Me at 12
I was born on 27th November (no year) I believe it was 6.42 pm in the evening. The day was a Wednesday. Strange with all these new smart phones, you can determine the exact day of your birth from the Calendar function on your Andriod phone.
I was born in Kandang Kerbau Hospital (at Middle Road), I believe Prof. Salmon (Yvonne Salmon's father) delivered me. Nothing special to mark the occasion but I do know my early years (since cognizance or mindful recollection) started around 5 to 6 years of age.
My parents owned a bungalow house at 6 Adis Road, Singapore 9 (those days the postcode was only a single digit). I was the elder of 2 boys by 3 years. John's birth month is September. My father told me that the bungalow house was the family house and he bought it. During the second world war, the Japanese occupiers used the house as a command post as it was midway up the Mt Sophia Hill and overlooked all the smaller houses and Malay kampung. If you followed the road to the end at Adis Road, it was the mansion of Lee Kong Chian, the renowned businessman of the early 20th century Singapore. Flanking our house were 2 schools for young girls, namely Nan Hua Primary and Secondary and Methodist Girls School. Our house was right smack in the middle of both these fine girls schools.
The first floor of the house had a driveway for the car (Simca was the first car I recall) and the porch area was brick stone with both sides leading to a rather run-down drab garden.
All the memories come flooding back at the sight of our old house. It had long been sold in 1976, and currently. the plot is part of a condominium estate
Our house did not have the nicely kept lawns of the US in those days (60s to early 70s). When you reached the top of the driveway and upon entry to the left side of the first floor, you would come into the the main outer hall (where we played our football) and then enter into the ante room leading to the upstairs living and dining rooms. The entire bungalow had10 rooms and a huge hall both upstairs and downstair. For the downstairs area, the darkened hall kept my father's law files, and there was a line phone with poor electrical connectivity. I remember getting electric shocks whenever my ears touched the phone headset !
Those days (60s till early 70s) people were dirt poor. The average salary of a common secretary or teacher would be approximately $200 - 300 per month. People had no proper acess to running water, sewage, housing and medical facilities. Poverty and crime was rife in those days, so I was indeed extremely fortunate as a child, living with my brother, kakak (malay name for sister, she was infact our family maid),my parents and the tenants living in the back shacks.
London June 1974
My father Geoffrey was a top lawyer in the late 60s and 70s and we recall the many nights when he had very tough criminal cases in the day he would come home to our family and at night had pretty nightmarish 'screaming matches' as if he were in high court ! We dared not to wake him during those stressful periods.
My kindergarten (nursery) years were delightful and full of play. I was the 'king of the playgorund' as I recall. (I will leave it at that). The church and kindergarten are still there at Prinsep Street (Presbytarian Church and Kindergarten) and they do indeed hold fond memories for me. I was quite the tough guy in those days, as I recall. My father once dropped by and saw me wrestling or thumping 3 boys in the sandpit. I even had all the kids pushing my go - kart in the palyground !
Bully me ? Maybe or maybe not.
One of my earliest recollections happened when I was just 6 years of age. I was barely in Primary 1. We used to watch this series every week called the Flying Nun starring Sally Field. So one day while I was at the back of the house on the steps, I saw the pipe which was extending from one wall to the next and decided that I could 'fly'. So at the top of the steps, I decided to 'have a go' and leapt (totally brainless thing to do) from the top of the steps and try to catch the pipe some good 6 feet away and perhaps 10 feet from the ground.
I failed miseralbly and tumbled down the steps with multiple knocks going down. I could have been on the main selection list for the Darwin Awards (ultimate stupidity) for that year.
I tumbled hit, bashed, and thrashed myself all the 10 or so steps down. I cried like a baby and I blacked out.
The story (from what I heard from my Dad) was that, fortunately we had a Japanese tenant called Ken Omemuri and he heard my cries and came rushing out. He brought me straight into a taxi and called my Dad at work.
I woke up in my Dad's car on the way to the hospital. I had blacked out and my head was a bloody mess. The legend then went on like this. Upon arriving at the Singapore General Hospital, my father called (more like bellowed) the nurse to call Dr. Yayha Cohen the top surgeon in Singapore then. The nurse gave him the sarcastic response that even the President of Singapore could not get that kind of attention from Dr. Cohen.
My father and Dr Cohen were best friends and my Dad told her off to metion his name and she quickly obliged. Dr. Cohen came running and I was immediately put into the operating theatre and given general anaesthesia and I saw the entire operation while being fully lucid but in no pain ! It was surreal watching the needle going through the top of my head and coming out.
It took 6 stitches on my left forehead and in about 2 hours, I was back at home sitting at the top of the steps and all the neighbourhood boys, girls, uncles, aunties came to visit me, and marvel at the brown patch above my left eye.
at Swimming Club with my brother and cousins
I am so grateful to my father, Dr. Cohen, Ken Omemuri and the numerous others who came to my aid. A stupid young kid who was so full of himself and thought that he could 'fly' like the Flying Nun at 6 years of age.
The folly of youth !
