This is a supplement to Reply #41.
My Knowledge About The Lorong Cheng Lim Of Old Singapore In The Late 60's.
Let me jolt the memories of certain readers in my age group who may have some knowledge about the above kampong where Farmhouses were inhabited by filthy rich farmers. These farmers were owners of modern Datsun pick-ups, cars like Cortinas and huge Humber Hawks (one even had an open-top Chevrolet), motorcycles, wheel barrows and all the mechanical gadgetry available in those days. They had direct access to telephone lines, piped water, electricity and water-pumps which those living close to the river used for their vegetable plots within their extensive gated and fenced up farms. Some even had German Sheppards as watch-dogs and even owned hunting rifles with permits granted by the local police, to enable them to shoot flying foxes that damage their fruit orchards. The farmers also owned large Black & White Telefunken, Erres, Grundig, Metz and Phillips television sets. So how can they be poor and forced to take on jobs as a bus driver to augment or supplement their meagre living? It just don't make any sense!!
As a youngster I would accompany my kampong buddies of mixed races on bicycles during our school holidays for an "incursion" into these kampong. In all honesty, our main aim was primarily to "curi fruits" to feed our hungry stomaches. But we had to be careful as we did not want to be "mistook" as a musang and become a target of the farmer's rifle.
These farms at Lorong Cheng Lim had fruit orchards (durians, MANGOES, rambutans and many others, as well as vegetable plots on which they grew chillies, chye sim, kang-kong and many other leafy stuff. Forbidden fruits are always the best. Hehehe. The farmers also reared poultry, not as meat but for eggs and live-stock like pigs. These was NOT for self-consumption but was sold to the markets patronized by our dear mothers. Some of the more "enterprising" ones even brewed illicit samsu (peh-chiew) and toddy (from coconut trees) which they sold to those in need for a "swing". Many farmers smoked opium as could be detected by the smell of burning opium wafting in the atmosphere. If this sort of commercial activity is considered as poverty, I have no choice but to scratch my baldy head!!. I really no understand leh...
Now compare this with us, the genuinely-poor, malnourished and penniless kids with runny noses. None of us even owned a cockerel, hen or chick, just forget about a piglet or a billy goat, etc.. Even eggs to us was "manna" from heaven. We lived in attap-huts with leaky roofs. At times we had plain white rice with sauce. Our electricity was from a private operator via noisy generators that "chugged" from 6.30 pm to 12 midnight daily.
Now I leave it to dear readers. Some local movie producer may end up buying such a story churned and make a disastrous movie. We are NOT STUPID.
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