Page 12 - Stories from our Grandparents
P. 12

Mr Wong Soon Seng
                      y name is Jimmy Fam and I have
                      been a tailor for over 30 years.                                                                        BORN 1925
                      How did I start? Well, I started off                                     ITE College Central
                                                                                               By Dennis Ng Han Jie & Law Junwei Daniel
          Mas an apprentice; my parents found
            me the job because I dropped out of school.
            The best period for the business                                                            ife was hard. If I were not
            was when there were many people                                                             able to find a job for that
            joining the banking sector and           Mr. Jimmy Fam                                      day, the only thing I could
            working as property agents –                                                         Ldo was to run back home
            many of them needed new suits.           By Lee Zen Wei & Lai Kai Xuan  BORN 19xx     so the soldiers would not harm
                                                    ITE College Central                           me. As days passed, I started to
            The business flourished because of                                                    feel fearful; not knowing if after    I miss the three worlds:
            them. I provide mostly suit tailoring                                                 all the agonising pain, I would be    New World, Happy World,
            services. Nowadays, young people                                                      able to come home alive. This         and Great World. I loved
            prefer to shop at the malls or                                                        was my life for the 2 years during
            online – this has affected business.                                                  the Japanese occupation.              carnivals, and nothing
                                                                                                                                        compares to the great
                                                                                                  It was funny. I always felt a sense
            As a tailor, you cannot specialise in one                                             of being loved despite being in an    world amusement park.
            area – you should know everything as there                                            arranged marriage. In the past there   From throwing rings with

            are many different types of garments and                                              wasn’t much of “marriage because      my friends to bottles to
            you need to know how to make anything                                                 of love” but rather, we get married   the fun rides, I still keep all
            the customer requests. Hence, you need                                                to help the family financially. I don’t   these close to my heart.
            to know everything about tailoring and the                                            even know when I got married!         Sometimes, even at this age,
                                                                                                  Those days you only know this: if
            different style of clothes.                                                           both families have sons or daughters,   I wish to be brought back
                                                                                                  then they’ll become sworn brothers    to the amusement parks
                                            How have I survived? It is all because of             or sisters. If one family has a son   and relive the fun times
                                            customer service – I believe in making                and the other a daughter, then the    and memories I’ve had.
                                            the customer happy. If you make a                     two of them will just get married!
                                            mistake, let them know and fix the                    An arranged marriage was ideal
                                            mistake quickly. Of course, we are only               for me as I was a very easy-going
                                            human; sometimes we cannot control                    person and tend to ‘go with the flow’.
                                            our feelings and may lose our cool if                 Despite this I’m still happy with my
                                            customers are too demanding. It is only               wife till this very day.
                                            natural. The important thing is to be
                                            professional and work quickly to resolve              Image courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
                                            the conflict.                                         from Wong Kwan, Lim Kheng Chye and RAFSA
                                                                                                  Collection (clockwise).
           12    Grandpa Stories                                                                                                                       Grandpa Stories  13
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