S C Lim and P L Koh

S C Lim:

“Lai-lai ah! Buay han-zhi ah!” Hokkien sounds of selling sweet potatoes in a busy market at Jalan Membina. Suddenly “Di-Gu! Di-Gu lai liao! Ha-kin zhao!” Shouting and screaming were heard. Illegal hawkers panic and tremble, as they ran in different directions with their push-carts full of goods. People were trying to get away from the place as soon as possible to avoid getting caught. Broken wooden crates and cardboards scattered all around the place. The licensing officers were here! Everyone was running from them. It was chaos!!!

We were no exception, my husband and I were pushing our cart of raw sweet potatoes and water chestnuts to an alley, hoping the licensing officers, also known as “Di-Gu”, didn’t spot us and chase us. If we were caught, all our goods would be confiscated and we would be issued a summon/fine. This was common occurrence during the early 70s. Life was getting better when the government issued us a hawker licence. My husband and I were relieved and glad that we could legally sell our potatoes. After much consideration, we decided to change our licence from selling dried vegetables to selling fruits. Since then, our livelihoods improved.

We had our 1st stall, selling fresh fruits at Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre, a place which was close by to where we lived. We lived in a 5-storey HDB flat, without lift, in a small unit of 1½ room. With 6 children and another child coming soon, living in such a compact unit was considered lucky! Before this, we lived in a rented Attap House with a dangerous deep drain nearby. Every time there was a heavy downpour, the drain would be flooded and accidents happened. People who tried to cross the drain with a narrow wooden plank slipped and fell into it!

Few years passed and we moved to Hong Lim Complex. Our 2nd fruit stall was at Chinatown- Smith Street. Business was good as the fruit stalls were not stationed within one street. Moreover, on every Chinese lunar month, people whose religious beliefs are Buddhism or Taoism, would need to buy fresh fruit for praying to Buddha or Deities twice a month. The only worry was when there was heavy downpour, the street would be flooded to knee-cap height and business would be affected.

Business started to decline when we shifted to Chinatown Complex basement market in the early 80s. Due to high competition with similar vendors located in the same section within the market, we had to give up our licence. Currently, I am an eighty plus year old lady who still lives in my 3-room HDB flat, looking over the beautiful view of Chinatown. Every year, whether it is Chinese New Year or Mid-Autumn Festival, I have an amazing and fantastic view of fireworks!

P L Koh:

“Come brother, I bring you to watch movie.” I called to my younger brother. With 30 cents, we went up to the 3-storeys building roof-top. It was an open space area with a very big projector screen. We had brought our own stools and found a nice suitable spot to watch the movie. We sat down and enjoyed delightfully. When we went back to our Attap House, my parents were so angry. They lectured me for not telling them our whereabouts and daring to bring my brother along to watch a movie. They were afraid that we were kidnapped - as that happened a lot during that time.

Back then, I think I was 8 or 9 years old. We lived in a rented Attap House along Kim Tian Road. The 3-storey building was just a few 100m and was my favourite place. Now to think of it, I am sceptical that place was legal to have its own roof-top space for movie show. A favourite memory I will never forget is, I liked to buy a piece of coconut kernel (meat) from my landlord. Whenever my mother gave me 10 cents, I would shout to my landlord from my bedroom window to buy it. She would just pass it through the small window. She grew many varieties of fruits, vegetables and plants.

In my childhood, I led a carefree life along with my siblings, running around the Attap Houses. We spent our time catching spiders, Milkweed bugs, tadpoles, etc. However, my only sad thing was the environment was infested with mosquitoes which actually led me to see a doctor due to severe inflammation caused by mosquitoes sting. The scars left by the mosquitoes serve as a memory of my past childhood.

During my teenage days, I helped my parents sell fruits at Smith Street. Business was booming and at certain times, we had to operate till nightfall. As the street lights were not bright enough, we had to use a kerosene pressure lamp. We had to fill its fuel tank with kerosene. After that, we would unscrew the top cap and remove the old brittle gas mantle. We would tie a new mantle onto the lamp fitting / burner with a binding thread. After which, to ignite the new mantle, we would pour some methylated spirit (denatured alcohol) onto the small disc which was just below and subsequently lighted it with a match. As the flame rose up, the mantle would be ignited and shrank into a white ash ball, that would be a sign to start pumping gas through the hand pump. Gas was pumped continuously until it glowed into a bright yellow flame. 

That was what we did to operate our fruit stall through the night.