Pasir Pinji, in the early 1950s….
This was sent to us by YKChoong, via email. He also had this to say…
….not sure if it was a Ford or a Peugeot.
I think the foto taken around 1953-54, car was parked beside my parents home
in Pasir Pinji (No. 267, Queen Street to be exact).I remembered clearly the front portion was rented out to a Indian barber and
used to have my haircut and the traditional massage and pat on the
shoulder/back, and got a twist(left and right) of the neck to complete the
ritual. Not sure nowadays, but my eyebrows were well shaven at every visit.
Intention was to made them more thick and bushy ??Initially it was the ‘bucket’ system for the sewage collection and disposal
of the ‘night soil’, and our source of water is a deep well right at the
back portion of the house. This was where the kitchen and bathroom were
located. Can barely remembered the neighbours but I could still remember
there was a PIGSTY at the other corner of the block!! Imagine the stench
and the aroma surrounding the area of which all were forgotten, luckily. And
remembered a man leading a big male pig(boar) for mating purposes passing in
front of our house to its intended destination !Also bullock carts used as transportation for eg. tree logs which were used
as fuel in the kitchen …I was told I had the luxury of siting in a rickshaw to school and also in a
car (Vauxhall) with the back seat converted to a ‘double-decker’
by placing an elevated wooden plank across it. Cannot forget it, the ‘taxi’
driver was a CIGAR smoker and hardly saw him without the cigar, smoke or no
smoke emitting from it.