Shopkeeper

This year, I am…77 or 78 years old. Agar-agar. I am the same age as auntie here. We are both born in the Year of the Cow, about 80 years old la.

What I do now is to jaga this shop. This shop belongs to the family. It was bought by my husband. Now that he has passed away, I am looking after it. This shop has been here for 37 or 38 years, since 1979. This shop used to be at Ah Ba Koi (Albert Street) before it moved here. It was open for nearly a hundred years before it moved here. Since my husband was 20 years old…. until he moved here.

It used to be a traditional Chinese medicine hall in the past. We can only sell proprietary medicines now. Ah, the ready-made ones. In the past, my husband ran the traditional medicine hall, now that he has passed away, I can’t really do that, so we sell the ready-made ones. My daughter-in-law comes to help out, she goes to buy the medicine, and sets the prices. What I do now is to watch the shop, yes watch the shop. I’ve watched the shop for 14 or 15 years, since 2001.

(Neighbour and her toddler walk past) Toddler: Auntieeeeee!

(Replying the toddler) Oh, hello, hello! Byebye, byebye…

(Turning back to the interview) It’s been 14 years…jaga 14 years already. Do I like this job? Where else could I go? If I don’t do this, there’s nowhere else to go. I’m used to doing this work already. If I sell this property, there would no road to walk. This shophouse of mine – it’s worth 2 to 3 million now, okay! We bought it for 450,000.

(Speaking to her friends) Ah! The two sisters that came the other day to visit me were my second and third sisters. Yes, I’m the eldest.

(Turning to eldest son, who is helping a customer) Ah yes, the four dollar one. Take the four dollar one for her.

(Turning back to interview) If my children are free they will come find me. If they’re not free, then it cannot be helped. Yeah, I jaga – I’m so free, otherwise where can I go? I don’t know how to do anything else. It’s not a bad living! I have a whole load of friends who come by and talk to me. Whatever I can do, I’ll do it. My daughter-in-law comes by to help me order more stock, set the prices…otherwise there’s no one who can help, and I don’t know words mah.

I open the shop daily at 8am. My youngest son comes to help me. Then I’ll look after the shop from then on. There’s no fixed time for closing the shop, it depends. Some days it’s about 7pm, other days it’s about 8pm. If we’re free earlier, then we’ll close earlier, if we’re free later then we’ll close later, there’s no definite timing, it’s our own decision.

I’m so old already, you know. Why shouldn’t I like this job? If I don’t like it, where else can I go? I have plenty of friends here. Even the Malays and Indians; everyone treats me well. The Indian kids who walk past, they will always greet me every time they pass by. Even the angmohs will greet me. They call, auntie! every time they see me. Everyone treats me well. I’ve lived here for so long mah. Familiar mah. I’ve lived here for more than thirty years now. What’s there to dislike? There’s nowhere else to go. If we have things to sell, we’ll sell, if there isn’t, then so be it. If people come to buy things, we’ll give them what we have. If nobody comes, then it’s fine. I’ll do what I can.

If nobody comes to buy things or sit with me, I’ll nod off in the afternoons. People ask, Ah Soh, aren’t you scared people will steal your things? I tell them, hey these things aren’t gold, you know! It’s only paper products, if they want it, they can take it! There was once I was on the ladder, placing offerings to pehkong on the altar, a man walking past took some stuff and just walked off! When I came down the ladder and saw that, I chased him to the back, and I asked him, hey! how come you can take my things and don’t pay for them? “I forgot”, he said. I said, you forgot? You take my things you don’t need to pay for them ah?

But no, these things don’t happen very often. The more valuable things, we’ll keep it in the glass cabinets, the more inexpensive ones, we’ll just leave them outside – these are cheaper mah. Never mind one lah. I’m just one person, I have to jaga so many things. And sometimes I have to go to the toilet at the back too. What can I do? If no one is around and people take things, we won’t know either. It’s something we can’t help. If they want it they are free to have it lor. These are all inexpensive things lah!

I also have to cook rice. When I cook rice and dinner my son comes over to watch the shop. When I have to wash the floor, I’ll wake up earlier to do it. I wake up at about 5am or 6am every day. After I wake up, I’ll boil the water, brew the coffee, wash my face…wipe the tables… clean the house until my youngest son comes. My youngest son comes at about 7am, then we go to the market to buy vegetables. Every day lah. After we come back from buying the vegetables, then he’ll carry the vegetables up. After that, then he’ll help me to open the shop. So after he opens the shop he’ll go off to work. It’s like that lor. Every day it’s like that. In the night he’ll come to eat dinner, then he’ll help me to close the shop. After that he will go home. So after I open the shop at 8am, there’s nothing else to do lor. So it’s just sitting here to wait for people to come and buy things lor.

All kinds of people come to buy things. Malays, Indians… all of them. What they want, I just take for them. All these items have their prices labelled on them mah. Some of the people who come to buy things, a few of them are old people. My daughter-in-law has written the prices on all these items, so what they want, I’ll just take it for them. So a few of them, very patuk one-

(An old friend passes by) Ah Soh! How are you?

(Replying) Oh hello!

(Turning back to the interview) Some of them, what it costs, they will just give the exact change to you. The people here are so nice, the Malays and Indians too…There was this Indian lady, I gave her 20 cents change, she refused! She said, “No need la; here Ah Soh, this 20 cents, it’s for you,” and she just left!

And then there was one day, I gave the wrong change to this lady, you know. I was supposed to give her $1 as change, instead I gave her $2, the note was stuck together. When she found out, she came all the way back to return me the money! She said, Ah Soh, you gave me the wrong change in the morning. The people here treat me very well.

But there are also bad people here. The people next door lor, you don’t know ah. They keep quarrelling. No la, it’s nothing much, now it’s nothing already… They said my son-in-law stares at them, and then they started quarrelling. Now there’s no more quarrelling, nothing already…The police, government people, big people, they all came leh. They told me, auntie, don’t bother about them. They keep trying to bully me, but the police said don’t bother with them. You just run your business and they run their business…It’s best if we just ignore them.

I’m just worried that my youngest son gets into a fight with them again. When my eldest son is around, they don’t dare to try anything. When my youngest son comes, they’ll keep staring at him. There was once, I was sitting with my friends here and then they called the police. If I talk to my friends, they call the police. If we talk too loudly, they call the police. If we walk past and bump into them, they call the police. Whole day calling the police! But the police know what kind of people they are. Every time the police come, I ask them, I don’t disturb them, why do they keep disturbing me like that? The policemen tell me, Ah Soh, just don’t pay them any attention! This happened last year only.

This didn’t use to happen in the past. In the past the people here were all very nice, there weren’t such bad people. The Ah Soh next door last time, she ran a provision store, we were good friends. Then she rented the place out to another lady who sold clothes. This lady who sold clothes… In the past, every time I would buy bread and brew coffee and invite her over to join me. There was once she came back to visit me with her husband. Bought this cake, which was in such a big box! The box was this big! But since there was no one around, I couldn’t finish it, so I shared it with all my friends here. My friends were all so happy. She’s since shifted away. My eldest son brought me to their new shop before. They are still running the business. No, they are much younger than me. It wasn’t so long ago la. Last year, I think. They have bought a condominium already eh. Oh, her name is called, what is it… Irene la. Yes, Irene.

Yes, my sons and grandchildren come over to help. When they are free they will come to help. If my eldest son is free he will come to help, if he isn’t he won’t come lor. And then my grandson, Ah Zhong, if he is buying something to eat, he will buy me a share too. He will come by for a while and then go back home.

Aiyah…sitting here to watch the shop is good la. I have so many friends here. If not, go where? Other people ask me, why don’t you rent out your shop? Every month you can make a few thousand dollars. I tell them, hey I don’t need the money eh. This whole morning, I haven’t even spent a cent! What am I going to do with a few thousand dollars? Earn what money? This shop is fully paid up! If we can sell things and pass the days it’s good enough, no need to earn any more money.

Every year, we have to pay $3,000 as a license to run the shop, I pay this amount myself leh. Every month my sons and daughters give me some money, everyone gives me some money, the $3,000 I pay it myself ma, never mind one. I don’t run the business to make money. No, I just run this business to pass the days…until? Until I die lor. I don’t know when I’ll die. I don’t know when I will go back.

Don’t like? Where else is there to go? I don’t have other things I want to do. My legs hurt, even walking to the market hurts me! But I’m used to it already la. And I like it. Can work, just work. Some days the earnings are different. Some days it’s a few tens of dollars, some days it’s a few hundred dollars. It’s not a given. But won’t earn any money one la! Every month hor, utilities are about three hundred dollars. Aiyah! Don’t earn then never mind lor! Small matter. It’s not definite. Some days, I can make a few hundred dollars. Some days it’s more, some days it’s less. It’s our freedom, we only need to pay the utilities and taxes now. The money is put in the bank for them to deduct, and then we will top it up. My eldest son, he gives me money every month. No, don’t tell other people la, I’m telling you only. Just tell them how I sell things, and how it’s more for fun la…the fun stuff, that’s good enough.

Yes, I can still go marketing. My legs don’t hurt la, they just ache. I’ll walk a bit, and rest a bit. I went to see the doctor once. The doctor tells me, it’s simply like that when people get old, there’s nothing he can do either. There’s no way to make things better. The doctor…I asked him if he could inject some medicine in, and he says there’s nothing he can do. He says even his own legs ache! The doctor is in Whampoa, the traffic light there. He doesn’t work as a doctor anymore…so now I just go to the one around the corner. Every month it costs only about $20. There are 3 clinics here mah.

Definitely it’s better here than compared to Ah Ba Koi! Our shop at Ah Ba Koi was just a small bit, so narrow! It was so tiny, a small bit only! And there were other people living upstairs. There were chu-chus living upstairs.

There were so many shops at Ah Ba Koi – they all closed down, and we were one of the only ones left. Each household got compensated $30,000 eh. The government offered us money, compensation of $30,000, but we didn’t take their money. We asked them to give us a house instead, we’d rent it from them. That suited us. So when we moved out, they gave us $500 for transport. If we didn’t want the house, then it’s $30,000. Everyone there took the money, but we didn’t want the money. If we had taken the money, we wouldn’t have had the house. We had so many relatives, you know. My husband and his siblings: there were four brothers, plus my share, five shares in total…$30,000. If we had divided the money up: $5,000, $6,000 a person, there wouldn’t be much left, we wouldn’t even have had a house to stay in! So choosing to take a shophouse was better. We rented this shophouse for a few years first, before the government sold it to us.

The money to buy this shop…we borrowed some of it from my brother-in-law. He lent us $100,000. He lent that to us and we paid in back three years later. He earned that money from his business. He was in the electrical supplies business – wires, generators; electrical stuff la. He lent us the money because we had helped him once. When my brother-in-law first started his business, he needed $10,000, but he only had $2,000 in savings. How was he going to get the remaining $8,000? Who would be willing to lend that kind of money? So in the end, my husband and I lent him the money to start his business first. I had saved some money from working as a seamstress mah.

I worked as a seamstress for very long la. Easily ten years. We’d sew up the buttons on the dresses, and deliver them in the evening, once we were done. One batch, we could earn $1, one day we would do a few batches. One batch was about 12 pieces. One day we could do 2 or 3 batches, and earn $2 or $3 a day. Me and my mother, we had been doing this for years. I had saved about $3,000, $4,000 from sewing dresses. So when my brother-in-law said he needed some money, I went to ask my husband, and said: “Ah Lau eh, why not let’s help your brother, let’s pool our money so we can help him do his business.” My husband came out with $3,000, I came out with $5,000, to help my brother-in-law with his business. In the end, his business earned so much money, so that he could lend us $100,000 later, when we bought the shophouse over from the government! He could do this because he was earning a lot by this time. It was because we had helped him – he would always remember that. My husband said I was a good sister-in-law, the best sister-in-law, to help his brother this way. Just the best!

I moved here when I was 43, or 42 years old – when we moved here my youngest son was only 12. So all my children were born by this time, yes… When we moved here, the government gave us $500. We moved all our things here in this big lorry. Ah Tong, his father had a huge lorry. You must know Ah Tong right? You don’t know Ah Tong? Well, Ah Tong’s father drove lorries for people, a big, big lorry! He helped ferry our things over. And then also…whose lorry? Ah yes, my brother’s lorry. My brother worked for other people. A big lorry too, to carry our things. For no cost, you know…because he drove the lorry for people on weekdays mah, and it was the weekend.

My husband didn’t want to teach his children the trade hor. He wanted them to study properly, then go out to get a good job. He wanted them to become doctors, but they couldn’t make it, otherwise he would have wanted them to be doctors. Working in this Chinese medicinal hall business isn’t going to get you anywhere, okay. It isn’t a prestigious job. He had worked since he was 20 years old in this business, with nothing to show for it. Doesn’t even have a car!

What did my husband do last time? He set bones, tui hands and tui legs, looked at the throat; he could do anything, he could diagnose any part of the body. He was a sinseh mah…

Teach me? Why would he teach me? What’s there to teach! I barely know half a word, what’s there to teach! I was already so busy looking after the kids, could barely look after all of them, teach me what! Yeah lah, it’s because I didn’t go to school. I don’t even know my own name, what’s there to teach me! (good-natured background laughter from friends)

I didn’t have any money to go to school ma. My father and mother didn’t have money. They fished, ran a farm. They were Malaysians, how to study? My siblings knew a few more words than me. I don’t know why I couldn’t learn words. That’s just how I was born, I guess. I came from China ma. I was about 10 when I came from China. We stayed in Penggerang. When my brothers and sister were born I looked after them lor.

When I married my husband…his people introduced us. His own kinsmen who were living near me introduced us. You think it’s so easy, to go to school? No la, we were very busy one la, where got time to learn to write…I don’t know how to do other kinds of things. These items here, they are all assembled and packaged already. It’s so simple to sell them. We just need to set the price only.

If I were to do other things, I wouldn’t know how to do them. Where else could I go? I don’t like to stay at home. I like to sit outside here, and see people. So many friends come and talk to me. You see, auntie here is my age eh. The two of us are good friends. So I sit out here, and do a little bit, do what I can, so the days are better to pass. If you don’t do any work, your legs and hands will spoil very quickly. Those old folks pushing carts at the market…they’re as good as dead! Their legs and hands will spoil very soon, they won’t be able to walk.

Do their jobs? (cursing, in disgust) HOU LAI AH, may it rain heavily! If they’re happy to do those kinds of jobs let them! They’re lazy. A few of them don’t even want children or grandchildren! Huh, how is that any good?

If you love people, they will love you too. Look at one of my grandsons: because I love him, he keeps buying food for me to eat. He says, Ahma, it’s because you care for me, that’s why I care for you in return, and buy food for you to eat. That’s good you know. Look, he is so wise! As a person…if you’re bad to people, people will be even worse to you! Do you understand that?

I’ll sit here until I pass away. Until I pass away, and then it’s done…everyone here is good to me. We all know each other. They all come here to buy things from me, even those people living quite far away. When they come, they tell me, Ah Soh, you’re such a special person. When you treat people well, they will treat you well.

All the people and the shops which used to be here, they have all gone. There’s only me and Ah Koong left, the provision shop at the end. The shops, they have all sold them off and gone away. So next door…there used to be a chak tiam, they sold paint, and the other shop there, they used to sell…well now they sell cakes and coffees. The people and the shops have changed, all changed completely.

Yeah so this place… it’s a quiet place. Not a lot of people pass through here. Move elsewhere ah? You wouldn’t recognise anyone there, it would be even worse. Every person here, I’m familiar with. Chinese and Malay…so many people here that I know. And there are Indians too. All of them here are my good friends. I’m the big sister here! All the old ladies here, they love to come by and sit down. Even those who live in landed properties now, they’ll come here and visit me sometimes. And if I have food in the house, I’ll take some and share it with them. All of the people who come and sit are good friends. If they weren’t good friends, they wouldn’t come and sit with me…

Aiyah, when you live together, it’s give and take la. You must be good to people, then they will be your friends. Friends are good, business is good. (laughs) I do this business for fun la.

Singapore, 2016