history project
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this is where i stay
when i was young
until about 35 years old
this shophouse was built around 1920
even before world war 2
this is why it is sometimes known as pre-war house
it is located at jalan besar area
which is also near the old victoria school at king george road
i have many memory here
some happy and of course some sad
there is a sign on top of the front door
on the ground floor
as you can see
宝树 and 福三和
宝树means precious tree and is also a symbol of our surname 谢
then the 福三和 is actually my grandfather company name
there are a few more shophouses also having the same name
福三和
outside the house, there is a 5 foot way
which in chinese means 五角鸡
which means it just take 5 steps to reach the main road
i remember i used to play hopscotch
catching, hide and seek with my neighbours
in the 5 foot way
as you know last time, where got computer
gameboy or iphone
there are about 4 to 5 rooms in each level
and uhhh all together i think there is about 15 rooms
imagine if in one room there is about 4 person staying
total there will about 60 person staying in the house
wah its very scary right?
when you enter the front door on the ground floor
as you can see there is a very very steep staircase
i think it is about 60 to 70 degrees in gradient
we have to be very careful or we will tumble down
normally we have to put our shoes at the side of the stairs
the partition between each room is made of thin wood
and it does not even reach the ceiling
so we can hear what is happening in the other room
once my neighbours were quarreling and i could hear them quarreling
in the end the whole level was woken up in the middle of the night
by their quarreling
and the next day, life will go back as normal
one level only has one toilet
so every morning we have to queue up to use the toilet
and in order to be the number one in the queue
we have to wake up very very early
and that was the reason why i was always late for school
due to the low water pressure
whenever the ground floor they are using the water it will affect the upper level
so what we do is we use something to knock on the pipe
to inform the lower level that there is no water on the upper floor
sometimes there will be a bread seller will ride his bicycle around selling bread
if we want to buy bread we just put the money in the basket
and lower it down using a string
then the bread seller will put the bread and the change back into the basket
this is so much more convenient than now
now you have to walk all the way to the shop and all the way home
in fact it is even better than pizza delivery service
there was so much more fun than hdb life
i feel sad that such places are disappearing so quickly
i really hope that the government can help to conserve such places