Telok Paku English School & Changi Village - by Ow Suek Yin

TELOK PAKU ENGLISH SCHOOL

I have read your stuff regarding Telok Paku School. I'll pass the pics to you as soon as I can find time to visit my primary school teacher, Mr Laurie Chan. He taught me at Pr 6 and was the best teacher ever. When I first started teaching I met him again when he was the Senior Teacher at Jalan Eunos School. He was an avid photographer and took numerous pics of us, his pupils. He used to pack us all in his station wagon and drove us all around the island. Some of us were very poor and it was his way of broadening our horizon.

Telok Paku School had this beautiful school field and it was surrounded by cashew nut trees. Yes, we loved our field. As pupils, we also grew vegetables as part of our Science lessons. In those days, the servant's quarters were nearby and helped to look after our garden too. By the way, this was in the mid 1950s. Close to the school was also a marshy area - come to think of it, it was probably part of the river or creek. I remember us playing in the sandy area too. In those days we sang the British anthem, God save our Queen.

None of the teachers lived in Changi and all of them stayed in the Geylang or Katong area. The teachers were a dedicated lot. Imagine, the only road to Changi in the old days was long and winding - and very dark, cos there were no street lights for a major part of the road. And the bus from Capitol to Changi was No 1. And Changi Village was 14 miles (22.4km) from the city centre!

Coming back to Mr Laurie Chan. While he taught us in the day, he also taught night classes in Telok Paku. And my late father who was from China used to attend his night class. Yes, my father and I had the same teacher. One evening the night classes, LEMBAGA (?) held a Dinner and Dance and both my parents had a great time then.

CHANGI VILLAGE

Changi Village in the old days had its fair share of haves and have-nots. I belonged to the have-nots because my father worked for the RAF and was a fitter. At first we stayed in the protected area - up on the hill next to the huge building where the British soldiers stayed. The quarters were terraced quarters and very small. There were four families in each of the two terraced quarters. Each comprised only one room and we had a common toilet and bathroom some distance away from the quarters. My family stayed there till 1955 before we moved to another set of quarters just behind the Changi Village shophouses.

These quarters are still there today and I've brought my siblings and son and visitors to view. I can't imagine how my 4 siblings and my parents stayed in the one bedroom quarters. This time we did have our own bathroom and toilet. Separating our backyard from the shophouses was a huge drain (huge to me as a child). The shophouses in Changi in those days did not have modern sanitation. We often see our friends in the shophouses emptying their "urine pots" into the drain. We never thought about how unhygenic it was.

Who were the "haves"? The children of the shopowners in Changi Village. Us? We belonged to the working class - our fathers worked as mechanics or cooks in the RAF while my Indian neighbours' fathers worked as clerks (slightly better than my dad). My neighbours were either Indians or Malays. That is why to this day, my siblings and I are very conversant with the Malay language and we love Malay and Indian food. We ate mutton and beef and never thought of them as "smelly" unlike some of my Chinese friends.

I was about to talk about the shopowners' children who were my classmates in Telok Paku School. Perhaps because they had everything, they didn't work as hard at their studies. Many of them had to repeat school. I was considered young cos I was at least two years younger than them.

I was one of two girls who went to RGS. It was a first for Telok Paku. I had to thank Mr Laurie Chan who pleaded with my parents to put RGS as my first choice after PSLE. But RGS was a mighty long way. I left for school at 6 am and didn't come home till about 3 pm or 4 pm. To help out with the family's finances I gave tuition to some of the kids [mostly shopowners' children and some of the children of the clerks (they could afford to pay me)] so that I could carry on with my secondary school.

I have fond memories of Changi Beach. The old stone bridge that links the beach to the ferry terminal is still there. I remember the village boys and girls diving from the bridge into the creek. I didn't cos I didn't know how to swim then. Whenever I go to Changi now and look at the stone bridge I can't help remembering those kids diving from the bridge. No one thought about the danger or how dirty the creek was in those days.

The Civil Service Club at Changi used to be a transit centre for the English soldiers and families when they were scheduled to return home to England. Naturally they would board the air force planes at Changi airfield. After the British forces left, the place was occupied by the Red Cross Home for the Handicapped (in the old days it used to be called the Red Cross Home for the Crippled).

When Changi Airfield was in existence, the buses had to stop for planes to "cross". A long long time ago my teacher friends and I used to sit on the slopes overlooking the airfield and gaze at the stars and planes. No hanky panky - just enjoying the stars!

Incidentally, when we were studying in Telok Paku School, my teachers used to threaten the boys that if they didn't work hard they might land up in Changi Prison. I can't believe that we actually believed the story. Our lessons were also often interrupted by the aeroplanes which used the Changi Airfield.