I don't know what prompted me to search for my primary school through Yahoo! today, but I discovered
1. My primary school (Serangoon Garden South School) was merged with Zhonghua Primary School as of January 2007.
I guess for schools in estates like Serangoon Garden, declining enrollment is inevitable. During my primary school days, we were deadly rivals with the other primary school just across a common field, the North School. Several years after I graduated, the North School ceased to exist. Now, after more than 20 years, it's the South School's turn.
2. A couple of old schoolmates through alumni.net
Two people I had all but forgotten from the school had signed up in alumni.net.
One is a mixed-blood boy by the name of Irving Chan Johnson who dabbled in Wayang Kulit. The other is/was a girl (Angeline Tan Mei Mei) who was perpetually ostracised and bullied by just about everyone, for no rhyme nor reason.
I joined the school mid-term in Primary 2 when I first came to Singapore, not knowing any English nor Chinese. I was bullied mercilessly until I learned to fight back.
That is why remembering Meimei brought back a guilty conscience because once or twice, I also joined in the bullying mindlessly, ignorant of how cruel it was.
I am relieved at least that I could send her an email today to apologize for it.
Actually, I kept in touch with a group of schoolmates after leaving the primary school. We used to have a BBQ together every year until JC. But the circle got smaller and smaller until there was only a distant cousin and another girl I used to have a crush on until secondary school, and then several years after I started work ... I lost their contacts. Last I heard, both had gotten married and had kids ... and couldn't come to my wedding.
From time to time, I used to drive by the area ... and see my old primary school compound from the outside. The last time was last year. It was the first primary school in Singapore to introduce personal computer, the Apple II. It was the first primary school in Singapore to build an aviary. Both were through funds raised by the school.
We were famous then.
Our angklung band was filmed and screened on TV a few times ... and I was in it. Man, recording was tough and tedious and long-drawn.
One of the great thing about the school was its location. Nestled in a corner of the Serangoon Gardens estate, a place full of old world charm, the estate was our oyster, and the pearl in that oyster, to me, was the secondhand bookshop called NIB, from which I indulged myself like crazy.
The estate has changed a lot today. Like everything else in my life, things have moved on.
Nostalgia ... I guess I'm just a sucker for it ...
I've always wondered at that. Singapore schools are forever moving, merging, shifting until;
ReplyDelete1. school names become meaningless
2. alumni feel detached from the spanking new buildings
3. alumni? What alumni. The school's been merged
My old schools in PJ are still there, exactly where I left them eons ago. Same buildings, same field, same squeaky gate, same swaying fences. Interestingly, some of the teachers too are still there. I can still find that carving I made into the wall brick I made over a decade ago. The smells are the same. The headmaster's room still looks just as threatening as when I was 2 feet shorter. The toilets still stink. I dare say my shuttlecock is probably still stuck in the rain gutter on the 2nd storey roof if I really bothered to go retrieve it....
My primary school is still on, it has moved from Emerald Hill to Stevens Road.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, Charlotte is from SCGS then ... anyway, it's one of those schools that'd never be merged.
ReplyDeleteMine is still around, it just got shrunk - from primay and secondary to only primary... Good thing, it is still in the same place, bad thing, the old building is demolished to make way for the new... and now, I cannot find any thing from of old. The only concession is that the convent next door is still in one piece.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess ... you might have mentioned it before but I can't recall ... but from your description ... you were from PLMGS, Centaur?
ReplyDeleteIf you were, guess what, I used to stay just "next door" at Recreation Road, for a couple of years or so.
I go back to my old school sometimes... especially when invited for my old troop's scout campfires. I can't quite identify with the electric guitar playing scouts of today but I love walking the old halls and peeking into my old classrooms.
ReplyDeleteMy Primary School ... no more ...
ReplyDeleteMy Secondary School ... relocated ...
My Junior College ... relocated ...
My undergrad campus in NTU ... relocated ... and renamed ...
My postgrad campus in NUS ... relocated ...
I did that sometime back, just before the bulldozer came for it. Well, at least most of my teachers should be around, they might have retired, but they are tough. In fact I just saw my history teacher about two weeks ago, and yes, she still remembers me.... I wonder how many white hairs I had given her.
ReplyDeleteThe year I enrolled was its Silver Jubilee ... That would mean it was merged a couple of years after its Golden Jubilee ... I moved so many times after PSLE I'm not surprised they couldn't contact me even if they did have a grand celebration then ... I hope they did.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I really wish I could find some of my primary school friends...I wonder if they'd still remember Jia Min...
ReplyDeleteFolks like Ming Xian, Wei Xiang, Xiao Hui...-sigh-
Poi Ching has since relocated from Toa Payoh to Tampines.
I received a reply from MeiMei this morning, the girl bullied by everyone.
ReplyDeleteShe only has a faint memory of me (we were only in the same class in P2, so it's understandable, especially since I was newly arrived in Singapore and in the school then, a lot of things were ... new and different). Mei remembered Irving though, genius in maths.
When I told Snowylady about the 2 people yesterday evening, she shot me a look and says, "Hmmm, what if she wants to steal you? What if she's a billionaire now?"
$$$ flashed across my eyes, but only for a short while ...
"Won't work," I replied, "Look what happened in Death on the Nile."
LOL
ReplyDeleteI tried to search Friendster and Livejournal for my old mates, but all those in the Poi Ching network were either my shi xiong/shi jie or shi di/shi mei. -sigh-
ReplyDeleteI would've just said, "Hell sure... I'll send for you and share half with you once I've fleeced her of her billions."
ReplyDeleteHave you read Death on the Nile?
ReplyDeleteObviously not.
ReplyDeleteI guess Agatha Christe could do with another read.
ReplyDeleteNever read a single one of her books. Couldn't even get through casual browsing of her pages.
ReplyDeleteI am not at all surprised...
ReplyDeleteI narrated some of my primarh school misadventures to Snowylady last evening.
ReplyDeleteTold her that the one person from my primary school I'd not want to meet was this other girl, who, pardon my language, was considered quite a b**** then, that even I was a bit scared of her.
She was fierce, fiery, caustic, bold, aggressive. I was in the same class as her only once, in Primary 4. At that time, the school decided to hold a fancy-dress contest, all entries are voluntary.
While other contestants dressed up as witches, wuxia pugilists, superheroes, she chose to dress in just a shoulderless dress and presented herself as Lady Diana Spencer.
We were in Primary 4, and most of us went like ... who the heck is that?! ... what superpowers does she have? ... is she a character from Enid Blyton ...
Though she wasn't selected to represent the class, word of it went out and for some reason, she made herself a lot of enemies ... among the other schoolgirls ... who started calling her names ... spitefully cruel names ... and her caustic responses doesn't help.
Anyway, though I wasn't in the same class with her anymore, primary school was a small world, especially by the time we're in Primary 6, and we knew most of each other, even those we were never in the same class with.
During one semestrial exam in P6, the P6 form teachers exchanged to mark papers with each other. My P6 teacher cut down the work for herself even further by distributing the papers from another class to us to do the preliminary markings.
And as fate would have it, I got hers ... that girl's ...
So okay, you see, we weren't supposed to tell the person whose papers we marked, even if they're our friends. But subsequently, the next few times I saw her, I couldn't hide giving a stare, with an inward knowing laugh ... it's kind of making a big deal of "I know something about you ..."
But those moments were noticed by her and her friends ... and misunderstood ...
A couple of friends passed a note from her to me ... the long and short of it is asking whether I'm interested in her because of my staring ...
I was just a pre-pubescent boy ... girls were supposed to be yyyeeeehhhh!!!!
To make things worse, my classmates saw the note, one snatched it from me, ran and lock himself in the toilet cubicle to read it thoroughly.
Before the day was ended, I was sure the whole school knew about it, including my younger brothers ... and I was dreading about my parents finding out.
I avoided that girl continuously ... until one day ... she was near me and my embarassment spilled out ... and I yelled at her in front of many other people, "That was a totally idiotic thing you did!!!"
At this juncture of the narration, Snowylady said, "Ouch, that was just ... so ... hurtful ..."
I know ... I know ... I was lashing out in a totally inappropriate manner over something that was ... trivial ...
I never saw that girl again after Primary School.
For several years after PSLE, a group of us would have an annual BBQ ... either at East Coast ... or at someone's house ...
When someone mentioned she might turn up during one particular year's BBQ, I felt a minor panic ... and was somewhat relieved she never did ...
Till today, I don't know what became of her. I don't know whether she changed and became a Mother Theresa ... or an office dowager ... or what ...
Suddenly, I just remembered there is one more boy from the Primary school I need to apologise to ... an Indian boy by the name of Ganesh, whom I teased because he was rather effiminated ... then.
Nostalgia also means reminder of the sins of my youth ...
You had lots of interesting classmates, Snowy. :P
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder how is it like to have boys in the school and in the same class?
ReplyDeleteI came from an all-girls' school.
They give you the same headache as in a all-girls' school...
ReplyDeleteBoys? Hmm...they sure made my primary-school life interesting, fun and of course, a hell of a lot rougher. :D
ReplyDeleteForgot to add.... when a little older, give other kind of trouble - B/G relationships...
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the rest, but I think going to a co-ed school helps to demystify the other gender ...
ReplyDeleteMy problem was, after Primary school, I went to an all-boys' secondary schools, during which girls my age group undergo mysterious transformations and become like totally unfathomable when I meet them again in Junior College ...
I hear'ya bro
ReplyDelete