Because at yesterday.sg, people and memories as treasures – and so you could say that this picture is a treasure-map! It first glance, it’s a map of Geylang today, but the hand-drawn markings by Uncle Dicko are of Siang Lim Park, which is now occupied by the condos Sunny Spring and the Waterina. Before 1955, Siang Lim Park was occupied by rows of Terrace Houses, and one of them (marked by #1) was where Uncle Dicko and his family lived.
If you notice, Uncle Dicko’s marked the old landscape with numbers, and in his posts about Siang Lim Park, you can read about the personalities that lived in the nrighbourhood. For example, #13 housed a movie star:
“This was the home of a well-known Malay film actor Aziz Jaafar.He starred in many Malay films from the 50’s, 60′s onward. When he wasn’t acting, he was just like anyone of us ordinary folks in the kampong.
We kampong folks were very proud that we had him in our midst. His home was just a minute walk from ours. This legendary actor passed away in 2005, aged 73. I will do a separate post about him.”
While spooky things went on at #3:
“Diagonally opposite was this corner unit located next to the Malay keramat. Ownership changed hands many times. This was reputedly the most haunted house in Siang Lim Park…and I personally saw some of the most eerie and scariest things to justify that label.”
Uncle Dicko takes us through a fascinating journey through Siang Lim Park using just a simple map. Check out his posts here (introduction), here (Part 1), here (Part 2), here (Part 3) and here (Part 4). There’s also a special gunfight edition here!
2 Responses
I lived in Siang Lim park from 1951-1969. I wrote an essay on the great memories!
AA
Posted on July 22nd, 2010 at 11:29 am
Hi Mr Ameerali,
I seem to remember and recognise you from Siang Lim Park days. I’m certain you would be able to recall many more names beside those I’ve mentioned in my blog posts.
How are you today?
I do hope you can get in touch with me at my Blogsite. There’s so much we can talk about.
Your fellow kamponger,
**** Yip
Posted on October 26th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Add A Comment