April Page:
Let us start with the top left picture. Two men, one bare-bodied, were carrying 3 pails each on bamboo poles over their back and shoulder. What do you reckon they were carrying inside the metal containers?
Anyone like to venture a guess? In case you think they are " night -soil" carriers, you think wrong! The night-soil buckets were not shaped like this. All the night-soil buckets had a standard shape and also the night-soil van would have been close by.
I wonder if anyone can say which part of Serangoon Road this was.The centre photo clearly showed the unloading of rubber tyres.
The photo on the right tells a lot. It clearly shows a young man by the side of his tricycle stall selling water chestnut drink. He had both hot and cold drinks. On either side of his stall were 2 old ladies selling an assortment of tobacco, tobacco paper, cigarettes in packets and tins, matches and perhaps some tid-bits. One brand of the tin can be identified...Lucky Strike!
Three cars were partly hidden from view...so can't really tell the make.
Bottom left photo...an old man milking goat. Could be anywhere.
May page:
Hey...this distinctly looks familiar. The giveaway is the bottom left picture. That junction with the traffic lights is the present SIMON Road and Serangoon Road junction. In the days of old we call this location " 6th milestone ". The only coffeeshop at the corner is still the same one as in the photo! Today, it has that popular Hokkien Mee stall that draws a long queue. This wet market was the old SIMON Road market which was also famous for the many " mouth-watering" hawker stalls like muah chee, Hokkien mee, wanton mee, mee-rebus, pigs' trotters, beef kway teow, etc..
Today, that place is no more.
Where did all the famous hawkers go? Surely, some are still carrying on their business elsewhere right? Anyone care to comment?
Unk Dicko
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