Kulim Nostalgia

William,
Finally found the time to scan the old photos of Kulim and St Patrick's and e-mail them to you. They are all on JPG format and were taken on two occasions, 1983 (when I was visiting Kulim alone) and 1989 (with Stewart). The sleepy hollow of Kulim in the 50s and 60s that we know had not changed by the 1980s and the photos taken then would still reflect those eras. Change to Kulim's landscape started to creep in from the 1990s because of economic development. Some of the changes were reflected in demolishing old houses in the town to erect new buildings, turning many roads into one-way streets, etc. Today Kulim of course looks very much different, to the extent that former residents like us do feel like strangers!I have also enclosed 2 old b & w photos of my childhood days in Kulim. The first is a Class photo (Std V) in 1956 with Lim Thean Poh and our form teacher Teoh Kok Hin.You can see a young James (3rd from left back row) and myself (seated extreme right front row). The second photo was one of the altar boys taken with Father Seliar in 1959 in front of the church. I am 2nd from left back row and you can see James and Francis.The photos of Kulim in a website you referred to (where Stewart came across your e-mail) were actually taken in the 1990s and later, and show the great changes that Kulim had undergone. I find them very interesting, particularly the photos on the old chettiar shop houses in Jalan Raya which had been part of the environment which Stewart and I had grown up.Feel free to put the photos in your blog or peruse them in whatever way you think fruitful.I no longer work full time for any newspaper though I used to be with the Singapore Straits Times for over 10 years. Now I am on my own as a freelancer where I not only string for foreign and local newspapers, but do political risk reports for banks, investments companies, etc. Freelancing is really tough and stressful work, but the tradeoff is that you are your own boss and do what you feel you should be doing and not what the boss tells you what to do (which can sometimes be wrong as most of us have discovered). You get your work published in newspapers by liaising with the editor of the respective paper who pays you a fee usually based on number of words per article. Some papers, the more reputable ones, pay more, others less.I am also working on a PhD thesis from the information I have gathered over the years on Malaysian politics as a journalist, both in Straits Times and as a freelancer. This is part of my eventual retirement plans.You mentioned in your blog that you were born in Singapore. What about your siblings from Gilbert downwards? How did all of you end up in Kulim from 40s up to 60s?
Best wishes and take care,
David

Comment
I remember you from the picture of the alter boys.
Glad you have made it. Congratulations.
William