The disappearance of the city's snake charmers

Back in the 1960s, I loved seeing all the snake charmers and magicians who performed their act at the Padang and in front of Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The photo shows three snake charmers, complete with flutes, baskets and cobras, at Mount Faber. When I returned in 1990, of course, they were all gone as was most of the old Singapore that I remembered. They were mentioned in a Singapore newspaper in 1978, ten years after we'd left and although, it sounded like the practice would continue, they eventually disappeared from the streets of Singapore completely. Snake charmers : a dying breed. 7th February 1978. Professional snake charmers were fast disappearing, although several who were interviewed dismissed the possibility. Their children, they said, were trained to folow in their footsteps as a matter of tradition, and even if they did chose other careers, they could always return to snake charming. There were an estimated 40 Indian snake charmers left on the island. They worked seperately, but were part of a close community that pooled earnings and divided the total sum equally.

The End of Bugis Street

I've written before about Bugis Street, famous for its transvestites and bars. Many of you will probably wonder whatever happened to it. Here's a newspaper story from 1980 that reveals all:

Transvestites told to leave Bugis Street

22nd August 1980

The star attraction of Bugis Street, its gaudily dressed transvestites, were told to leave the popular haunt and go back to Lorong 6 in Geylang or risk arrest. Some of them had been involved in fights, thefts and pick-pocketing.

Enterprising transvestites and photographers did a brisk business taking 'souvenir' photos posed with visitors to Bugis Street.

Both visitors and stallholders felt that the food would still attract tourists. In March, to 'tidy the place and reduce congestion', 60 hawkers located along the first 30 metres at each end of the street were moved to Hylam Street.

This was the beginning of the end. Continual 'tidying up' of the streets and major redevelopment saw the end of Bugis Street as many visitors had known it in previous years. Shopping malls and the underground MRT disrupted the area and a memorable part of Singapore was lost forever.

Robinsons Department Store

Does anyone remember Robinsons which I think was near Raffles Place? We all used to shop there and I think that it was very popular with British families. I remember at Christmas, it would be decorated with a giant hoarding showing Father Christmas in his sleigh being pulled by several reindeer. Underneath, in large letters, it said, 'Merry Christmas!' The colour photos shown here were taken by my parents' friends, George and Kit Holden. The first photo shows Robinsons store and the next photo shows the nearby John Little. I

notice that George has his mozzie repellent socks on! Those things loved nipping your legs. I don't think that there are any mozzies left in Singapore nowadays!

Unfortunately, Robinsons store met with an unhappy ending and the story was carried in the local paper :

Robinson's Inferno kills nine.

21st November 1972.

A pregnant woman was among nine people when a fire razed Robinsons department store in Raffles Place. It was one of the worst fires in Singapore's history.

The fire which started at 9.55am, was believed to have been caused by a short circuit on the first floor of the four-storey building. By the time it was brought under control at 12,20pm, the store, which had occupied the building for decades, had been razed to the ground. Also destroyed were millions of dollars' worth of consumer goods waiting for Christmas shoppers.

The nine who died were mainly store employees, including pregnant salesgirl, Ainon Mohamed Tahir, 21.

Robinsons peon Ibrahim Shahul, who managed to escape, said he smelt burning rubber just before thick smoke and flames came roaring in. 'Then the lights went out. I heard someone shouting in the dark that the lift had stoped and that an expectant mother, a tourist and three others were trapped in it,' he said.

As the fire raged, businesses in Raffles Place were widely affected. The Stock Exchange in Clifford House, Collyer Quay, had to stop trading shortly after 11am. Police Reserve Unit troops and Criminal Investigation Department officers were called into control the crown and keep looters out of the area.Losses were estimated at around $14 million.

After the fire, Robinsons relocated to Orchard Road and today can be found at The Centrepoint Shopping Centre where they moved to in 1983.The Robinson Group nowadays manage John Little, Marks and Spencer, Principles, Trucco, Coast, River Island and Fat Face. It seems a long way from the Department Store in Raffles Place that we all used to love visiting.

Firecrackers

This photo shows a party at the home of my parents friends, Bette and Les Sharpe. The bar is called, 'The Almost Inn' and that's my dad in the background. Look at that crazy dancing!

Whenever I think of Les, I'm always reminded of the time when Les nailed a Catherine Wheel to a post in his garden at Jalan Dato Sulaiman, in about 1966, and once it was lit, it flew off and went up one of the legs of his shorts! Don't worry, he didn't have any lasting injuries!

As it's Chinese New Year, I thought I would mention a bit about firecrackers. I mentioned recently that when we first arrived at Johore Bahru in 1965, we were woken up by loud noises in the middle of the night. I think my parents were worried and thought that the noises might be gunfire connected with Indonesian insurgents. However, it turned out to be Mr Lee, across the way, letting off rows of firecrackers. I suppose it must have been Chinese New Year at the time and was probably about February as we had just moved in, in the January before.

I loved all the fireworks and there were many displays at the Naval Base especially at Chinese New Year and Christmas.

The film below shows a firework display in Singapore in the 1960s. It would have been quite spectacular then and much better than any display that you would have seen back in England at the time.

 

Firecrackers were finally banned in 1972 and an article in a Singapore paper covered the story: No more firecrackers at Chinese New Year 1st March 1972 Indescriminate firing of crackers during the Chinese New Year season each year had turned the age-old custom into such a public nuisance that the Government has decided to put a total stop to it. Minister of home affairs Wong Lin Ken said that the Government was forced to impose the ban because the public had not been cooperative in efforts to curb the firecracker menace. On 2nd June, Parliament passed the Dangerous Firework Bill. It became an offence for someone to possess or fire dangerous fireworks, such as firecrackers and rocket fireworks. Anyone found guilty could be fined up to $5,000 or jailed for up to two years, or both. To me, fireworks will always remind me of two events. One is Mr Lee letting off firecrackers on his balcony and the other is that Catherine Wheel flying up Les's shorts!

Jalan Wijaya home movie, 1966

 

Here's a little short 8mm film of me at Jalan Wijaya when I was about 5 years old. It starts with me peering in our side window which was our parents bedroom. Then there's a clip of me pretending to be a soldier while sat in a Rattan chair before the ice cream man arrives in his funny little van. While we're getting ice cream, a man, complete with turban, drives by on his motor scooter.

Then, there's film of me pulling a funny face while wearing a hat. I remember that my mum filmed this because my dad was fast asleep indoors. I also remember that this was the day after a party at our house (probably why he was asleep). I've posted a photo of the party before but, look, there's that same hat which was left behind by one of my parents' friends and you can see whose face I'm trying to copy in the home movie! The sound is a bit funny on this film and that's not my stomach rumbling at the end but sound from the next clip which featured the Butterworth Ferry at Penang! I hope to feature a home movie from when I went back to Jalan Wijaya in 1990 on here soon. You'll be able to see how much it all had changed over the years.

Street Hawkers

Back in the 1960s, the streets of Singapore were full with markets and street hawkers. They sold everything that you could want. As well as fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, they also sold furniture, rattan work, household utensils, toys, clothes, jewellery and many other goods. I loved going to them all but was probably more fascinated by the cheap toys and piles of rambutans more than anything. The stalls had their own smell especially at the end of the day when the fruit and vegetables weren't at their best after cooking in the heat of the sun all day. The stalls produced a lot of rubbish including cardboard boxes, rotting fruit and vegetables as well as other waste, much of which must have ended up in the Singapore River. As the government slowly cleaned up the streets, many of the hawkers were cleared away. A report in a local newspaper in 1970 covered the story:

4th August 1970.

'Street hawkers to be moved under cover.'

A massive five-year plan was announced to clear all hawkers - 25,000 of them - off the streets. This was consistent with the Government's effort of providing a better and healthier environment for the people to live in. Under the plan, popular roadside stalls, such as those in Orchard Road, Satay Club in Beach Road and the noodle stalls at Hokkien Street, would be gradually moved indoors.

Today, Singapore is a totally different place to the one that I remember in my childhood in the 1960s. There are no more street hawkers, market stalls or snake charmers. All the rubbish is now gone and the streets are spotless. The Singapore River is clean and all the hundreds of sampans and bumboats that once inhabited the area have been cleared away. A lot has changed over the years and I miss the old Singapore. The new Singapore is very modern, clean and tidy but there's something that's been lost under all the tall skyscrapers, super fast railway systems and modern housing. I wonder how many people living in Singapore today miss it all?

More Jalan Wijaya

A few weeks ago, I heard from Tracey Jamieson who said that she was enjoying my blog and that my tales of our days in Singapore and Malaya were strangely similar to her memories. By sheer coincidence it turned out that she lived at 97 Jalan Wijaya at the same time that we lived at 103 Jalan Wijaya. That meant that she was only three houses away from us (the house numbers went up in twos). We didn't remember each other but I sent her a photo of my 4th birthday party and Tracey was on the left of the picture! Tracey was visiting her mother so sorted through her photo album and sent me some pictures. One of her dad, Jack Latimer, and friends was taken right outside our front door. Others showed the street and nearby houses. It was lovely to see the photos which reminded me of my childhood spent there and also jogged my memory of parts of the area that I'd long forgotten 

 

about. It seemed a huge coincidence that we both lived in the same street at exactly the same time. I asked my parents if they remembered Tracey's parents but they could only remember our immediate neighbours and Tracey's next door neighbour, Harry Smith. I do, however, have a vague memory of going to school and a blonde haired girl living further down the street and I think that this must have been Tracey. I was only about 5 at the time!

The colour photo on the right shows Tracey's house at 97 Jalan Wijaya. Isn't it amazing how the internet manages to put so many people, with similar memories and interests, in touch with each other? I've just started up a Facebook page called, you've guessed it, 'Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans' where I hope people will add their own photos and reminisces. If you want to check it out it's at Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans (Facebook)