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April 18th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
It gives me so much pleasure as a went through ipohworld’s website. Just like walking down memory lane. It is my hometown which I love and live for over 60 years.
Born and bred in that town which tin built. A land of grace and peace. A beautiful valley surrounded by limestone hills. The Kinta valley divided by a river, the old town from the new town.
The first settlers first came and settle in the old town. There the British, the Chinese, the Indians. Tin is the main attraction during the early time. The British are the administer during the early days, the Chinese are miners and business community, most of the Indians work in the rubber plantation. The little town prosper under these motley group of early settlers.
The Chinese immigrants took concubines and they stayed in concubines streets. Now called the Panglima lane. In the old days they called it the second mistress lane or the third.
As the people prosper the place expanded to new town across the other side of the Kinta River. The main road was called Brewster Road. Shops houses appeared, famous shops like Cold Stotage, Whiteaways and many other shops thrives in Ipoh. Motorcars came to Ipoh. At that time anyone who possessed a motorcar is considered a rich towkay. There were very few on the road.
Ipoh has lush tract of green. We have a place in new town called the Greentown once upon a time.
Later when the population increased, the overseas missionaries came and education is established. The historical missionary schools like Anglo Chinese School, Methodist Girls School, St. Michael Institution, Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus were famous. All these schools had produced many scholars, professional, intellectual and well know and important personalities. Education were holistic. Students excel academically and in all fields. They also possessed a high moral standard and ethics inculcated in them by the schools.
I remember there were food hawkers of all kind in the streets, yet Ipoh was very clean. The wet market is a joy to visit. All kinds of wares were displayed and sold there. There were a china-man selling wax dolls of many colors held up with a thin bamboo stick. Another is selling a white type of sugary sweet “ting ting tong” (in chinese). It is a wide sugary sweet where you have to chip to small pieces. The hawkers ply their wares either in bicycles or a large bamboo sticks with two big baskets on both ends, carrying it on their shoulders.
Even in town you can hear the sound of cicadas and see them in your house. You can catch spiders in the bushes around town. Children used to play in the back lanes of the shop houses. They are happy and carefree. The games used to be rubber seeds, small red seeds from the angsana trees, glass marbles, rubber bands, cigarettes boxes, hopscotch etc.
People of all races coming together to celebrate festivals like Chinese New Year, Lantern festival, Christmas, Hariraya, Thaipusam. There were so much merry making and comradeship among the local. All the festivals are grand affairs. Processions and floats round town are seen in many festivals. People throng the streets to see the processions. Adults with young ones on their shoulders, little children in front enjoying the fanfare.
There are very nostalgic to me as I view the photos on the website. Alas like the song “Where have all the flowers gone.” Till then I can only reminisce about the long time ago in Ipoh town.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:52 am
Hi Katherine. Welcome to our world!
What a wonderful piece of nostalgic writing you have given us here. Thank you so much for that. You are the first person who has ever reminded us about games in the back lanes, rubber seeds and hopscotch; the market with its wax dolls and the Ting Ting man; and so much more.
From your story I believe you still live in Ipoh and if that is correct we would love to talk to you about your memories. I can be contacted via email at info@ipohworld.org. Please make contact. We need your help to record all the details of days gone by.
I look forward to your mail.
April 19th, 2010 at 3:31 am
Dear Ika,
Thanks for telling me that there are some left that remember Ipoh of days gone by.
Indeed it brings back many happy memories as I reminisce on your website. Thanks for jotting back all the simple joy and carefree days of the past in your website.
I would be delighted to share more of the growth of Ipoh and the growing up of our lives in Ipoh. How I wish there will more people to contribute about the past history of Ipoh.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Reading Katherine’s comments brings back fond memories of myself growing up in Ipoh new town in the 60s,70s and 80s.My family stayed at a prewar shophouse in Hugh Low Street after WW2 for half a century.
Yes,there was an old Indian man dressed in dhoti,carrying a long wooden pole on his thin shoulder.At each end was a rattan basket with 3 or 4 layers.Inside you can find delicious and authentic nyonya kuih,each piece costing just a few cents.Some days he even sells assam laksa.Just imagine carrying a big pot of hot laksa soup with a charcoal stove on one side while the other side holds the noodles and porcelain bowls!
He washed the bowls by the road side taps as he plied around town calling out loudly “kuih,kuih”.
At night,an old Chinese man pushes a wooden trolley with rattan steamers which holds bowls and bowls of steamed egg custards.So smooth and aromatic,you can’t find it elsewhere.Whenever it rains,he will put on a large straw hat and a black raincoat,calling out “thun tan,thun tan” which means egg custard in Cantonese.
Perhaps the one whom I remember most is an old blind masseur.He wears an all white chinese suit,a white hat and dark glassess.Holding a cane on one hand and a bell on the other,he roamed around town offering his service.When he calls it a night and on his way home,he will drop by my dad’s coffee shop to have a cup of warm milo.As a little girl I was very terrified when he came into the shop and I would hid under tables until he leaves.
These are some of the memories and there are plenty to reminisce but that will be for another day.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Hi Katherine, Ipohgal….
thank you for sharing those beautiful memories with us! such a pleasure to read them.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:42 am
Hi Felicia,glad of your appreciation.Have you ever wonder how it was like to live near funeral parlours and coffin shops?Well,I have spent my entire childhood living near such places.
Just across my dad’s shop is Hume Street where one can find about 3 or 4 funeral parlours and many coffin shops along this street,serving the Chinese communities of various dialects in Ipoh for decades.I think they still do now.
Back then in the 60s and 70s,wakes and funerals are very elaborated affairs especially among the Teochews and Hakkas.From our windows,we can see wailing mourners being led by Taoist priests thru rituals which we as small kids can hardly comprehend.In those days,traditional coffins and mourning dress made from sack cloth were used.
Prayers were conducted amidst the clanking of cymbals,blowing of trumpets and beating of gongs.From 7pm to 11pm,it was all noise you could hardly hear anything else.When the ceremony was finished for that night,everyone left.The lights went off and doors shut,leaving 2 large white paper lanterns and candles at the door steps,with the lights flickering in the dark.In the dead of the night,stray dogs began howling and the ambience is so spooky and eerie.It was like this throughout the years without much respite.
The most scary time is during the Hungry Ghost Festival where ceremonies are conducted for a few nights to commemorate the dearly departed at these parlours.Large effigy of the King of Hell with 2 large protruding fiery eyes about 20 feet high were erected in the middle of the street.Beside him stood the Cowhead and Horse Face,equally tall and fearsome.A very large ship was also constructed to carry the dead souls to and fro to partake in the ceremony.
The place was a hive of activities and as little kids we watched with awe as Taoist priests performed the acts of jumping over huge pit of fire.On the last night,all the paper items were burnt in a bonfire in the middle of the street.When everything is over,silence descended over Hume Street again.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:01 am
those are such wonderful (and yet creepy!) memories, Ipohgal!
i do wonder if it’s the same now. i grew up in Greentown….it was rather quiet, with the occassional sounds of firecrackers during CNY….
April 21st, 2010 at 5:53 am
Hi Ipohgal, thank you so much for those wonderful memories all of which I have never heard before. Memories like this are priceless to our project. Do keep them coming.
By the way, do you remember about the coffin shops that were upstairs and for the terminally ill. They were known as ‘convalescent homes’ where people went to die? Once you got a bed above the coffin shops (which do still exist today), you knew your next journey was a short one - just down the stairs.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:46 am
When you mention Hume Street,funeral parlours and coffin shops always comes to mind.Yes,they are still there to stay but I think the ambience is quite different now compared with those days gone by.
Now things are getting modern and simple.The coffins,the mourning clothes and the hearse.Even the ceremony itself.But I am not sure whether they still hold the ceremony to commemorate the dead during Hungry Ghost Festival.It has been quite awhile since I last past by this street.
Felicia,Greentown is definitely quieter compared with Hugh Low Street.
You definitely have a quieter childhood compared with me!
Besides all the noises coming from Hume Street,we also have to contend with all the noises coming from the Tanjung Rambutan bus station which faces the funeral parlours.Do you know about this bus station at the junction of Jalan Yang Kalsom and Hume Street?
The buses plies between town and Tanjung Rambutan,Chemor,Ampang,Taman Chempaka and the Race Course.I still remember there is an old jukebox that belts out songs from Elvis and Beatles in this bus station.It was next to a coffee shop for a long time until a big fire guttered it one night when I was still a kid.Many people woke up to watch the fire and it took some time to douse the flame.
This station is no longer in operation for many years but is now took over by an express bus company.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:07 am
Hi Ika,yes,those ‘convalescent homes’ does existed above the funeral parlours and yes,for that very purpose which you have mentioned but as little kids we were forbid to go near such places for fear of bad luck.So we are only allowed to watch from the windows only.
Come to think about it now as an adult,I think it is very very cruel indeed to put an old or ill person in such a sad place.It is so tormenting,don’t you think? It is not dignified at all.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:45 pm
I can relate to what Ipohgal has written about Hume Street.I actually grew up in Hume St in the 60’s and her description is so apt that it’s almost like reliving my youth. Besides the coffin shops and the funeral parlours it also has shops that make the paper offerings for the dead. Some of them were very elaborate and it’s a form of art. I can remember there was a very talented deaf and mute gentleman in one of these shops who can ‘construct’ a double story house complete with servants and car all in one day from coloured papers, balsam wood and all held together by home cooked starch! These shops also doubles as the shopfront for the taoist priests that preside over the funeral ceremonies. Macabre as it may sound, you could say that Hume St was the original’one stop shop’ for the dead.
It was not all doom and gloom as there were other shops in Hume street too. They mainly catered to motor vehicles. The ones that I can remember were shops for car upholsteries, lorry tarpaulins ,batteries and tyres. There was even a car hire firm and a mechanic that set up business not in the shops but from the verandah of the shops to save on overheads, very much like the Indian newspaper agency that existed on the corner of Hume Street and Anderson Road (facing Rex cinema). The newspaper agency was my favourite haunt where one could also buy comics. There were also shops that doubles as clubs, trade/clan associations where mahjong sessions were held nightly. These sessions usually run till late into the night. In my sometimes sleepless nights, I can hear the click clacks of the mahjong tiles on top of the sounds of the wake for the dead in the still of the night. You could say that the street was full of life day and night (although this may sound like a contradiction in terms given what the street was known for).
Ah! those long gone days but now brought back to life, if only for a moment.
Warm regards,
Gordy
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 am
thanks Gordy. Welcome to the blog!
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:15 am
Wah, thanks to you all and your vivid descriptions, the street has taken on a new dimension in my mind. I must get back there and look more closely at the buildings and trades that are there today - but I shall watch out for what may be lurking in the dark corners!
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 am
Gordy is right.Apart from funeral parlours and coffin shops,there are other shops dealing in various trades along Hume Street.The one that immediately sprang to my mind is Ngai Chan Hair Salon at the corner shop,a stone throw from behind Rex Cinema.
Ngai Chan is your typical hair salon of the late 60s and early 70s,catering to female clients only.It is a modest little salon with a pair of hanging fan,dimly lit fluorescent light and a few chairs and mirrors.On the wall you can find the black and white posters of Hong Kong movie queens of yesteryears like Lin Dai,Lee Heung Kam and Nam Hoong whose hair styles were the trend in those days.In the background you could hear songs blasting out from the Reddifussion box.To enter this salon,you need to push back the pair of small wooden swinging doors in the middle of the doorway and you will be greeted by Ah Chan,a middle aged hairdresser who is the owner and her younger assisstant.
This is the salon my mom used to patronise whenever she needs a perm and as a little girl,I used to follow along.In those days to get a perm,they rolled the hair with small plastic rollers tighten with rubber bands,smeared smelly solutions all over them and covered with white good morning towels.A big plastic helmet with hot air inside is then placed over the head.Next,Ah Chan would set the alarm clock and placed it infront of my mom who will soon drifts off to a light sleep.
When the alarm went off,the helmet,towels and rollers were all removed.Next,mom will have her hair rinsed at the basin.After patting dry with towels and blew with a hair drier,Ah Chan will put the finishing touch by spraying the hair with a heavy scented hair spray to make it stiff.Mom nodded and smiled into the mirror,pleased at her new hairdo while I just giggled at her beehive!
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 am
Ipohgal….I giggled myself reading about the salon-experience! I’ve witnessed such a scene myself a few times - if I’m not mistaken it was at a salon in Ipoh Garden…Ling Ling was the name (I think!). I did ‘try on’ that big plastic helmet when I had to do my hair for my uncle’s wedding….a long time ago…..
yes, there was a timer, plastic rollers and Good MOrning towels too