Memories of Lorong Geylang by Teo Soon Thuan [1]

A 64-year old Mr Teo has been staying at Lorong 36 Geylang since he was a child. When he was eight years old, his mother passed away. Being the eldest son in the family of five siblings, his education was hampered when his father decided him to be the one to continue running the provision shop business that was set up at their home. Since then, Mr Teo has continued running the business till today overcoming many challenges along the way. Situated at Geylang Road 606, at the end of Geylang Lorong 36, the provision shop set up by Mr Teo’s dad was a corner shop that provided the basic necessities such as rice, sugar, oil, fodder for poultry (such as reared pigs & chickens) & other goods to families & those residing near the area. The shop house remains authentic complete with its wooden staircase & the old style plank doors, used to shut the shop at the end of the day. The family stayed within the shop house, converting the back of the shop as a private space for the family. His father was already running the shop even before WWII in 1942. Prior to that, his father, who originated from Fujian, China, had been working at other provision shops before setting up his own. Through arranged marriage, his father married his mum, who was also from Fujian, just before the Japanese Occupation, to safeguard the safety of the family. To this day, Mr Teo has never lived in a HDB flat before as his live revolved mainly around his business. Regarded as the ‘tua soon teng bui kia’ (eldest grandson as the last son of the ancestor), it was obvious that Mr Teo was to learn the tricks of the trade & inherit the business from his father. At a time when the Hokkien family preferred boys than girls, he was clearly doted by his grandmother. He recalls the hard work of delivering good & had to cycle to deliver these basic essentials from house to house. At any one time, he could be delivering as much as 100kg of rice to selected households, with his worn out old-fashioned tricycle. The challenge was the path that was sandy & full of gravel, which made it even harder to paddle his tricycle. Then, it was not a surprise for a household of 10 to consume up to 100kg of rice within a month as it was the staple food. The rice was being sold at 40 to 50 cents per kati. In the olden days, he made use of the traditional weighing scale to measure his goods & had a practice of wrapping goods bought by his customers. For items weighing less than 10kg, he would wrap them with newspapers that were folded like the ‘kacang puteh’ cone. If the items were heavier, he use papers that were used to hold cement for its durability. Staying in Lorong 36, Mr Teo has seen how the houses around the area were mostly attap or zinc roofed house on stilts. It was a mixed housing estate that mainly constituted Chinese families with only a couple being Malay families. Due to their closeness, they would exchange gifts (mostly food) during festive seasons with the Malay families giving his family delicious Malay delicacies & kueh such as kueh bahulu & kueh tart at special occasions. In exchange, he would give them canned pineapple & lychee from the more popular brands like Lees. He even recommends the T&G Kiat rose syrup brand although F&N rose syrup is probably more popular now. As he maintained mutual respect & close relationships with the minority Malay families in the Geylang area, it was no surprise that they aided him by warning him to close his shop when the racial riot took place in 1964. Mr Teo explained that most of the other Malay families preferred to stay with their own community at Guillemard, Paya Lebar & Kallang area. Towards Guillemard sits the Geylang river, which is now largely a big drain that connects Geylang to Guillemard. Once a fire broke out at Geylang Lorong 3 that caused its residents to be re-settled at Old Airport Road in one of the pioneering SIT flats. The incident took place during Lim Yew Hock’s bus riot. Close to his area were neighbouring houses made of zinc & attap villages with food peddlers selling their goods near to his shop house. He recalled an iron works shop that was at the other corner of the lorong which always had an ambulance coming due to the high rate of accidents taking place at the shop. While most business today accepts & runs on credit, Mr Teo shares that it was not much different from the business practice in the past when he used to depend on the 555 log book to track the amount of money of those buying groceries from his shop. As the trust had been established, the payment would come in at the 1 to 15th of the month when his customers got their salaries. In 1960s, when NTUC started its operations, Mr Teo felt the pinch as the existence of minimarts & HDB flats resulted in the deterioration of his business. It didn’t help that their longer operating hours being 24/7 compared to his 9am-8pm operating hours gave others a strong competitive edge. Currently he is the only business that is still thriving since prior to WWII. He now diversifies his business selling hampers during Chinese New Year & durians during its season. Occassionally, his old neighbours come to visit him, patroning his shop when they need to buy some items. When he was the treasurer of the seventh moon festival, in the 70s, the association developed a bidding scheme that enabled its surplus to be channelled to charity organisations. The practice continues till today. He also develops strong partnerships with the associations around that area that includes the Muslim associations such as Khadijah Mosque & the Geylang Serai CC. About Mr Teo Soon Thuan Mr Teo lived in Geylang Lor 34 for over 50years and runs his business at Lor 36. Mr Teo who has been running a provision shop inherited from his father since it was set up even before WWII in 1942. The provision shop is still running & has been restored in its original condition at Lorong 36 Geylang. He was also the Chairman of the Teo Clan at Geylang Lor 29 & contributes regularly to Geylang Serai CC.