Doris Tan Chung Lee and Mumtazah Binte Mustaffa

Doris Tan Chung Lee:

Growing Up
Unlike today, in the old days, we never had maids or helpers although some wealthier households did have China-born “black-and-white amahs”, so-called because they wore black loose trousers and white samfoo tops, to help look after their families and households.

The majority of families, however, had no help at all. Our mothers would cook the meals and clean the house. And most of the time, we would be left to our own devices. Older kids would look after the younger ones and we learned to ride tricycles, and later bicycles, all by ourselves.

In our family, we had an aunt - my mother's older sister, who was staying in our household with her two sons, to help out. From her, I learned how to prepare food and cook from the age of six. Thanks to her, I developed a life-long love for cooking. 

Washing machines were not available until much later and I also helped to wash clothes by rubbing each item on a corrugated wooden wash board before rinsing the whole lot in a tub of water, wringing them dry and then hanging them out on clotheslines.

Strong Neighbourly Ties
My father worked in Telecoms, which had a wireless station off Yio Chu Kang Road and we lived in staff quarters, located about 800 metres away. A hundred or so families lived in the quarters, which comprised low-rise three-storey and four-storey flats. 

In such a small community, most people knew one another, regularly getting together to chat, exchange news and recipes. People would often drop in unannounced and they would be welcome. People would bond over tea and snacks. It was through such socialising that my mother, who could speak only Teochew at first, was able to speak Malay and English as we had Eurasian, Indian and Malay neighbours. 

The wireless station had a two-storey clubhouse, which served as a recreation hub for families. Its surrounding field was the venue of a weekly open-air film screening. It was our Saturday night treat, walking to the station after dinner to watch a movie.

The clubhouse was particularly a memorable place for us kids at Christmas. There would always be a Christmas party for all the Telecoms staff. There was the obligatory decorated fir tree next to which Santa Claus (who was my best friend's father) sat and gave out presents.

Mobile Vendors And A Mini-farm
Because Yio Chu Kang was remote, with only a kampong (village) and rubber plantation nearby, it attracted a variety of vendors. An Indian milkman would cycle by regularly with a tall tin can from which he would dispense milk into your own container from the can via a funnel. There was also the breadman who sold sweet buns, sugee biscuits and baguette (French bread) from his box-like pantry mounted on a bicycle.

A pick-up truck would also make regular rounds, selling mainly fruits and vegetables and sometimes fish and meat. Most popular among the kids was the ice-cream man, who came around in the early evening daily, ringing his bell to announce his arrival.

Because we were living in the countryside and we had also a spacious backyard, it seemed appropriate to rear ducks and chickens for our own consumption. My task was to collect eggs after the hens had laid them and cook them for breakfast. I had to regularly feed chicks and clean the coop - a smelly task, indeed!

Happy Days In The Kampong
Within walking distance of our home was a rustic kampong where my brothers and I would go to during the rains so they could catch 'fighting fish' in the drains there and spiders too. Once, I went to the kampong with my mother. Just after I walked under a coconut palm, a coconut fell, missing me. My mother was not alarmed though as she said, "Coconuts have eyes and they look before they fall.". She picked up an old fallen coconut to show me its "eyes". True enough, if you look at a coconut that is stripped of its husk, it has three holes making it look like a face. Despite this, I am always wary whenever I am at a beach and there are coconut palms around!

Rubber Stories
Just next to our quarters was a rubber plantation. Each morning, at 5.30 am, I would walk through the plantation to a bus stop outside it along Jalan Kayu to catch a bus to my school on Anthony Road in Newton. I was in Primary One then. 

I would come across rubber tappers and sometimes stop to watch them work. Each tapper had a small curved knife, which they used to make a long diagonal cut on the trunk of a rubber tree. From the cut, white latex would flow into a small porcelain cup. After a day or two, when the latex had coagulated, it would be collected from the cups and sent to a nearby factory where it would be rolled into sheets to be smoked before being exported. I was told that the soles of the Bata shoes that I wore to school were made from that rubber. Returning home from school every afternoon, I remember experiencing the strong smell given out by smoked rubber sheets from the factory.

At times, when no one was looking, I would pick up coagulated latex from one of the cups and roll it to use as an eraser at school. It worked better than the commercial erasers bought from stationery shops. Also, I would pick up rubber seeds and play tricks on my friends. I would rub the seed on a cement floor and quickly place it on their arms giving them a hot sensation!

Childhood Games
Childhood pleasures were simple. We played hopscotch, which we called 'big balloon' on pavements or any stretch of empty space we could find. Skipping was also popular. Two kids would hold each end of a rope and swing it around and around while the third kid would enter to jump over the rope as it touched the floor. The winner would be the one that had the most jumps without tripping.

We also played five stones, which were triangular shaped bags sewn by our mothers filled with rice or red saga seeds that we would collect from the fallen pods of saga trees. Popular also were folded paper balls which we would blow up to throw to each other or kick it about with one foot.

But most fun of all was flying kites. I was tasked with pounding glass in a mortar to make a powder to coat the kite strings. The idea behind it all was to fly your kite so you could cut the strings of your opponent's kite causing it to fall from the sky. Winning a kite fight was sheer happiness.

Unlike today, when birthdays are celebrated every year, for us kids, we had no birthday parties to go to. Birthdays were not celebrated until we turned 21. It was a truly special occasion then when friends and neighbours were invited and we all had our first dance.

Hand-made Toys
We had no store-bought toys. We would make our own. The most popular item was a catapult, which we fashioned out of wood taken from the nearby rubber tree plantation. A Y-shape was carved out and a thick rubber band connected the two ends and voila! It was ready - my brothers used it to try to shoot birds with small stones but always missing! 

School Treats And Games
Iceball was popular among us schoolchildren. I remember an Indian man with a stall outside our school during recess who would grind ice with a manual grinder to make iceballs over which he would ladle sweet red syrup and lace it with evaporated milk. It cost only 5 cents and we had to eat it quickly before it melted and also because it was really cold to hold. It was delicious! That simple iceball has since become the Ice Kachang that is sold in hawker centres everywhere.

I only had 20 cents a day as pocket money for school but that was enough to buy a bowl of noodles or one popiah and a drink. Twenty cents hardly pay for anything much these days so school pocket money I understand has now gone up to $2 - ten times more!

In school, during recess, we played rounders (similar to softball) and on sports days, enjoyed simple races like sack races where we would step into a gunny sack to see who could run the fastest in it.

The Wonders Of Technology
Nowadays, we take television for granted, with its wide variety of programmes for young and old and in colour too. When television first came to Singapore in 1963, there were few programmes available and everything was in black and white. But what excitement it generated!

I remember when we had the first TV set in the neighbourhood in 1963. My father, who helped out in a friend's shop that sold electronic goods, was able to buy a television set at a good price. We were living in Serangoon Gardens then, at Blandford Drive and our friends in neighbouring roads like Bloxhome Drive and Braemar Drive and our immediate neighbours would come around to watch and laugh over comedies like The Lucy Show. It certainly fostered a great community spirit.

Best of all was when the Grand Prix races, which first started in 1961, along Thomson Road could now be seen 'live' for the first time. The thrills of watching motorcyclists and motorcars speeding around the many hairpin bends were unforgettable as we cheered on the participants and agonised over some unfortunate spills.

Communications
For the longest time, the only way for people to get in touch with one another was by writing letters. They took a long time to arrive, especially if the letters were coming from overseas. But the joy of receiving a letter that you had waited for is immeasurable.

Letters, at first, would be hand-written and later, they could be typed on a manual typewriter so they would be easier to read. If there were mistakes, we would use a whitener to erase and retype over it. Typing was slow until electric typewriters were invented.

Then there was the telegram, a speedier way to communicate, but usually used only to send urgent short messages as it was expensive. 

When fax became available in the 1980s, it was revolutionary as one could send a letter via a facsimile machine and it would be received immediately, even in another part of the world.

Then there was the arrival of the computer, which made writing and the correcting of mistakes even easier. And with computers, came e-mail in the 1990s, which made writing letters and sending them by post and even by fax redundant since these could now be sent in an instant via the Internet!

Rare today is receiving a handwritten letter or card from someone since all this can be done electronically. So rare that when you receive it, you treasure it. So if you can, in this modern age, do pause and write a letter or a card to someone you care and send it by post.

Mumtazah Binte Mustaffa:

Growing Up: BPPS, MGS, PJC & NUS (1988 - 2011)
My formative years were spent studying, playing at the playgrounds, attending swimming, enrichments, and religious classes on the weekends. This was my typical routine for years. The academic arms race was real and particularly so for me as I was born in 1988, the auspicious Year of the Dragon based on the Chinese Zodiac. When I was 11, I signed up as a volunteer with SINDA under Project Read. My mother and I spent many wonderful afternoons reading to children in the haven of their homes. I studied at Bukit Panjang Primary School which is conveniently located within walking distance from my home. Thereafter, I attended Methodist Girls' School and moved on to Pioneer Junior College (PJC). I had the privilege of representing PJ at several camps - the most memorable ones included Leadership Training Camp (LTC), Pre-University Seminar and STEP Sunburst Youth Camp(SYC) which was organised by Temasek Foundation. I'll never forget the outdoor expeditions we had during LTC, especially the arduous trek from Choa Chu Kang to MacRitchie Reservoir which took us several hours to complete. There were times that we felt like giving up, but we gritted our teeth and pressed in to complete the journey. The fire drills which we had in the wee hours throughout the night made us realise the importance of setting realistic goals as leaders. SYC was where I forged lifelong friendships with students from other Junior Colleges in Singapore, some of whom I keep in touch with till today and where we have celebrated milestones in each other's lives over the years. Attending Law school at the National University of Singapore was definitely challenging and there were many times when I felt like a fish out of water. However, after finally completing it in 2011, I certainly felt accomplished as I now had more opportunities in life.

Travelling (2004 - 2016)
Philippines: In December 2004, I went to the Philippines at 16 years of age with the Rotary Club of Singapore. It was my first trip overseas without my parents and I was excited. The trip to the Philippines was a memorable and fun one, filled with much joy, laughter, and happiness. I fondly remember the trip to the Philippines on Boxing Day and the looks of delight on the children's faces as we gave out sweets, chocolates, and stuff toys. 

United Kingdom: In June 2013, I went to London and Birmingham. Birmingham was a quiet and tranquil respite from the hustle and bustle of London. Touring the premises of Oxford University made me feel very learned and I felt a strong sense of history walking around the campus. Watching the dance production Burn the Floor was such a thrilling experience for me. I simply could not peel my eyes away from the professional dancers. Their footwork was simply exquisite and magical. The Question-and-Answer segment by the dancers was also an eye-opener for me as they answered questions with brutal honesty. It reminded me that behind the glitz and glamour of what was portrayed on stage for the audiences, there were numerous hours of blood, sweat and tears shed backstage. 

Japan: The family vacation in December 2007 was an unforgettable one for me. I will never forget the look of aghast on my sister's face when she saw my parents taking out a bottle of sambal belachan from their backpacks. We had the finest sushi, ramen and tempura before us alongside the wasabi and chilli flakes to accompany them but my parents were trying to covertly "smuggle" the belachan over to a Singaporean family who were seated at another table! Needless to say, my sister and I pretended not to know them for the rest of the meal.

United States: The two week long holiday to the States in December 2010 was probably the one family vacation which we all needed a vacation from afterwards! It was packed with activities in Boston, Orlando, New York and Washington DC. Each state had its own attractions to offer. I remember Boston for both its picturesque scenery and fresh, juicy lobsters, Orlando for the adrenaline we experienced at the theme parks, New York for its vibrant culture and Washington DC for how educational and entertaining it was from the hours we spent at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I have yet to go back to the States since then but possibly in 2025 I will! 

Penang: In June 2014, my parents and I went to Penang for a short getaway. It was an adventure-filled vacation. I remember riding the jet skis at top speeds. As I do not possess a driving licence, being able to manoeuvre the Jet Ski and making sharp turns in both directions was simply exhilarating for me! I would also attempt the high elements obstacle course again in a heartbeat. Feeling the wind against my cheeks as I completed the flying fox which traversed kilometres of lush greenery was certainly electrifying.

Milestones
Professional Careers: Teaching (Public Sector)|
After I graduated from the Faculty of Law in 2011, I decided to complete my teacher training at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2012 specialising in English and History as my core subjects. Teaching was something that I had always enjoyed and naturally gravitated towards. 

Legal Training & Practising Law
After teaching in public schools for several years, I decided to complete my legal training. Studying for the Preparatory Course for the Bar Examination was challenging but I enjoyed attending the tutorials and the rigorous class discussions we had. In 2016, I was finally called to the Singapore Bar. It was a momentous occasion for me as although I was hardworking, I was never particularly brilliant nor outstanding in any field. I learnt many invaluable lessons during my brief tenure as a lawyer but after three years, I decided teaching was my calling and that practising Law was not my cup of tea after all.

Professional Careers: Teaching (Private Sector)
Teaching English in the private sector brings me a lot of satisfaction and gratification when I see my students improve.

Birthdays were simple, light-hearted but mostly genuine and warm occasions. The only time I had a birthday celebration with friends was in 2016 and it was my first ever party planning everything from food to presents for the guests to take home. I'm glad I celebrated my birthday in Oct 2016 with friends in Dairy Farm as it is not likely that I’ll be visiting them anytime soon due to the ongoing pandemic. My 28th birthday will always be special to me for that reason.

I completed teacher training at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in 2012 and in 2016, I was called to the Singapore Bar. It was a momentous occasion for me as I was always hard working but not particularly brilliant or outstanding in any particular field. I’m the first to be called to the Bar and hopefully not the last! My younger sister is in the midst of completing her PhD in America and will be the first privileged one to have the honorific Professor or Doctor before her name.