When Time Stood Still in Orchard Road 50 Years Ago

This old photo of Orchard Road in Singapore for over 60 years ago curated from the National Archives of Singapore, with courtesy and acknowledgement, is unrecognizable today.

Is this the real or "reel" place in Singapore which ever existed?  Surreal ... time stood still only possible with the archived photos.

If visitors to Singapore had not seen the same place the last time so many decades ago, the memories of a place would be "frozen" in their mind.

Is this the real or "reel" me in a passport photo taken in 1971?  My classmate in secondary school over five decades ago have not met me again in person.  His last memory of my appearance or how I look was only remembered from my recent Facebook profile photo and immediately recognised me.  Time stood still for us on our encounter on Facebook, but not in real life.  Few Facebook friends knew me from my earlier profile photo when I was 10-years-old.  Surreal.  Its fun to play the fool with the avatar photos on Facebook ; )

At least I had an old classmate who recognize me and time stood still for me like Rip Van Winkle.

For the benefit of visitors to Singapore the last time about fifty years ago and remembered Orchard Road as time stood still on these "bloglet" archived photos. Have fun!

Hotel Singapura Intercontinental  c  1960s

The century-old Presbyterian Church Singapore  c  1950s

Photo taken outside Orchard Road Market  c  1950s

Orchard Road in the 1950s. On the right is the vertical signboard of Pavilion Theatre.

On the right is the Orchard Road Market beside Cold Storage (CSC)  c  1950s.

Glutton's Square opposite Cold Storage  c  1950s

The hawker stalls at Glutton's Square runs at night.  Photo below taken in the late afternoon.

Singapore as a global city, a metropolis to attract tourists by the hundreds and thousands from all over the world.  Time does not stand still for the world, for Singapore. Fond nostalgic memories stored in our personal "memory banks" for everyone.  Memories are not time-specific as captured in these old photos of Orchard Road to share with our heritage friends.  Same place.  Different times.  Different memories.

My blogger friend, Jerome Lim, brings us to Orchard Road, Singapore "the magical sea of light at Christmas" here .

Photo Credit:  Jerome Lim with thanks

Jerome Lim is the creator of "The Long and Winding Road" blog about "people, places, events, words and images that have left an impression on me along the long and winding road …"

"Life is certainly a journey that all of us take. We are richer from the experiences that we have had, the people that we have met, and the places that we have visited. This blog navigates through the long and winding road taken in the journey that is my life, pausing at experiences, events, places and people that have shaped my view of life and of the world;  that have made me who I am; and that I have lasting impressions and memories of …"

He is also the prolific creator of the "On a little street in Singapore" group on Facebook, a place which heritage fans, young and old, revive the nostalgic memories of  Singapore.  "A place for all to share memories and experiences of that Singapore before the invasion of the skyscrapers, shopping malls and more recently the super modern resorts of Marina Bay and Sentosa ..."

This is an unsolicited introduction to Jerome Lim through our regular blogs and his Facebook group.

Jerome and I share the passions and memories of Singapore as Memory Corps volunteers of the Singapore Memory Project  since 2011.  

Our similarities ends here.  Same, same ... but different!

We are from a different era, different time-frame growing up in Singapore.  Jerome is nearer to my childrens' generations when they were born.  How then our perspective, our views on our historical memories be the same?  In the same token as my parents and myself have undergone the social transformation of Singapore after the Japanese Occupation periods.

Nevertheless, we share the same bonding fraternities when time stood still in Singapore ... with "memory aids" and "virtual time-machines" as we blog on to share with our heritage friends and fans.  Keep it up!