Never Take Anything for Granted (2E5 Benjyamin's grandmother)

Interviewer:

Name: Benjyamin Chin Hsui Yang

Date of interview: 27-7-06

Location of interview: Grandmother’s house

Interviewee:

Name: Tan Mui Ngo

Present Address: Blk 724 Clementi West Street Two

Date of birth: 1929

Place of birth: China

Background information of interviewee’s parents:

Parents’ Names: Tan Buck Song [DECEASED]   Yeo Siew Hong [DECEASED]

Occupation: Clerk and a farmer

Family life with parents: she had to work very, very hard

                                               

This is the story of my grandmother…..

   My grandmother came to Singapore when she was merely eight years of age. As a child, she had to help in the making of candles and bundle up noodles to earn money, because in those days, people had to get every helping hand they could get so as to supplement their income. Back then, my grandmother had no games to play because she was too busy helping around the household nor did she have any holidays. Also, kids in those days were very obedient so they rarely played pranks on anybody. And if they did, their punishments included raps on their heads with their parent’s knuckles or by being slapped.

Female Robin Hood (2E5 Xin Tian's grandmother)

Interviewer: Lee Xin Tian

Date of interview: 18^th July 2006

Location of interview: Grandmother’s house

My interviewee is my grandmother, Teo Siuk Hiong. She is currently staying at Block 77, Telok Blangah Drive, Singapore 100077. She came to this world on 1^st of January 1931. Her place of birth is in Guandong, Shantou, China. My grandmother has a younger sister named Teo Siuk Jin. The gap in their ages is very wide. Her sister was born on 9^th of May 1943.

My grandmother’s parents have rather unusual names. Her father’s name is Teo Guan Ya, and her mother’s is Wong Ah Ying. The family of four lived in a village in Shantou. Her father was a shepherd, and her mother a seamstress. Her father’s name means "good fortune" while her mother’s name means "an intellectual female". My grandmother was very close to her parents. She never hid anything from them, and she got along well with them. Most of the families in those days cherished one another more than us nowadays.

The games my grandmother played in her childhood days include five stones, “brides”, climbing trees and catching little fishes. She enjoyed catching little fishes the most. Her love for fishes is beyond description. She would catch a lot of them to put in a jar and keep them as pets at home.

Matchmade (2E4 Cheryl's maternal grandmother)

             I interviewed my maternal grandmother, Mdm Tan (this is an alias), over the 

telephone on 16 July 2006. She is currently living in a HDB flat in Henderson, Singapore.

              My grandmother was born in China in 1931.  She had a younger brother,   

who passed away last year. My grandmother lived in a small village on a

hill with her relatives and parents. At that time, floods often happened

everywhere in Singapore because of the poor drainage system, but it did not

affect her family. Her father was a coolie and her mother was a house wife.  Her

father stopped working after he started smoking opium because of his illness.

Her mother and her relatives started to sell ‘kueh’ to earn a living.

Mr D.T Singh: Devoted to Science (2E4 Aditya's Dad)

My father was born in 11^th April 1956. He specializes in agriculture, genetics and plant breeding. He has visited many countries during his job as a scientist. He still travels to foreign countries regarding his job. Let me tell you about my father’s life in India.

Mr D.T Singh was born in Bapatla which is a coastal town in South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He was born into a family in which the head of the family was his grandfather. My great grandfather (my father’s grandfather) was a retired civil servant (Imperial administrative service). My father was cared for by his grandparents most of his life. He was the eldest child among his siblings. He was also the first child among his generation of the whole family. He has seven uncles and four aunts who now live in different parts of the world but when my father was still a child, they used to live with him so as to help to take care of him.

My father was home-schooled till class three and from then on he went to a local school which was situated near his house. He was double promoted when he was class four. As a result, he skipped his class five and went straight to class six.

 During his life in a coastal town, he faced many events that affected him dearly, internationally and personally.

Never Bored as a Child (2E4 Rabiatul's grandmother)

               This is a biography of my grandmother. I interviewed her at her apartment on the 15^th July 12, 2006. Her name is Pon Bte Abu. She was brought into this world in the year 1938 and lived in a ‘kampong’ in Batu Pahat, Johor with an older sister and parents. Her elder sister is still living in Batu Pahat and she often visits her especially during Hari Raya.

            Her father worked at the jetty for ferries as a supervisor. She can hardly remember him. Her mother was a housewife as well as a cloth seller. They were not rich but neither were they poor. They lived a happy life together. In those days, parents were very strict particularly in terms of manners. My grandmother said that her parents never smacked or whacked. Instead, they would glare at her for a long time before pinching.

            My grandmother was never bored as a child. There were a lot of games to play. Some examples are ‘congkak’, five stones, catching, throwing rubber bands and many more. She also learnt how to cook and sew at a young age. I was told that cooking and sewing were a “must” for a girl in the past. She was not mischievious and did not play any pranks.

Escaping War and Poverty in China (2E4 Si Ying's maternal grandfather's story)

Interviewer’s name: Wang Si Ying

Date of interview: 09/07/2006

My Grandfather’s Biography

  My name is Lee Meng Chew, aged seventy-four years old. I am a Buddhist. I am currently living in Blk 329, Clementi Ave 2. I was born in China, in the city of Guangzhou on the 1^st December, 1931.

  Today, I relax in my comfortable chair drinking coffee and eating snacks. The familiar smells make me think of the past when I was in China and how I later moved to Singapore. Suddenly, I am back in the past.

  I lived in Guangzhou with my family. I had a younger brother and an older sister. My brother’s name is Lee Meng Khew, he was born in 1933. My sister is named Lee Meng Chee and she was born in September 1927. 

  I have little impression of my mother as she died when I was very young. She died after giving birth to my younger brother. My father, Lee Kett Meng, was the only one to work to support us. He worked as a hawker selling fishball noodles. My father liked to drink and gamble a lot with his friends so in the end, our monthly household allowance was very little. We were very poor and hardly had enough to eat and because of this, my sister had to apply for a job as a washerwoman to support us. Although the pay was not much, it was sufficient for us to at least to have meals every day.

 My younger brother and I were very close. We frequently played marbles that were borrowed from other children in our village. Although we enjoyed ourselves very much my sister would always nag us to go home for dinner. Everyday was happy for us and the world was peaceful until...

Singapore: from Third World to First World (2E4 Shi Hao's father)

     My father Ong Chin Yek was born on December 30^th 1953. His father’s name is Ong Kim Choon. His mother’s name is Neo Hwee Tee. He has eight siblings. He used to live in Old Jurong Road in a kampong at track eight. His family ran a provision shop selling foodstuff and toiletries. Every day after school, he had to go to the provision shop straight after school to help out in the shop until eight in the evening. After that, my father had to study. As there was no light, my father had to rely on kerosene light to study. There was also no time to play as they had to tend to the family business.

     My father attended a primary school called Yu Hua Primary school. He also attended St Theresa’s Secondary before going Ngee Ann Polytechnic. There were also no such things as extra activities in those days. My father is a strong believer in Buddhism, which was enforced by my grandfather. My father still goes to temples to pray whenever he is free. My father also rarely went out with his friends because of his responsibilities. My father lost his father at the age of twenty when my grandfather’s vehicle had a head-on collision with a truck which was coming from the opposite direction. He was killed almost immediately. The whole family mourned the loss.