MacPherson Gang

I grew up in Geylang but went to Mattar Primary School next to MacPherson HDB Estate some 5km away.  As a result, many of my classmates came from there. The estate was quite quaint. Most of the flats (about 40 blocks) were located in a circle, ringed by the aptly named Circuit Road. But unusually, a third of this circuitous road was formed by Pipit Road, which itself had a few blocks of flats to call its own. Another set of blocks were also located along an off-road called Balam Road which ran beside a canal.

So, many of my classmates had addresses in Circuit Road, Pipit Road and Balam Road. Only three or four classmates stayed near me in Geylang.

Going over to MacPherson Estate to play meant I was never short of friends and classmates to hang out with. Sometimes, three or four of them would live in the same block. And once we set our minds on going out, we would use the telephone to get hold of everyone. If someone did not have a phone, we simply ran up to the flat or call them from the common corridor. Most of the flats were three-room affairs, so the corridors ran straight from one end-staircase to the next. Seldom did we take the lift (they did not stop at every level then). The phones we used were the old rotary pulsed ones common in those early days.

A typical visit to MacPherson would see me visit Blk 57 first. I'd drop by Chuan Yeow's place and together  go look for Hup Boon who lived on the 2nd storey. HB had a phone, so we would normally call up first. His mom was a very nice lady who would always offer us drinks and cakes. After HB, we'd look up Mui Chow or Lucy Teo - they both stayed in the beside block. There was also Koon Hai, a skinny chap with a mousy Brylcreamed look. Like him, HB was also well-groomed with his brown tinged hair parted and always creamed in place. He carried a comb in his back pocket all the time. HB's school uniform was one of the neatest. He and I wore the same kind of kaki shorts to school, not very different from what the policemen used to wear but shorter. Our school uniform was grey below and yellow on top - quite striking. Come to think of it, we also wore the same kind of starched shirts. So, in a way, we were kindred souls - brothers in suffrage from wearing those stiff shorts and shirts!

No kid should have to wear starched shirts to school in our kind of tropical weather. But because of that, I learned how control my discomfort, often psycho-ing myself to remain cool despite all that heat. I could easily have become a yogi in India for performing such a mind trick all those years in school.

If we did not look up the girls, we would head to Blk 76 to look for Lee Huat - the fella with the Chopper bike (see blog A Chopper Legacy). Living around Lee Huat were Woon Leng and Bee Har. BH was fair and pretty but she stood out for being very petite. She was so small in size you could have stringed her to your mobile phone! (Just kidding.)

Size notwithstanding, she had a big heart. Her hazel eyes often betrayed her shyness. However, step on her toes or disturb her best friend and she could be sharp and reprimanding. WL, on the other hand, was tall for her age. She was the smartest girl in class and always spoke in an easy, sweet voice. Her distinctive feature were her panda eyes - they made her look as if she hadn't slept in a while. BH and WL were good friends; they kind of complemented one another. BH could be fierce whilst WL tended to cry more easily.  Another good friend of theirs was Adelene Wee who lived  a few blocks behind. She had a lot of hair, mostly wiry, and she's one person who seemed always cheerful. I think it was her religious ways that set her so. She spoke good English with a distinct nasal accent and was the only one who wore her pinafore over the knees longer than the rest.

What did we do when we came together? We would play Skip Rope, Five Stones, Hide and Seek, Police and Thief. At times, we played table tennis on those purpose-built concrete tables. We also moved from one playground to the next.

Often, the kids with bikes would bring them along. For those who didn't (like me who did not live there), we simply "tompang" each another. I would often ride pillion on LH's Chopper bike.

MacPherson Estate had quite a few playgrounds then. As we moved from one playground to the next, we would always knock on the doors of classmates who stayed nearby. These playgrounds were the old ones made of iron and concrete materials. There were ring tubes, round climbing frames, spinning carousals and monkey bars.

A big playground could be found near the wet market at Blk 66A, where we often hung out at. Then we would call Pow Choo, Poh Lin and Puay Hoon to come out to play with us. PC reminded me of Nancy the cartoon character because of her hair and small beady eyes that needed thick glasses. PH was a girl who fell sick easily and didn't or couldn't join us all the time. She was often pale and sniffing a knotted hanky covered in Axe medicated oil. Lately, she has informed me that she suffered from severe anaemia as a kid and fainted often in school. Nevertheless, as a kid with such a worrisome condition, she was still spunky and full of grit went on to join the National Cadet Corps in secondary school and Singapore Police Force later. Poh Lin had a loud voice that matched an outgoing personality. She was Cantonese just like me and we got along fine. She was a brave girl not afraid to speak her mind. She would later argue much (always in a good-natured manner though) with Mr Pang, our P6 form teacher. You could say she liked to tease him. He in turn treated her like a Teacher's Pet. The same with a girl called Lin Hiong, who was like a mother hen to the rest of us.

Across from this big playground was Balam Road, where Ee Meng and Yong Meng (not related)  lived. We often teased YM for being a horse because of his gait. He had a butt that stuck out like a horse. EM was not a  very good student and liked to be active. If you didn't know him, you would think he was a gangster from his rough voice and gruff Hokkien. At Balam Road, we would find Sarbjit Singh and Ramli and a few other of our Malay classmates. Many were relocated from nearby kampungs.

For food, there's always that food centre next to the bridge that crossed the canal to my school. We seldom ate there unless it was to look up classmate Subari whose family had a stall there selling mee rebus. My classmates tell me his father was very generous and would give them 10, 20 cents each time to spend. Subari was also generous like that.

The canal that ran beside it was long and wide. It connected Paya Lebar to Geylang East. We would sometimes stand on the bridge to watch the canal waters flow under. Back then, it was filthy - the color of chee ma wu; and we would look out for disgusting stuff like dead dogs and rats. Most of the time however, what we saw were daily-use items like plastic bags, beer bottles, broken furniture, rattan shopping baskets, and the like.

This canal ran behind my school, bordering an area overgrown with shrubs and lallang (see blog Big Field Wild Fence). We were very sure there were pythons and spiders inside. Because of the thick brush, there was no way we could get in there to retrieve our lost balls and marbles. This wild area also added to our imagination about headhunters looking children's heads to build a bridge. Later I would learn that the story was concocted to discourage kids from wandering too far from home!

Beside that long food centre was the bus terminus. This bus terminus was not a built-up area; it was simply the side of the road. Buses arrived and departed to go to various destinations around Singapore. For me, the regular services to take home were 61, 62, 63, 135, 158.

If I took 135 or 158, I would alight outside Methodist Girls School at the junction of Sims Avenue and Aljunied Road and walk home from there. The other buses would bring me nearer to Lorong 19 on Geylang Road.

MacPherson Estate at the time was also known for its gangsters. Many were said to reside around the Balam Road area. It was in this area that two-storey shophouses could be found. I often wondered what kind of protection money the business owners had to pay, an idea no doubt fueled by violent Hong Kong TV serials at the time.

As kids we loved to go to the bookshop and cakeshop there.

The concrete table tennis tables mentioned earlier could be found all over MacPherson Estate. When we were not playing table tennis, we would lie down and just look at the sky.

Another wet market (a two-storey one) was located at Pipit Road to serve the residents there. Because it was separated by a road, we seldom ventured there.

I think Ms Leng, my P4 form teacher, was the only teacher I knew staying in MacPherson Estate. As kids, we were very curious what our teachers were up to (like married or not; got bf or not) and would trail them home to find out where they lived.

In my childhood time, MacPherson Estate was a very lively place with the coming and going of buses, cars and people. Today, it looks deserted and feels very much like a ghost town. Only old people seemed to be left. I wonder if I should drop by and see if any of my classmates' families are still there and perhaps be fortunate enough to reconnect with them again.

Below: Meeting for the very first time after 38 years! A week later, two more classmates were found, making a total of 12 of the original class of 44 classmates reconnected.

A Chopper Legacy

Everybody needs a hobby. Mine is tinkering with bikes. It is more so from a need to get mechanical and my hands dirty.

In the 70s, the most ubiquitous bicycle was this Raleigh Chopper bike (see pix left). I don't think I ever owned one as a kid, but I did have a few of them when I was much older. It became a hobby of mine restoring them. Growing up, my brother owned a Raleigh gentleman bike - the one with the white saddle bag behind.

At my primary school (Mattar Primary), a classmate and good friend of mine owned one. The manner in which he got his bike left me rather flabbergasted. You see, this friend of mine, Lee Huat, was only average in his studies. One time, however, he did manage to get all blue marks (not the usual failing red marks!) in his report book and so his dad bought him a bike as a reward. It was the bike everyone was whispering about and eyeing. The Raleigh Chopper. Lee Huat's was blue (well, it could have been be a Kris, an imitation from Malaysia then).

I still remember the conversation we had that day when he invited us over to his house in Circuit Road to see the 'surprise' he had installed for us his closest buddies.

"Wah, your dad got you a bike!" I said.
"Yup!" LH was beaming from ear to ear.
"How come?" I asked, not being very discrete.
"I did better in my exams," he said, still beaming.
"But didn't you get like 30+ position in class?" I asked, in my head, of course.
He then let out the bombshell:
"What did your dad get you? You did come in 2nd."

I felt ashamed and looked down.
"Er, I got caned." Silence.

"What???" He was incredulous, and almost laughing.
"What kind of dad do you have? If I'd scored 2nd, my dad would have bought me...." He couldn't think of anything. I guess he all he wanted was a Raleigh bike. LH was not a greedy fella, maybe why his dad doted on him.

I did not answer, quietly fingering my thigh where the cane marks were still fresh.

Well, that's my dad. His message to me was: if I had scored 1st in one term, I should have gotten 1st again in the next term. If not, anything else was considered a step back, a failure. What my dad didn't consider was that the girl who topped the class most of the time was always miles ahead of us boys. Her final term 2nd spot in P3 was but a blip that I somehow managed to create. I was so happy about it at the time. Being 2nd was normal and quite an achievement over the other competitive boy, CY. Together, the three of us would always score 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Another girl, PC, would occupy the 4th place.

I don't take credit for my good results. An elder sister should because she was always the one to push me to study hard and practice more. I would rather go exploring outdoors or fly a kite. But I do learn things pretty quickly in terms of studies.

Mini, not Chopper
The bike that I actually owned as a kid was called a Mini Bike. It was like the Schwinn Deluxe Stingray (also known as the Stingray Mini). The Schwinn Mini bike was an icon in the U.S. at the time. The Raleigh Chopper was the swinging bike icon on the other side of the Atlantic, popular in the UK as well as in Asia and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Because of its popularity, bike-makers in Taiwan and Malaysia soon made copies to sell. These bikes looked exactly like the original right down to the Raleigh Co brand plate in front. But instead of the 'RC' monogram lettering, it would be 'ER' (if from Taiwan) or 'Kris' (if from Malaysia). 'ER' stood for Eagle Rider. The other parts of the  bike would spot words like 'Joker', 'Champion' or an abashed 'Chopper'. I've seen one that read 'Chooper'. Later, I found out that the Stingray Grey Ghost model had suspensions and a small front wheel like the original Raleigh Chopper. (See pictures below.)

In 1958 Canada, the Raleigh Chopper was sold for C$59.99. I've never wondered why the Chopper was the Chopper but here it is: In the late 50s, folks started modifying the bicycle with motorcycle parts. They raised the handlebars, put in a banana seat, made the front wheel smaller, the back wheel thicker. All these features were similar to those found on chopper motorbikes.

Vespa cousin
The Chopper design story is quite similar to the other icon of the 70s: the Vespa. That scooter was created out of the vestiges of WWII and was inspired by airplane designs, i.e. the small wheels, single front fork and body casing. These histories remind me of the little boys in my neighbourhood today (more so the Malay boys, I notice). They would take a normal bike and add motorcycle parts like farings and seats to make it look like one. The bike they often use is the China lady bike with a curvy double crossbar. A popular brand is Junqi. The kids would often add an air horn that is powered by an inflated 2-litre softdrinks PET bottle.

First suspension bike
In 1976 when I had moved to another place, I wanted a Chopper but my dad bought me another bike instead. This bike was one of the first to have front and rear suspensions, and had a flatter but curved banana seat (which looked more like a stretched piece of naan). So maybe it should have been known as the bike with the naan seat. It'd cost $160 back then. I liked its modern copper-orange color but that bike was very heavy to carry, partly due to the fact that even its front wheels had drum brakes. The new suspension springs and thicker than normal tires added to the weight as well. It was indeed a mountain bike kind of mountain bike even before people even knew about mountain bikes. Plus it had those Scrambler bike handles, a precursor of those used in BMX bikes). Besides the term 'scramber', these bikes were known as motorcross ones as well. In any case, I loved my Scrambler bike as much as I loved my Mini bike. It was indeed able to handle riding in the mud very well.

As I got my mountain bike, my brother got his Raleigh racer, which my dad had bought from an old bike shop in Joo Chiat Road. For a long time, this shop still had a Chopper bike promotional sign hanging in its lobby from its heydays in the 70s. It could still be there - if the shop had not sold out and become another sleazy karaoke joint in the area.

Restoring Choppers
Sometime in the early 2000s, I was itching to hands-on again and so decided to start a hobby restoring Raleigh Choppers - perhaps as compensation for missing out on owning one. And to start, I needed an old bike to restore.

At the time, I knew reconditioned Chopper bikes were being sold at a shop along Bukit Merah near that famous seafood restaurant. I say 'reconditioned' because not all the bikes there came with proper parts. Some had new types of brakes, some had new tires without the famous Chopper signature color band at its side. They sold for between $700-$1200. I left that shop feeling disappointed and even more determined to do a better job than they did restoring the classic Chopper. What a travesty their efforts were to this icon!

Little did I know that finding spares would be a problem. A huge problem, actually. But first, I had  to find an old bike to begin the process of restoration. I found one abandoned in a dilapidated house near Keong Siak Road one day after a business meeting. Talk about fate!

A girlfriend had a van, so it was quite convenient for me to cart it away. The bike was in moderate condition. There was rust where the parts were chrome before, but still, all the nuts were original. They bore the letter R - a sure sign that this was indeed an original Raleigh bike.

The body of the bike must have been red or orange-red before it become sundried into a rust color. All the  Chopper parts were there: the gear-change lever, the rear book rack, the red reflector spot behind the seat, the tires with the red trim, and the grab bar behind the seat. All were there except for the the white band across the back of the banana seat. I would later replace that from one scrounged from a scrap bike. To my surprise, the gear-change lever worked. But the rear Sturmey-Archer gearhub was stucked; it would need some work I recall telling myself. I've always loved the Sturmey-Archer gear hub and found it superior to the external derailleur used in most bikes now. A Sturmey-Archer is self-contained and needs little  maintenance, so it will last and last. Many bikes from Holland and Japan use them. I still keep an expanded mechanical drawing of the gear hub. It is an astonishing mechanical feat. Presently, someone has gone a step further and invented an auto transmission gear hub for bicycles. It would be sweet to get my hands on one.

Hunting for spares
Restoring the bike was the easy bit. But as mentioned earlier, it was finding the spares that was difficult. But the search was fun and enlightening. I found some great old bike shops and talked to some wonderful shop owners. I also discovered some interesting bikes along the way. At an old shop in Waterloo Street, the owner thought he still had some old tires in his store. He said I could have it for free. He also showed me a real beauty of a bike, an actual Stingray Mini that was modified with the banana seat being supported by two cylinder-suspension units. It was golden yellow in color and had a white seat - all quite similar to that local Mini bike that I had. What a beauty!

At Race Course Road, a bike shop did not have the tires. It had instead some rather retro-looking brake lines.

The owner of a shop in nearby Owen Road was impressed by my effort. I, in turn, was impressed by his range of bikes that were mostly targeted at foreigners with cash to dole out. Among these was a pink Lady Schwinn Stingray Beach Cruiser with matching saddle bags. The owner, like some of the bike shop proprietors I've met or was going to meet, continued to have a love affair with bikes from the 70s even though that era had ended decades ago.

A quaint old shop I came across was located in Lower Delta. Its signboard was hand-painted and still bore a picture of the Chopper. Sadly the old couple there did not have any spares. But they did have an abandoned Chopper on the lawn outside. It was quite a sad and distressing sight. The bike was too far gone to rescue.

A great find/Mini Chopper
I next visited an old shop in Crawford Street, one that I had come across many times while visiting the nearby Golden Mile Food Center (the one with the army-gear shops). They have been there since a long long time ago. If not them, I was wondering, who else would have had some spares left still? Or at least know of someone who did?

At first, I was a bit disappointed because they said they did not deal with the original Raleigh Chopper but with its many imitations instead, i.e. those from Taiwan or Malaysia. But despair soon turned to joy when the lady confided in me that they had found two mint-condition Kiddy Choppers in a dark corner of one of their warehouses. She asked me if I wanted them. I did not even have to see them to say yes, but I said "You have them here?" A rustle at the back and out came the two mini Choppers.

Frankly, for those of you who have not seen the kiddy version of the Raleigh Chopper, I could have sold you on these two little wonders. They were made from Taiwan but were the exact replica of the original Raleigh Chopper sans the gear-change lever. (Because of their smaller size they did not have the rear gear hub, hence the absence of a gear-change lever.)

Plainly put, they each were a mini version of the Raleigh Chopper. Bikes that were sized just right for a 7 or 8 year old as opposed to the 10 or 11 pre-adolescent for the actual Chopper.

The problem was that the actual Raleigh kiddy Chopper did not look anything like its big brother. It was pretty ugly, to be honest. So, these two Taiwanese-made clones were pretty special. They were then, and even more so now. These two cute bikes even had those colorful handle tassels that the original Chopper came with. How disbelievingly accurate was that? And how cool that they are now mine?

So I quickly said yes and brought the bikes home. They had no problem fitting inside my big Hyundai van.

In the end, I kept one bike and sold the other to a fellow avid collector. Needless to say, he was over the moon with it. But he was quite the grateful fellow and gave me a few stick-on Raleigh badges that were of  the present-day design but yet reminiscent of the original ones - just in case the old badges were too damaged to be restored.

Modified bikes
How did I know what the actual Kiddy Chopper bike looked like? I researched on the Web and also found one at an old bike shop in Syed Alwi Road. This bike shop reminded me of the old shops in Geylang. In fact the building itself reminded me of those in my old neigbourhood. Further down the road were more bike shops. Talking to the customers, I soon found out that these shops made a thriving business out of modifying normal bikes to run on gas. This was before e-bikes became popular or had more models for consideration. Their modified bikes could go at speeds of more than 70 kph! Quite dangerous given that these bikes were not meant to run that fast nor had the disc brakes to do the braking job effectively. And as I witnessed later along Lavender Street, the bike chain would snap when the bike ran at top speed. Some poor shod could be walking around with his toes missing or foot mangled!

A chrome beauty
Probably the most interesting bike shop I came across was in Balestier. It was in the same row of shophouses as the famous tau sar piahs. The owner was a middle-aged man who also serviced motorbikes. He wore a singlet and his arms were greasy and oil-stained. When we got to talking about Choppers his tired eyes became animated. He took me inside his shop and stopped amid a row of new bikes. One bike was covered by fuzzy plastic. He threw that back. Underneath was a shiny and sparkling Raleigh Chopper all plated in chrome! CHROME!??

A Raleigh Chopper fully chromed? Yes, that was how much an owner loved his bike. He even bought it a rather swanky gear-change lever from Holland. Now, how sweet is that?

New generation Chopper
In 2004, twenty-five years after the original Raleigh Chopper ended production, a new Chopper was introduced. It was one of the most anticipated bicycle launches ever. But I found it a disappointment. It had a simulated banana seat (a normal bike seat with an added extension to give it a banana profile) and the gear-change lever was located on the handlebars instead of the old place. The reasons they gave were for modernity and safety, but i think they missed a chance to create an Apple moment, you know, when the masses would go gaga over a one-of-a-kind product. If you want to create an original again, don't fiddle with the parts that people loved most about it. Enhance them instead. This, they did not do.

Whenever I see a chopper bike, I am reminded of my friend LH and the circumstance in which he got his bike. I am also reminded of the different dads we both had. I've often wondered what if our places were switched, how his father would reward me with my good school results. But then again, if you were not made to aim high, you could hardly leave the ground. So, in a way, I am glad to have a demanding father. But for sure, I wished he had, that semester, patted me on the back and said "Well, son, you've tried your best. Now go enjoy your new Raleigh Chopper!" Ta-da! Unveiling my reward with a flourish. Haha, that was good for a  grin and fake cherish of a moment. With my dad, it would never happen. I would just have to study harder. And that, I suppose, would be his not-so-great legacy for me.

Next story: Unforgettable Teachers; Who designed the Chopper? http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/i-designed-the-chopper-argues-cambridge-inventor/03035

(Next to the Tomawan pix (2nd, below) was a pristine original Chopper I saw in a shop in Waterloo Street in 2012)

My Tomawan Chopper kid bike was probably copied after Raleigh's Tomahawk (see below). 
But I think I still prefer the Tomawan. It's more faithful in design to the original Chopper! This one
was spotted at the Children Little Museum, Singapore. (The hump design of the seat is to prevent the bike from tilting back, a danger complained by parents.)