Papa and Mum with the 2 Samseng Boys
This was my family picture taken sometime in the late 1960s or 1970. This is taken at the garden outside our house at 6 Adis Road Singapore 9. The postcode was single digit ! My brother John is 3 years younger than me, and he is now a successful senior consultant for ENT and a specialist sleep apnoea surgeon at one of Singapore's largest public hospitals.
We called ourselves Samseng (Gangster) Boys as we lived practically every day after school outside our house as there was absolutely no homework to do after our half day school. Boy those days were so carefree and fun !
We played outside with the neighbourhood kids, who were a motely bunch of Chinese and Indian families living in terraced houses beside our house. Directly next door to the left of our house was the Nan Hua secondary girls school and to the right was the Methodist Girls School (MGS).
Our family owned 3 pariah dogs name Jippy, Scamper and Mickey.While Jippy was the mother dog, Scamper and Mickey were the dog kids of Jippy. Scamper was my pet while Mickey was John's.
I recall we made friends with 'S', Liang Puck, 'R' (pronounced R er) and Poh San to name just a few. There was also a Jacob John who is now residing in the USA. There was also a special needs kid who lived along one of the terrace houses (in between 'S" house and Jacob John's house) and he was kept always at home like a prisoner.
We played all those memorable games. Kite flying was a favourite of mine. Essentially, we learnt to line the string with powdered glass pounded by hand by us and mixing the powdered glass with some glue (which stank to high heaven). We would wind the string round the trunk of one tree, line the string (these came from sewing reels) and bring it around to the neighbouring tree. Then, we would paste the glass glue mixture on the string. This was the means to 'weaponise' the string when we flew the kites.
Most kites would cost around 5 cents to 10 cents. They were made of tracing paper, with the stem and bow made of pliable wood across. There was fancy 'tail' which gave the kite balance and steadyness.
2 small 'Samseng' Boys (1969)
Story 1 ; Kite 'Jute'
On windy days, we would then hoist our kites up, catch the updraft of the wind and up it would go ! The sky would be littered with kites of all colours and swinging all over the horizon. I had grown quite 'skillful' in flying my kite and could even fly the kite from our 2nd floor balcony which was a huge exterior like room of easily 100 ft2.
Up and up it would go. If someone far away saw my kite, we would engage and whoever had the 'sharper' string would win and the loser would have his kite string cut. You can see the when a kite has had its string cut, it would waft down with no direction. When the kite has no 'master' controlling it, it is termed at kite 'jute' and wherever it lands, whoever is the first to pick up the kite, is now the new owner. That was the rule of the game back then.
There was so much joy in getting a free prize like a ' Jute' Kite.
That's where the fun starts. Whenever a kite is 'jute', there will be hordes of boys (Malay boys from the nearby kampong, our neighbours who lived in the terraces and some from outside of our neighbourhood) who would be literally running throughout the neighbourhood to be the first to own the fallen kite. Sometimes there will be a fight as to who got to the kite first, and the kite may end up torn up.
Once, we noticed a kite wafting merrily into our big house compound. Quickly, I went and donned my karate clothes and asked my brother to come and follow me down. Outside there were the hordes of Malay boys who bravely ventured into our house compound, knowing there were 3 dogs around.
I charged head long into the mass, did some karate katas and should "Heiya" to confuse and frighten them.
My brother John who was behind me, merrily picked the 'Jute' kite and up we went back with our prize.
True Story and a Happy Ending for us.
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