Playground Hunt

Googling for old playgrounds and chanced upon this article.

As the treasure chests of our childhood memories, playgrounds can be anchors, binding a person emotionally to a place.

They are where we learnt to play with our neighbours from other races before we even started school.

Want to stem the brain drain? Forge a Singaporean identity? We need more than old shophouses and museums.

Call me uncultured, but cracked pots in a museum don't excite me.

I want heritage to celebrate, not just contemplate.

Give me a piece of history I can jump on, swing from, slide off, where I can bury treasure in the sand - not something to worship in a humidity-controlled glass case.

Most of all, give me heritage without the hefty price tag.

Because of the need to be financially viable, places of heritage often become, after conservation, inaccessible or unwelcoming to the very people who made it what it was.

Look at Clifford Pier. Who will go to its luxury retail and dining outlets when the place reopens in September?

Not the old boatmen, for sure.

A playground, however, can be different. It can bring heritage into the heartlands. It will be heritage anyone can identify with. Entrance will be free.

I MUST find one.

Let me know if you know of any.

And yes. Clifford Pier. Yet another sai revamp project.

Do you remember Satay Club? And the old water fountain near Satay Club? I think cherubs were all over the fountain, but I don't remember very well anymore. And I don't know who to blame. My already not too bad memory or the fact that I actually have to remember all these things because they will no longer be around in a blink of the eye.

Sometimes I am resigned to the country's urge to constantly "progress". And then there are times when I think of what has been lost and I get pissed off.

Cos plastic slides are really shitty. And I fucking miss the giant creaking merry-go-rounds.