Nostalgia Amongst Other Things
I was wondering: if you had to name a few things which defined your childhood in Singapore, what would it be?
- Kickapoo Joy Juice
- Macho mee
- Polar snack
- Munching on milo powder, washed down with condensed milk
- Those funny red machines you put a few cents into, turn a wheel, and have a random item (usually Aniki Jin or Nicky Wu trading cards) pop out
- Samurai fries
- Walls ice cream from uncle on scooter outside primary school – chocolate chip, chocolate, vanilla, attap chee. “One dolla onli.”
- Double Decker and Twisties
- SBC/TCS 8 drama serials: mimicking Li Nanxing with a pack of cards, trying to do a Gambit.
2005
5
Apr
- Posted by popagandhi at 10:59 am
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Myojo mee issit?
I’ve never heard of macho mee
macho mee was the one where to shook the packet before eating… haha.
oops, i mean “where you had to shake the packet before eating
I have ! I have ! I luuurrrve macho mee ! It’s a blue packet with macho man on it.
went to singapore a bit late in my childhood
but i do remember:
those erasers with letters/flags on em. and marveling at the then defunct soviet union and thinking “this must be a RARE one now!”
oh and those 10 cents sticks of flavoured ice that you would break in half.
and watching GOOD cartoons from 5-6.30. not the crap they have last time i checked.
10. Sng pow (ice bags) in red and purple. 10 cts for a flavoured water or ice sng pow (I like mine frozen, so that I can suck at it while waiting for school bus, or use it to fight with boys on the bus)
11. Layang, or kite, made out of white-blue-red NTUC plastic bags and mother’s wash-the-kitchen-floor ratten broom (plenty of sticks, so it doesn’t hurt to steal a few)
12. Soccer with the boys at the field downstairs. Got hit in the eye and consequently, my first orh-bak-kak at age 7.
13. Poppys sticker book and numbered stickers that you collect and exchange. I still have a few in my collection.
14. Playgrounds with real sand.
Real see-saw. See-saw up and down, you go up and I go… off the see-saw. Wham your butts!
Real swings. Where you compete with each other how high you can swing, bending your knees in momentum, and then, the real challenge, how far you can land when you fly off the swing.
squatting after recess with the whole class and brushing my teeth with those plastic cups and toothbrush every monday, wednes and friday or something like that..
ice cream scoop in a slice of bread, or between 2 wafers..
the little toy that came with each vitagen/yakult bottle.
the packet of milk that we got every friday – chocolate or strawberry – part of the healthy Drink milk campaign for small kids.. and how frantically we’d be trying to exchange with someone else if we didn’t get the flavour that we wanted..
In Malaysia, I remember those cartons of Xiao Ding Dang chocoballs with lil’ toys that took up more than half the box space.
- Kaka! (which amazingly I can still buy today)
– Green Spot! (both the drink and the funny game where you try and step on everybody elses’ foot!)
– MPH’s funky red and beige paper bags
– Norman Chan and Duncan Watt reading the news
– Victor and Charlee on the radio!
– No 24 hour tv and only 1 english radio station :/
1. Thundercats
2. Mamee
3. Chiclets
4. Sticker Books (Smurf, MASK, Thundercats!)
5. Yellow, green, pink bus tickets sold from a PVC pouch hanging off the waist of a surly bus conductor
6. TIBS buses will pull-up windows that trap a hell lot of grime
7. Sarsi
8. flag erasers
9. Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys
10. Library cards that had to be manually written and slot into the books
11. obiang green, purple, red striped polo tees and bright red gym shorts
12. bata slippers that never seem to break
13. ‘whistling’ sweets
14. pentium 386 computers with 96 kb of ram
15. dr genius educational software
16. primitive injury stitching by doctors whose idea of anesthesia was to place a piece of a gauze over your eyes and asking you to ‘shaddup’.
17. when guppies were the pets of choice.
18. canfornian pictorial books that featured side-by-side english/mandarin translations of traditional chinese classics
19. 90 cent rabbit-fur calligraphy brushes, as opposed to $50 dollar ones nowadays.
20. Chong hwa pencils, jotterbook paper and cool-as-hell pencil cases that can be tranformed into robots with a press of a few hidden buttons.
Eep. I feel old already.
re: idol card machines. i used to have a thriving business trading these cards. Aaron Kwok gold glitter cards – $2, Jimmy lin – $1 and an assortment of jiapalang cards up for $3. :)
Oh, Kaka snacks with the free toys inside and Tikam-Tikam where you pay the uncle at the Mamak shop 10 cents to play to get a chance at a lucky draw. So fun!
Now there are fast food stores. In my days the seller push their carts around the garden to sell their fried kuey teow, Char Siew Bun and etc with their familiar honk sound. In high rise builiding nasi lemak, kuih seller shouts their goods. When you feel hungry all you need to do is walk out of the house and order the food. Now we need to wear a shirt, comb the hair, drive, park, wait in Q, order and wait for the food….
goli (marbles)
zero-point
5 stones
hamtam bolah
cigarette chewing gum
mama shops
wearing plastic bags on your school shoes during rainy days
when 50 cents can buy me a bowl of fishball noodles….sigh
Kaka… super oily and salty and always got one toy inside.
The chocolate snack with Xiao Ding Dang (Doraemon) printed on the blue box outside… forgot what it’s called. More expensive than KaKa so couldn’t buy too often.
The fish “satay” sticks… I think 10ct per stick from the provision shop.
The ice “lollipops… the type in the plastic tubes that you can either suck from the top, or break into two to share with a friend.
Tikam-tikam, various things. I remember that you could tikam for bells, which were all displayed on the tikam. Depending on your luck, you either get a very big bell or a small-small one.
what the hell are samurai fries?
hahah. samurai fries are so.. sec one. anyone remembers the Kiasu Burger?
adri! how’re you doing babe? hope you’re doing a-okay and all! :P
anyway… oh boy do i remember number 9. almost blinded my brother, but there you go.
hello babe!! miss you!! gotta catch up sometime ok?
Samurai Fries was the bestest MacDonald’s invention. Basically you put an order of fries in a paper bag and add in a pack of MSG with enough salt to turn you bald in a day, you shake, you eat then you lick your fingers clean. YUM!
Bit long but copied the following off an email I got some years back
1. You grew up watching He-man, Transformers, Silver hawk an Mickey Mouse. Not to forget, Ninja turtles and Smurfs too.
2. You grew up brushing your teeth with a mug in Primary school during recess time. You will squat by a drain with all your classmates beside you, and brush your teeth with a coloured mug.
The teachers said you must brush each side 10 times too.
3. You know what’s Bin(1) Fen(1) Ba (1) San(1) is all about.
4. You know what SBC stands for.
5. You were there when the first chinese serial, the Awakening was shown on TV.
6. Internet? What the hell is that? So you thought a decade or more ago.
7. You find your friends with pagers and handphone cool in Secondary school.
8. SBS buses used to be non-air conditioned. The bus seats are made of wood and the cushion is red. The big red bell gives a loud BEEEP! when ppressed. There are colourful tickets for TIBS buses. The conductor will check for tickets by using a machine which punches a hole on the ticket.
9. Your favourite actor and actress is Huang Wenyong and Xiangyun. Next is Lee Nanxing and Zoe Tay and the Aiyoyo woman.
10. You’ve probably read Young Generation magazine. You know who’s Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.
11. You were there when they first introduced MRT here. You went for the first ride with your parents and you would kneel on the seat to see the scenery.
12. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.50.
13. Gals are fascinated by Strawberry Short Cake and Barbie Dolls.
14. You learn to laugh like The Count in Sesame Street.
15. You longed to buy tibits called Kaka(20 cents per pack) and Ding Dang(50 cents per box), that had a toy in it and it changes every week not forgetting the 15 cents animal crackers and the ring pop, where the lollipop is the diamond on the ring.
16. You watched TV2 cartoons because Channel 5
never had enough cartoons for you.
17. All that you know about Cantonese is from the Hong Kong serials you watched on TV2.
18. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, Famous Five and Secret Seven are probably the thickest story
books you ever thought you have read. Even SweetValley High and Malory Towers.
19. Civics and Moral Education was “Hao3 Gong1 Min2”.
20. KFC used to be a high class restaurant that serve food in plates and let you use metal forks and knives.
21. The most vulgar thing you said was asshole and idiot and THE MOST EXTREME WAS ‘super white’...you just couldn’t
bring yourself to say the hokkien relative.
22. Catching was the IN thing and twist the magic word.
23. Your English workbooks was made of some damn poor quality paper that was smooth and yellow.
24. CDIS was your best friend.
25. The only computer lessons in school involved funny pixellised characters in 16 colours walking about trying to teach you maths.
26. Waterbottles were slinged around your neck and a must everywhere you go.
27. Boys loved to play soccer with small tennis balls in the basketball court or play something that uses tennis ball to hit other players known as “HUM TAM BOLA” during recess /after school
28. Hopskotch, five stones,chateh and zero point were all the rage with the girls and boys too…
29. Science was fun with the balsam and the angsana being the most important plants of our lives.
30. Who can forget Ahmad, Bala, Sumei and John, eternalized in our minds from the textbooks. Even Mr Willy.
31. You did stupid exercises like seal crawl and frog jumps.
32. Every children’s day and national day you either get pins or pens with ‘Happy Children’s Day 1993’ or dumb files with Happy National Day 1994’.
33. In Primary six you had to play buddy for the younger kids like big sister and brother.
34. Chinese teachers were always old, boring and damn fierce looking.
35. Your form teacher taught you maths, science and english.
36. The worksheets were made of brown rough paper of poor quality.
37. You went to school in slippers and a raincoat when it rained, and you find a dry spot in the school to sit down, dry your feet, and wear your dry and warm socks and shoes.
38. Famous Chinese singers were only Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai.
39. School dismissal time was normally around 1 pm.
40. There would be spelling tests and mental sums to do almost everyday.
41. Your friends considered you lucky and rich if your parents gave you $3 or more for pocket money everyday.
42. During class gatherings, parents always tag along in case someone gets lost at Orchard Road.
43. You freak out when the teacher tells you to line up according to height and hold hands with the corresponding boy or girl.
44. Handkerchiefs were a must for both genders
45. Collecting notebooks and all kinds of stationery was a popular thing.
46. Autograph books were loaded with “Best Wishes”, “Forget Me Not”, and small poems like “Bird fly high, hard to catch. Friend like you, hard to forget”.
47. Class monitors and prefects loved to say “You talk somemore, I write your name ah!”
48. There were at least 40 people in one class.
49. Large, colourful schoolbags were carried.
50. You brought every single book to school, even though there was one
thing called the timetable.
Happy memories!
i remember celebrating my birthday with sharity elephant…i miss him now…=(
ooh…and birthday parties at Macs with uncle Ronalds and KFCs with that chickadee thingy…
I used to do the dice-rattling-in-cups thing. Yeah, that was pretty cool.
Another cool thing would be “sng bao” (literally, ice bag), those frozen-syrup things in two plastic bulbs they used to sell for $0.10 that I used to devour after playing “catching”.
Ok, that made me sound really old.
for me it’s:
Red Bean Potong Ice cream
and being able to say “I don’t friend you.”
Haha, yeah I remember the “don’t friend you” days. I even played 5 stones and zero-point, sissy as it may be for guys to do so.
Crude foam aeroplanes models of WWII fighters (I swear they had ‘em all
Whitewashing Batas on Sunday nights. Vanguard sheets. Science experiments of green beans, cotton wool, a styrofoam box and water.
Chalk dust, the smell, the ticklishness.
Mine would be numbers 2,5 and 9. I remember my sis and her friends playing with dice and a cup an hour before The Unbeatables started. Haha.
number 5 and 7 describe my childhood lol. The others I have no idea what those things are. Maybe only available in singapore? :D
Mine’s the Kickapoo Joy Juice. I was so happy when it reappeared out of nowhere a few yearsa ago.
Not all of these have to be forsaken. Some are still reasonably common, and if you know where to look you can find the rest.
Soft drinks that came in little plastic bags that you had to hold at the top. With the straw sticking out.
i love that you have an uncanny way of excavating glorious souvenirs from the hypothetical wasteland of the past.
CDIS! PETS textbooks! 5 stones. jotterbooks in which i crayoned my future (“who i want to be when i grow up”, answers to which were typically of the nurse-doctor-lawyer variety. now i just wanna be a hobo, or 6 years old again.)
There’s a whole email forward listing this kinda stuff, but I assume you’ve seen it already. If not I can send it along.
1. Mamee
2. Chopped up garlic in margarine on toast (Gramma’s special)
3. Sng buay sweets
4. Victor and Charlee (I was on their radio show once)
5. 5 stones
6. Zero point
7. Novena Church on Saturdays and Sundays
8. Eureka! on television
9. Mask (the superhero cartoon)
10. Mask toys
11. Care Bears
12. Cabbage Patch Kids
13. That weird mushy eraser we had to use in art class in Sec 1
14. Raw fish at the hawker centre on public holidays
15. Green Spot
16. Bloody green or red bean soup at recess
17. Wearing bloomers in SNGS Pre Primary
18. The old, old NTUC Comfort school buses with the flip-down step (my leg fell through the gap once)
19. Going to school in CHIJ Victoria Street before it was closed and became CHIJmes
20. Sunday morning swimming lessons, bitterballen, hot chocolate, and ice creams at Dutch Club
21. Catechism, Mass, Sunday School, and Methodist service every Sunday (and yet I turned out completely unreligious—funny that)
haha recess time was spent buying those thin tubes of chocolate, wonder what it’s called. or the jelly variety.. and small packs of nutella spread.
25cents bus fare
50cents chicken rice in the sch canteen
pepsi cola 1, 2, 3!!
catching tadpoles in drains
ring pop!
scary haw par villa
captain planet :)
the emergence of super buses, and how you’d be boasting to your friends if you were lucky enough to ride one to school that day. haha.
and the day that tamagotchi was banned in schools. darn.
i’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Baby-G!!
I used to munch on milo powder with condensed milk too! I wonder why only Singaporeans are brilliant enough to think of that?
[...] In a wave of nostalgia tonight — from stumbling across a related post and its ensuing discussion, while eating Rollercoaster crackers (cheese/keju flavour), and talking to Z. about Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet and Enid Blyton, I took it upon myself to set up a new Flickr Group. [...]
does anyone remember bookworm? or m i e only one here misses bookworm series?
i rmb! sam seng, simone, ms goon, mimi (i think), and a fat guy and a bespectacled guy etc. wah i forget.