Memories of a Nonya...

The sundries you can get from the Kaka Shop In the 60s, there was a ubiquitous provision shop situated at the junction of Lorong 40 and Siang Lim Park. This Mama Shop was owned by an Indian Muslim family. We called the shop Kaka Shop. The minute one stepped into the shop, the scents of numerous spices, curry, ginger, cardamom and salted ikan kurau wafted around the shop. Distracted with the smell, you are met with an assembly of glass jars filled with assorted biscuits like: Marie biscuits, lemon puff filled with lemon flavoured cream and cream crackers. Also on display would be different types of kana in red, black and even green and different types of sweets. Sacks of rice in different grades and a smaller sack of sugar were arrayed nearby.  An old hand-held weighing scale would be placed carelessly on a glass panel. Sundry goods were also on displayed and dusty tins of talcum powders were lined up for sale. Remember archaic brands like Cuticura and Yardley? ...

I lived in Siang Lim Park all my life until the 80s. It was a pre-war house with two bedrooms, a living room and a dining room and a kitchen. Our roof leaked all the time when there was a heavy downpour. The electricity was all wired up and complicated and we were warned that there could be a short circuit anytime or even a fire. And our bathroom had no door. It was broken. So anyone who wants to take a bath had to do so without any doors. In the evening, there was a blind frog that was stationed at the toilet. He would be minding his own business except that he would try hard to hop and would be hitting his head on the toilet wall because he could not see. It was funny as a little child to be bathing and seeing this funny blind frog doing his hip-hop performance. The kitchen was an interesting place. It was a busy place as you can hear the rhythmic pounding of the rempah, the smell of red onions peeled, the smell of burnt belacan and the sweet waft of cooked rice. 

In the early 60s, my aunt who lived with us would have the same regime every afternoon. At 3 pm sharp, after pounding the chillies and the bawangs and cooking a sumptuous Peranakan lunch for everyone, she would take a cold bath. The cold bath was to dip an old empty Lam Soon tin into a barrel of cold water. There was no water heater at that time. If one was sick, a kettle of boiled water would be poured into the barrel for a warm bath.  For her make up regime, she would whip out her favourite foundation which was of course Hazeline Snow . The promise was that just a little ‘Hazeline’ would brighten one’s complexion. She would smother a blob of snowy white textured cream on her face and presto! The ‘snow’ would soften her skin making her skin fair and ‘brightened’. She would spend a little time wrapping her sarong, put on her kebaya and kerosang carefully and as a finale, dab a pinch of Evening in Paris onto her earlobes. It would be off to meet up with her cronies. Her frie...