Have you encountered these hawkers?

 The Soya Sauce Hawker

I recall another hawker specialising in soy products such as sauces and soya bean paste and fermented soya beans. He had a comprehensive range of sauces from light to dark and sweet to savoury, varying in quality, quantity and price. He also carried a number of fermented soya bean items. These were probably sourced in bulk from factories here, and possibly in Malaya, and re-packaged into quantities more suited for home consumption. His weekly visit was much anticipated. Apart from replenishing the normal soy stock in homes, housewives would seek him out for his special selection of soya items which housewives believed to be far superior to those produced by factories. He had personally created these speciality items and they were touted to be far superior in taste and flavour. I was quite fascinated in the the way he dispensed the sauces.  He had a pump to siphon varying amounts of the sauces into bottles handed to him by the housewives, or provided by him at an additional charge. Another feature about this vendor was that he was always garbed in navy blue and wore a straw hat.

Mobile tea vendor

Another colourful figure commonly seen in my area (Farrer Park) was the mobile tea-vendor. He was an elderly Indian man, and only one of its kind. Understandably, he had no competitors, as I can hardly imagine anyone wanting to be engaged in what he was doing.

He went round carrying a large pot of hot tea and also several glasses to dispense his tea. His contraption was unique: to keep the tea hot, a small improvised charcoal stove was attached to the base of the large tea kettle.

As he was carrying the kettle around the park, he had to ensure that the stove was properly secured, to prevent himself and people in the park from being scalded. He provided the unique service of dispensing hot tea to excited football spectators in the park, I am sure they would not be bothered about returning the glasses to him. That was another part of this work, as he had to go round the huge field to retrieve his glasses.

It was not a business that would generate a big income as the volume was determined by the amount of tea the pot could hold (which was not very much!). I doubt he could go back to prepare another pot and return to the park.

The Peep-hole Movie Cart

A very unique service provided by a hawker whose visit was much anticipated by children was what I would term as "peep-hole movie". It was essentially a cart mounted with large box usually hexagonal in shape with as many as a dozen peep holes around it. A projector to show coloured  slides was mounted on the cart, and children would be charged to view the slides. 

He would have a collection of various types of slides and some of the "shows" he offered were close to animated films. Those were the days when video technology was perhaps at an infant stage, and to the children, that was as close to watching a movie as they could get.

To them, the "hawker uncle" was a much anticipated visitor. The hawker had built a good rapport with the children and he was fully aware of  their likes and dislikes. To the busy parents, the arrival of the hawker was a relief for them, as their children would be occupied and taken care of for an hour or so , giving some breathing space especially to the housewives.