Your thread brought back memories of the Dumpling Festival of yester-years....
I was then still a youngster - too young to join politics. What a waste.
The era when kids with torn shots and without underwear busied themselves catching "longkang fishes" or raiding the nests of mother hens that laid eggs in the tall lallang.
Oh those days, when we were doing all this and Lee Kuan Yew was busy sweeping roads during gotong-royong exercises so as to win over the hearts, soul and support of the masses who were aligned towards other political leaders.
The Dumplings brought much cheer to us for everyone made it and hung it infront of the homes in that familiar leaves. It came in the form of meaty ones and yellow ones. The former was tastier and had chestnuts in it, whereas the latter was partaken with sugar.
The luckiest one were the non-Chinese for the majority Chinese in the kampongs gave it to them as presents. These home (belonging to non-Muslims) had lots of these in the homes and we kids had a great time "walloping" the dumplings.
I still remember the dumplings were steamed in "empty kerosene or cooking oil" tins and meticulously packed in leaves.
Even the dogs had a great time for we took care of them too.
These Happy Days can never come back. No more gotong-royong these days. Those in power are enjoying their status.
A Happy Dumpling Festival to all Singaporeans.
The days when the policemen went around collecting bribes from illegal gambling-dens, brothels