73. Van Kleef Aquarium was still around...
74. thin foam self assembled aeroplanes, sold in packets (u still can get them in old toy shops in chinatown/ hong lim complex)
small green/red/blue toy soldiers played all over the house and playground
75. We need to rent the house phone from Singtel, blue/red/green
76. Coffee shop with charcoal stoves to heat the water and huge coffee grinder to make coffee powder from coffee beans and they make "real" coffee...My parents used to carry our own teapot to the coffe shop downstairs to buy coffee.
When they roast the coffee beans you can smell the aroma a mile away.
Coffee shops with a section dedicated to making "ba bao" and "tao sa bao" by hand. The baos were steamed on location in those giant bamboo 蒸笼. The coffee shop owner/worker always know where the different types of baos are located. Back then "ba bao" comes in 2 sizes. The small one is $0.20 and the big one is $0.50. The big one has a slice of hard boiled egg buried inthe minced pork filling.
When you buy cai tao guay (fried carrot cake) from coffe shop it is served in a "bowl" made of banana leave. You can choose to bring your own eggs and the hawker will add that to the cai tao guay for you.
77. Night soil carrier. Bucket system especially those in the town area. The buckets were replaced weekly by a man driving a big nightsoil lorry with 36 doors (compartment) for placing the buckets. The assistant would carry two empty buckets balanced on a pole over his shoulder where he would go from house to house to collect the bucket of night soil and replaced it with an empty one.
The left over food in each household were thrown into a empty kerosene tin and they were collected weekly by a swill collector to be used as food for the pigs in the farm. Each year, before Chinese New Year, the swill collector would go around giving out free eggs or chicken to each household as a form of appreciation for the swill given to them the whole year round.
Before the days of kerosene lamps, street hawkers used a kind of lamp with some kind of stone-like chemical in a container. When added with water, the reaction produced a gas which was lighted up and used as a lamp.
78. life in the 70s was not that stressful and people were much more carefree and nicer especially the kampong folks. Remember went trg during army days and asked the kg folks for direction. They gave us coffee and food without us asking. Try knocking on your neighbour's door today and see what you get.
79. 5 cents 10 cents small jelly were the rage
80. motorbikes with side cars
81. 'old school' mini coopers and vespa scooters were a common sight on the roads
82. more people using matchsticks than lighters for lighting their cigarettes.
83. haw par villa was very popular for photo taking sessions with families and tourists alike.
84. cassette tapes and vcr tapes were quite new then...turntables and records were more preferred choice
85. laser discs made its debut but died after afew years
86. german sherpards and goldfish were favorite choices of pets in the 80s
87.plastic swords were popular choice of weapons for the kids, the fanicier the better to make other kids jealous
88. 5 1/4 inch floppy discs were really floppy, prone to fungus/mould attacks
