I like the part how he felt a tinge of sadness when he held firm and did not buy for his son something the kid saw in the school bookstore. And he drives a Merc convertible. Might as well tell the kid to walk to school to teach him the value of money and seriously stretch the humbleness to the extreme.
When you ask a kid what does your father do, he tell you that his father is a trader or businessman. The same kid 30 years later when selected as PAP candidate suddenly switches the father's vocation to shoe seller.
Seriously - where does the PAP find all these people?
And nursing a grudge against his teacher for 40 odd years. Sweet! A lot of baggage this one.