Page 85 - Stories from our Grandparents

hen I was young, I lived in a At a young age, I had to start working, because my family was
kampong on a hill opposite very poor. So I would follow my mum to where she worked,
which was at a factory. Sometimes we would work the whole
Bukit Timah Hill called
Mdm ng Ah Huay Born 1952 WJurong Kechil. There was day and as children, we couldn’t do much so we would only
no clean water from taps, so when we
earn 50 cents per day.
By Chloe Lim Eu Hwee needed water, we would go to a public
Millennia Institute well at the bottom of the hill to get water. I started to work since I was 13 years old to support my family
because my mother and father retired early. The people who stayed
Our life then was very tough. When we wanted to in the kampong bonded well with each other. We never needed
go to school, we needed to walk through the forest to lock our doors, whether it was the main door or kitchen door
to get to school and back home as there was no because we trusted each other. In the day, we left our doors wide
transportation for us. We had never owned an open but when we turned in for the night, we closed the doors but
umbrella because our mother didn’t have money did not lock them.
to buy us umbrellas. We only had one set of
uniform per person as well as only one pair of “If strangers came to harass someone from the kampong,
shoes. So when it rained, our shoes everyone from the kampong would work together to take care
and uniforms would get wet and we needed to of the children and people living in the kampong. Usually the
use the heat from the fire to dry them.
men would be the ones protecting the kampong.”
Children didn’t have toys, so they followed the teenagers to go to the
drains and rivers to catch fish, birds, spiders and even snakes. In the During the Racial Riots in 1964 between Malays and Chinese,
past, there wasn’t much entertainment. Since our parents would go the men protected the villages and kampongs. The elderly and
to work, once we came home from school, we played. women stayed at home to take care of the children while the
men went to the bottom of the hill and guarded the hill as they
Since we grew banana trees, pineapple trees and were afraid that strangers would come and disturb or harass us.
guava trees, we would climb trees and pluck fruits.
We also owned chickens and pigs.

Jurong Kechil