Sandycroft, Penang - Home Movie

This photo shows my dad, Alan, George Holden, Les Sharpe and my pal, Debbie Sharpe. The Sharpes lived very close to us in Jalan Wijaya at Jalan Dato Sulaiman in Century Gardens, Johore Bahru. I remember cracking my head open on one of their metal windows (I still have the scar) but I'll save that story for later! Incidentally, Les has just got in touch with my parents again after 33 years after reading this blog!

This photo was taken at the tennis courts at Sandycroft and I remember the day because I was a bit moody and wouldn't play and me and Alan went off to explore instead. To save any confusion, and I forgot to mention it before, both my dad and brother are called Alan. We used to have a copy of this photo but it disappeared over the years but when my parents met up with George Holden and his wife, Kit, recently, I was able to get a copy. We've loads of photos of Sandycroft and I'll post some more later.

Meanwhile, here's another of my dad's home movies, this time shot at the Leave Centre at Sandycroft in Penang in about 1966.

It starts off on the beach at Tanjong Bungah with me trying to fill the moat of my sandcastle. Everyone will recognise that red bucket, the washing powder used to come in them! Then, there's a shot of us playing football up by the chalets. I think the chalets were on several levels and we were somewhere near the top. The chalets had no toilets, they were at the end, and at one point, my brother stops playing football to go to the block at the end!

The next scene shows us with our large wicker hats, to keep the sun off, heading down towards the boat jetty and then there's a cruise along the river. Looking back, you can see Sandycroft.

After that, we're back in the hire car and heading up to Ayer Itam Temple. There was a small market nearby which is shown in the film.

The shots of the tank and helicopter were taken on another day trip out on the island. I remember sitting in that helicopter and the horse in the film sticking his head through the window. I wasn't too keen! We both ended up on it though!

The final part of the film shows us sat at the station at the bottom of the Penang Hill railway.

The film isn't too clear but hopefully, it'll bring back memories. I've never seen any other home movies of Sandycroft. We've got other films like this which I hope to include soon.

Mosquitoes

Here's my dad in his tropical gear off to work taken at our home in JalanWijaya. It must have been a weekend because I'm in the background but not in my school clothes. On the back of the photo, it says that it was taken at 7am in the morning. I think the notes on the back of the photo were written for my gran who was back in England.

Dad's long socks had two purposes. One was to look tidy but the other was to keep mozzies from biting his legs and ankles. We were all bitten by them but they seemed to be attracted to him more than any of us. We were always swatting the things and we used to burn stuff called 'Elephant Coils' which kept them at bay.

I remember having mosquito nets somewhere over our beds. My parents can't remember this at Jalan Wijaya so perhaps we had them when we went to stay at Sandycroft in Penang. We must have taken tablets because of the chances of getting malaria and other mosquito related illnesses but I don't remember them. I know that a teachers at one of the Naval Schools in Singapore died after being bitten by a mosquito.

Nowadays, Singapore is mosquito free. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a campaign to rid the area of them and there were rewards for people who discovered and destroyed mosquito nests.

It makes me itch just thinking about it!

A Tiger in your tank!

We used to love visiting the many Esso garages around Singapore mainly because of the free gifts! At the time, there only seemed to be Shell and Esso garages and we were always nagging dad to go in the Esso one. There was no self-service in those days. When your car pulled onto the forecourt, a group of men would rush out. One would busily clean your windscreen, another would open the bonnet and check your oil and water and another would fill your car up. Then, they would take your money and come back with your change and the all-important free gift! They were always very friendly and polite. Quite often they would point at me and say something like, 'nice fair hair!', the locals seemed fascinated by kids with light coloured hair at the time. One of the free gifts was a Tiger Tail, which we would get dad to attach to the car aerial, At home, we all had these attached to our bikes. I bet there aren't many still around today. We also got free drinking glasses, cups and badges (I've still got mine) all with the Tiger's face on. Even if there wasn't a promotion on, the garage workers would still give you free sweets and lollies. They were just happy to have your custom. There probably isn't any non self service garages in Singapore anymore. I've come across them in Australia and some parts of Cornwall but it seems a thing of the past now. Thinking about it, there seems to be a lot less Esso garages too!

Dad's birthday, 1967

It's funny I can remember so much about this photo taken in 1967, when I was just 6 years old, at our home in Jalan Wijaya. The ice cream man had just been on his strange motor cycle ice cream van contraption. He used to carry everything; ice cream, lollies, pop corn, drinks etc and you always got something free which I remember at the time was Marine Boy transfers. I can even remember the taste of that lolly like sweet milk on a stick. Does anyone else remember them? My mum's given me a saucer because it was so hot any ice cream or lolly that you had would just melt down your arm before you could eat it! I've built a train out of Lego and there are the instructions in front of me and I can recall, and you can see it in the picture, that I built the tunnel too small for the train to go through! I even remember sticking to that vinyl chair because of the heat and the table I'm sat at is the one where I saw my first snake coming down the leg.

I know this is Spring 1967 as I recall my mum was just about to wrap up my dad's birthday presents, and there they are in the picture, Old Spice and a box of cigarettes! It seemed at the time that there wasn't a person in the Navy who didn't smoke. Funnily enough, I remember all the detail in this photo but I don't remember my dad's actual birthday at all!

On the walls are those pictures that you only see nowadays in charity shops - ships made of wicker and framed. We must have had those for years. There's also a money box in the shape of a black baby holding fruit. These were everywhere when I was a kid. The cabinet in the background was where I kept my collection of plastic vehicles from the past which were free with Sugar Smacks (which is why I was unhappy with the box of ants I got from the cold store - my mum wouldn't let me fish out that free gift!).

It's funny that I remember so much from a small photo from 1967 but would have to really think what I did a month ago. It's funny how the memory works, isn't it?

Cooling down

When I went back to Singapore and Malaya in 1990, I'd forgotten just how hot and sticky it was there. Here's a photo of me in about 1966 cooling down in the back garden of our house at Jalan Wijaya. The water from the hose was great to keep the heat at bay. I remember that it always had a few holes in it so this made it even better! I remember when we first arrived at Jalan Wijaya and the heat was proving a bit too much. When the heavy rains of the monsoon season started, we all ran out just to cool down. Our amah, Azizah, laughed and must have thought we were crazy. I remember that even though we were getting wet, and it was a break from the heat, the rain was still warm! We had fans in the front room and the bedrooms to keep us cool and the windows had to stay open at night. This had its disadvantages though as mosquitoes would come in and also there was the fear of thieves who would sometimes get a long bamboo pole with a fishing hook on the end to hook what they could. We must have been too hot to sleep on most nights yet in one of my old photos, there's a blanket on the bed. Perhaps we just adjusted to it. I remember we were very cold when we finally returned to England!

Bugis Street

Here's a photo of Bugis Street in the 1960s. I can't remember if we ever walked down this street but I suppose we must have done when we were in Singapore. By day, it was an ordinary enough street but by night, it was the meeting place for transvestites, some of whom were very convincing. Forces personnel who visited the area wouldn't realise that the beautiful girl on their arm, that they'd been buying drinks for all night, was actually a man! It was said that the way to tell if they were men or women was that the men dressed as women looked stunning, whereas the proper women just looked ordinary! Bugis Street was once crammed with merchants and traders making it one of the most vibrant areas in Singapore. In the 1960s, there were also many outside bars. When I went back to Singapore in 1990 and was sitting near Orchard Road at night, I noticed many men dressed as women parading up and down the street. It was certainly more obvious though! Bugis Street became famous the world over at the time. However, all changed in the 1980s when the area went under major redevelopment. Restaurants and modern shopping malls took over and the building of the underground MRT disrupted the area, changing it forever. 

Amazingly, the Singapore Tourist Board tried to recapture some of this previous 'glamour' and created New Bugis Street but the area had changed too much for the idea ever to be successful.

Here's a lovely photo from the 1960s of a man and his trishaw travelling down Bugis Street. On the right is the Chan Textile Company. It certainly looks a lot quieter than it was in the night time!

The Satay Man

This photo of the Satay man was taken near to our home at Jalan Wijaya in 1966. My brother, Alan, took this with my parents Kodak 127 camera. I think I've still got it somewhere!

The Satay man used to sit near to the shops by the coldstore in Jalan Dato Sulaiman. He would heat up meat in his pots and pans, I think he had some sort of paraffin heater. His fuel container was an old Milo tin that had been modified - they never wasted anything! As far as I can remember, he never looked any happier than this!

We were told not to eat any of it but I'm sure Alan tried it several times. It never seemed to do him any harm though. It's amazing that the Satay man would carry this contraption around on his shoulders, it all looked pretty heavy.

In the background, is a cafe. I remember going in there for milkshakes. I also remember buying 7-up and Coca-cola which always seemed to come in bottles and we'd buy strange Chinese sweets.

The coldstore was near by and my clearest memory is getting a packet of cornflakes, mainly for the free gift, and opening it up and it was full of ants. The shopkeeper just laughed when we took it back. I remember the washing powder you bought that always came in a red bucket and you used to get free cups when you bought anything and eventually you had a complete tea set. I wonder if there are many of those about still?

There was also an insurance salesman's office in the row and he always kept a small monkey on a lead attached to the metal grill on the front of his shop. Further down, I think there was a photographers shop. This row of shops seemed to be the first port of call before we set off for any of our adventures around the estate.

The Satay man is probably now long gone though perhaps he wasn't as old as he looked in the photo!