Sunday 8 February 2015

Scavengers of the rubble

What "treasures' are there for the scavenger of time among the rubble of this demolished shophouse?

THEY are of course, not as glam as your raiders of the lost ark. But they do take away, some treasures -- from sites of demolished shophouses. Well. not all the time, but  often enough to make their efforts worthwhile.

One of my friends, was such a "raider". He would comb through the rubble each time the iron ball had done its work. What were his finds? An old coin or two, an old movie poster (if fortunate), some broken Peranakan wall tiles... some old crockeries. Won't you take me with you the next time you go scavenging, I would plead with him.

That was in the 80s, I haven't received one invitation to go scavenging. And now, this friend has hung up his gloves. He lives happily with his wife, two cats, and the spoils of his labour -- one tattered and torn movie poster of a 60s movie siren (Li Li Hua, I think), a few "antique" coins dating back to the Colonial era, and some old tiles.

A scavenger of time... was he.

4 comments:

streetsing said...

Regretted throwing away all my old vinyl records many years ago thinking they were obsolete. Recognized the buildings, the last shophouse was once a provision shop. Next to it was some blacksmith shops:)

Lo Tien Yin said...

We can buy fhem back from the streetside vendors of Chinatown. Are they still there? Would like to lay hands on some old copies of Southern Screens too :)

streetsing said...

Yes,the vendors are still there especially on saturday. One of the shops on the ground floor of the wet market Smith street sells old vinyl records, mainly Mandarin ones :)

Lo Tien Yin said...

Great. Will pay a visit soom. I hope they still have those old movie magazi nes.