or cars. For example if the fault in your car is intermittant, you might find that when you reach the workshop, the car suddenly behaves properly or worst still the same defect appears after repair. If I have an intermittant fault I will just live with it until it becomes permanent. Then it is time to send for repair.
Bukit Pasoh Road
In my younger days I stayed in New Bridge Road/Bukit Pasoh Road. Bukit Pasoh is a stone throw away from the present Pinnacle. I attended De la Salle Primary school at Kampong Bahru Road. In our primary school, we were introduced to the Post Office savings stamp card. We would buy stamps and stick them on to a card. When I filled up a card, I would bring it to the Sepoy Line Post office and get a credit into my savings book. In this way I managed to save about $15 by primary 6. The Sepoy Line Post Office was situated along Neil Road at the junction of Spottiswoode Park Road. This is where Neil Road ends. One side of Neil Road were lined with old houses and ends at coffee shop at the entrance to Spottiswoode Park Road. These old houses and the coffee shop still remain till this day. On the other side of the road were St Matthew church, a small gospel hall and Sepoy Line Post Office in that sequence.
Open Air cinemas
In those days cinemas were expensive so we always went to open air cinema at Kampong Bahru railway ground or at Bukit Purmei. Entrance fee was cheap around 10 cents (I think). Nearer to home there were free shows at the old police complex (at the location of the present Cantonment police complex).
Coca Cola
At the entrance to Spottiswoode Park Road was a big Coca Cola sign (I don't know when it was put up). But all taxi drivers knew how to come to Spottiswoode Park if you just say "Coca Cola". It has been taken down since.
Bukit Ho Swee fire
I liked to watch shows and would visit cinemas like Majestic, Oriental, Globe, Sky, Atlantic, Canton, Capital, Odean, Lido, Kings etc. Most of the time I paid half price. It was during one of my cinema outings that I witness the greatest fire at Bukit Ho Swee. I just came out of Kings cinema after the 1pm show. It was around 3pm. While waiting for the buss to go home, I saw how the fire at Bukit Ho Swee was started. From the bus stop I saw a man lingering at the back of some attap houses. He was at least 200 metres away. I couldn't make out what he was doing but before I know it, a fire was started. He was the only person who should be able to shed some light on the incident. But to this day nobody came up to confess. Now when I see the documentary on the Bukit Ho Swee fire, I know what they say in the documentary is guesswork. An expert said that the fire was most probably started by someone cooking. I know better!
