nostalgic visit to the national stadium

after dropping ida at robinson road, i decided to pay a visit to the national stadium. in june, it will be closed and by august this year, demolition will begin.

the national stadium holds a lot of memories for me. most, pleasant. one, frightening.
it was here that i had to protect my brother when we were caught in a melee. it could have turned into a stampede had the gates been open. we were there to watch the penang-singapore leg of the malaysian cup matches. we had gone early, so we were close to the entrance. as the crowds swelled, those at the back started to get unruly. they started to push and we were literally squashed. i had to use all my strength to make sure that my brother was not pushed down or smothered by the crushing bodies. eventually, we managed to climb over the railings.

during the schools' national track and field meets in the 70s, i used to 'camp' for more than a week at the concourse of the stadium. two of us - sng thai soon and myself - would be released from school to take charge of our athletes. we would spend the whole day at the stadium; going back with the students to the school in the evening.

in the 80s, i would still be there at the stadium for the track and field championships but this time as an official. i was co-opted into the technical committee to take charge of scoring and recording. when the system was computerised, i assisted kok weng to do the same - scoring and recording.

i also spent a lot of time at the stadium when my school - monk's hill secondary - was involved in the flash card display for the singapore youth festival and the national day parade. that year, we lost count of the number of practices we had to attend. most days, we would reach the stadium in the early afternoon and by the time we returned to school and settled everything, it would be way past 11.00 p.m.

when the children were younger, we were also lucky to have had the opportunities to watch the national day parades at the national stadium for at least three years. then it was easier to secure tickets to the parade as i had a number of friends who were attached to ccab (ecac in those days).

i have included a picture of the pwd recreation club. this was where we used to adjourn after our track and field duties. pang lim - he was in nanyang jc then - would always be there with his guitar and his beer.