Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Dr Lim Boon Keng's Kampong @ Paterson Hill




                       *Grace Chang: Ja-Jambo: Video MrHuang HK
                                
Ms CY Lin has been a regular contributor of this blog. In a recent reply to my last posting about Hari Raya songs and kampongs, she mentioned the happy days she spent living in a bungalow with a unique roof and playing with friends of different nationalities. Below is her letter.
Hey Andy,

1 Paterson Hill in the 1950s - 1973 fits the category of a kampong where different races lived in close proximity, and children played and learned from one another.  This was the residence of Dr Lim Boon Keng, a pioneer physician and social reformer who founded Singapore Chinese Girls' School.


My family of six rented a room ( S$30/- monthly rental raising to S$50/- in the later years) in his huge two-storey bungalow which had an atap roof.  He and his family lived on the upper floor and leased out some rooms on the same level to British forces personnel.  The ground floor rooms were for the locals. (The image is only an illustration and not the home of Dr. Lim. Image 2 is a S$50/- Straits Settlement Singapore currency which was still used in the 1950's.)

Each room was relatively large but all tenants shared a common bathroom and a toilet. Having a benign landlord in the good doctor, my ingenious father was able to single-handedly partition three small bedrooms, a washing area and a kitchenette.  Later, with us as his helpers, a toilet was added - talk about child labour!
An outhouse was turned into a sawmill run by a three-generation Chinese family.  Another became a motor workshop.

My siblings and I played with Dr Lim's grandchildren, his Malay gardener's children, the Chinese  kids and some Indian-muslim ones from the house on Grange Road.  We spoke English, Malay, Hokien and Cantonese.


There's **a big field in the compound with fruit trees for the picking - cherries, rambutans, chikus, pakia (guavas) and buah susu (passion fruit).  The larger trees offered respite when the weather was hot - we'd be climbing and resting in our little tree house.  


Those were happy days.  And yes, 1 Paterson Hill was also the birth place of the pop group ***The Decibels. 

Lin.

Footnote:

*Grace Chang, with her beauty and vivacity , could have been an icon even today.  She had appeared in more than 30 movies from 1953 to 1964.  Her 1957 movie Mambo Girl was a very big hit. Chang was one of the most popular stars from town to kampong. She would be 82 this year (2015).

The song, Ja-Jambo could be a musical representation of what the world was in the 1950's, raw, wild and waiting. We had WWII, and after 15 years of settling in, would have awakened to a new dimension in life. 

**Could be why the area is called Orchard Road since an orchard is a big field with lots of fruit trees.

***Read about The Decibels:

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2012/01/decibels-65-band-in-making-part-one.html

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2012/02/decibels-band-in-making-1965-1970-part.html

14 comments:

CYLIN said...

Very glad you had pics of the doc, road sign... I was at first aghast at the 'house' till it was footnoted. Unfortunately, we had no pictures of the old building and what little photos of our childhood there were distributed to my other siblings...

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hi Lin,

An open letter to thank you for contributing again to this blog. I hope others will write in too and send their stories.

Like Mr Allan Thompson from the UK (more than a dozen articles now) and Mr John Cher, (Silver Strings new drummer and someone whom I've just met) is now into his third posting.

If you have a story to tell related to music from the past please write in. There's so much space on blogspot here.

JC said...

Andy just read your comments. Yes those were good old days. Nostalgic. My childhood is not very different from hers except that I had a tough time. But I enjoyed my childhood.

JC (similar initials/ different person) said...

Thanks Andy, I think yr blog will be or is the most read by seniors like me.

JOSEPH CHAN said...

My mother, Elizabeth Seck, was a member of the first all girl band The Blue Belles. She was the double bassist mentioned in the article.

(From blog article about Teresa Khoo's girl band.)

Victor said...

Nice story paired with an equally captivating song Ja-Jambo by Grace Chang.

SONNY (CANADA) said...

Hello Andy

Wow..I just happened to look for this song when reminiscing of my childhood years spent in Singapore. What a coincidence to find this uploaded by a sixties kid from right there!! Thank you very much Andy for the shared memories.

As a toddler, this song would play on a continuous loop and was the sweetest memory that I cherish to this day. Did'nt we all break out and join in the final giggles and laugh with the singer!! I'm chuckling to myself already!! ... sonny (canada).

JIMMY CHNG (LEADER 'DECIBELS') said...

I could not find any photos of 1 Paterson Hill to give to Lin for her kampong piece. Hope some of the many tenants who had lived there reads ur blog and write in to share their stories of the place.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks Jimmy. I hope so too. Any one out there connected somehow? Write in.

JET said...

I watched Air Hostess and Mambo Girl yesterday. I can't wait to watch more of her. Her talent and personality really makes me feel buoyant!! If only we are of the same generation. :D hehe.
(January, 2015.)

STEPHEN HAN said...

Re the Mambo Girl In which Grace Chang sang Ja Jambi, I remembered the film also had a song called “Wo Ai Ne Ye Ai”.This song was identical of a Georgia Gibbs’song namely “I want you to be my baby.”

My wife and I watched Grace Chang dancing the Cha Cha Cha And Rock N Roll with Sunny Low on the stage of the Majestic Theatre. Grace also sangJa Jambo And Wo Ai No Te Ai.She danced and sang well

FACEBOOK said...

STEPHEN HAN
LE;VIN LEE
YUSOF BABA
ROSE KHOO

FACEBOOK CHATS said...

Andy Young
Click picture to read the full story about another little street in Singapore which is full of history.

Rose Khoo
THUMBS UP.

Rodney Tan
Next to the TTC?

Margaret Bul
I lived in the Patterson Apts in 1971

Jed Mitter
The Wednesday Night market went up that road all the way up to the junction of Patterson Road & Patterson Hill.

Andy Young
Hi Margaret n Jed, thanks for info.
Will pass on to writer, cause that's how the LIM BK family met the writer - it's another posting on the blog.

Yip Dick
And surely the pioneer gen teachers of our time will remember their days in the TTC- Teachers' Training College ( jokingly recalled as Teachers' Torture Chamber by many ).
And they included you and me.👍🤣😍.

FACEBOOK said...

THANKS TO A NEW FOLLOWING OF READERS WHO LIKE THIS POST

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