Memories of primary sch, when we were kids...

Something I got off the net, I can relate to almost all of the stuff listed, haha, nostalgia siah ...

(Mostly adapted and edited from http://www.yearbook.com.sg/, with additional stuff compiled from CNA forums, misc blogs, and google etc)


1) Form teachers could teach English, Maths, Science, Moral Education, and PE as well. Basically, they could teach everything except Chinese.

2) Spelling, dictation, 听写, and 默写 were all part & parcel of life. So was mental sums.

3) Textbooks and workbooks were either by Nespe or PEP.

4) Zero-point (with rubber band rope) was the favourite recess activity for girls. And hop-scotch/catching was the favourite recess activity for boys. 'Twist' was the magic word.

5) Time is not a constant - Recess is the shortest 30-minute period you'd ever find.

6) Every student could lay claim to being a "musician", cos we all learnt to play the recorder and sang songs together in music class.

7) Similary, everyone is a painter. We were multi-talented back then.

8) Debbie Gibson was the original Britney Spears.

9) Michael Jackson was the biggest thing in entertainment. Period.

10) Young Scientist Cards: To attain the badges, we had to earn a certain number of "stars" by completing certain tasks. Most people, including me, always went for the Young Zoologist or Young Botanist badge, cos they were the easiest. The ambitious ones would go for the Young Mathematician badge. (link)

11) The Berlin Wall fell.

12) Move over, Enid Blyton. Roald Dahl was the best writer in the world. Everyone was reading his books, e.g. BFG, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach.

13) But I still loved Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree though. One of the best books I ever read in primary school.

14) We were given a reading card to write down the books we had read, the student with the most books read would be given a prize.

15) The Bookworm books with memorable characters such as Mimi and Sam Seng, and the first Bookworm Club in Selegie Complex.

16) Every now and then during class, we would be told that it was our turn to go down to the school dentist for a checkup. It was many student's most feared moment in pri school, esp of the drill.

17) The school bookshop (well, it was more like a bookstand as it was just a small counter) was a really cool shop which sold really cool stuff, e.g. fancy erasers, fancy pens, fancy paper, etc.

18) "The Shaker" was the coolest mechanical pencil ever made. If you had one, you were cool.

19) The Reebok Pump was a cool invention.

20) After exams, we would bring Uno cards to play in class during free periods. There were also other card games such as Happy Family, Old Maid, etc.

21) WWF wrestling was actually believable. And Hulk Hogan still looks the same today as he did 15 years ago.

22) The telephone was our only source of communication after school. If we needed to ask our classmates something, we actually had to pick up the home phone to make the call.

23) Everyone would have read "The Teenage Textbook" (together with "The Teenage Workbook").

24) And the basketball court never had nets attached to the hoops. Even if it did, the nets never lasted more than 1 week.

25) Michael Chang won the French Open at age 17. And he was Chinese. (Well, American-Chinese...but we didn't know any better at that time.)

26) We could order milk packets to be delivered to our classroom every day.

27) Every guy wanted a "centre-parting" hairstyle, thanks to Aaron Kwok.

28) Pri 6 was an important year. We had our BCG jab, we collected our Identity Cards, and we had to take our first major exam (PSLE).

29) We used to read Young Generation (YG) magazine. There were memorable characters such as Vinny the little vampire and Acai the constable.

30) We also subscribe to 星期五週報.

31) Michael J. Fox was a really cool actor. "Back to the Future" was the greatest trilogy I've ever watched. I once believed Robocop was real too.

32) Teacher's Day was the day which we all did our best to show our love for our teachers, e.g. by making cards, gifts, etc. And it was also the day that our teachers tried their best not to scold any of us.

33) Iraq invaded Kuwait. Suddenly the whole world knew who Saddam Hussein was.

34) Ben Johnson was disqualified in the '88 Seoul Olympics after testing positive for steroids.

35) David Copperfield was the greatest magician who ever lived. Making the Statue of Liberty disappear was the coolest magic trick ever performed. And so was the trick with the two rubberbands.

36) The most popular colour pencils to use were the Colleen brand ones (y'know, the ones with two colours per pencil - one colour on each end, and usually came in boxes of 24 or 48 colours?). And the beige colour end was always the most heavily used, because that was the colour we needed to colour humans.

37) Autograph books were cool. Before leaving school in Pri 6, you'd pass your autograph book around the class so that everyone could write mushy stuff in it for keepsake, such as "Best Wishes", "Forget Me Not", and small poems like "Bird fly high, hard to catch. Friend like you, hard to forget". Or stuff like: FRANCE = Friendship remains and never can end/ITALY = I trust and love you.

38) Vanilla Ice's big hit was Ice Ice Baby. M.C. Hammer had U Can't Touch This, and C & C Music Factory had Everybody Dance Now.

39) The word "crush" only had one meaning back then, i.e. to break an object into smaller pieces. Apparently, some girls were aware of another meaning to the word.

40) The English Premier League wasn't as popular as it is today. But everyone knows who Man U (and Eric Cantona) is.

41) The school conducts weekly teeth brushing sessions along the school drain.

42) Once in a while, we are issued red chewy pills that reveal the presence of plague.

43) On Sundays, it's Smurfs at 9am, CareBears at 9.30 and HeMan at 10am.

44) I watched some of the first SBC (the old mediacorp) serial dramas, like Wo Shuo Nang Yang, Qing Chun 123, Hong Tou Jing, Fei Yue Yin He (with Chen Xiu Huan as the cute alien), Xi Ban (with Xiang Yun), Fei Yue Dian Feng (the volleyball show with Xiu Huan and Chen Li Ping)

45) Some of the most memorable children show includes Sesame Street, the Electric Company, Xiao DD, and Xiao Bai Chuan. You'll learn to laugh like the Count or Ernie in Sesame Street. (I can still sing the theme song of Xiao Bai Chuan! :D)

46) The coolest pencil cases are those with lots of button 'spring-out' pencil sharpeners, magnifying glasses, etc. Or those that looked like a robot with compartments in the arms and legs.

47) The teacher punishs naughty students by using a ruler to hit their palms, or making them stand on chairs.

48) There are so many games we used to play that we don't play now, like 5-stones, chapteh, gu-li, curry yong tau hoo, pepsi-cola 1-2-3, kuti kuti, etc.

49) Boys use rubberbands with folded paper bullets to shoot at girls.

50) The Van Kleef Aquarium

51) We practised 'cursive writing'

52) We use ink eraser, sometimes rubbing holes into the pages of our exercise books (no liquid paper back then).

53) Our shoes have to be whiten regularly whenever it gets dirty, using the white bottle paint. However, some of us lazy ones would use chalk instead.

54) Envelopes given to us to donate to Sharity Elephant every Children's Day

55) You longed to buy tibits called Kaka, Tora and Ding Dang, that had a toy in it and it changes every week. And chewing gum was not banned!

56) You see President Wee Kim Wee's face in the school hall.

57) Class monitors and prefects loved to say "You talk somemore, I write your name ah!"

58) You either 'friend' someone or 'dun-friend' someone.

59) We had to learn the national pledge in our mother tongue.

60) Boys would also shoot ice crushed in the mouth using straws.

61) We went on class excursions to the stinky zoo and birdparks.

62) Short-sighted friends wear glasses that covers half the face.

63) Movies costs only $3.50, and we makan kachang puteh instead of popcorns in the cinema.

64) The innocent Britney Spears on Mickey Mouse club on tv.

65) Toys like Lego, tamiya cars, and Transformers were the coolest stuff we wish to own.

66) On National Day, we get the little national flag with candy in the transparent 'flag pole'.

67) You were one of the first to try the new MRT system that runs only from Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh, after pestering ur parents. Then you'd stand on the seats to look out at the scenery.

68) Large waterbottles are a must to bring to school, usually sling across the body or around the neck.

69) We bought bus stamps for our bus pass which actually had to be licked to be pasted on (before the sticker version).

70) Famous Chinese singers were only Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai. Aka the 4 heavenly kings.

71) Handkerchiefs were a must for both genders, no one has tissue paper packs back then.

72) Non-aircon buses with wooden seats and red cushions, where there's a long black rubber stripe on the ceiling which you can press as a bell; where the windows take alot of effort to push open coz the grooves are always trapped full of dirt and grime.

73) The Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Famous Five and Secret Seven.

74) Library cards that had to be manually written and slot into the books when we loan them.

75) Civics and Moral Education was “Hao3 Gong1 Min2”.

76) Teachers will check your fingernails or hair to see if they are too long. Suay ones will kenna free cut from school.