Who remembers establishments like Cheers Limited, Cheng Lee & Co, Zlin Company and United Happy Stores along Penang Road? In my story today, I had also mentioned the Ho Ping coffee shop at the Penang Road-Kampong Malabar corner, right across the road from the Straits Echo building. There used to be a curry mee stall at the back lane behind this coffee shop, opening only in the afternoon until late at night. I used to frequent this place while working the night shifts at the newspaper company. The back lane was where the nightsoil collectors used to roam during the day to collect the bins from the shophouses' toilets. If you imagine the hygiene or visualise the nightsoilmen walking right past you with their buckets, you wouldn't want to eat here at all, but the curry mee was fragrant and delicious....
In the past few days, I had been intrigued by some old pictures from facebook. Stirred deep memories in me. In the mid-1960s, I used to wander along Penang Road in search of books and magazines, and there were numerous sundry-cum-book stores run by Indian entrepreneurs by the roadside, such as one at the junction of Penang Road and Burmah Road, another one at the staircase going up Penang Bazaar and yet another at the staircase of the Boston Cafe building.
I clearly remember the United Happy Stores, a happy hunting ground for Enid Blyton storybooks and later, school text books. The last I knew of this United Happy Stores was that it had relocated to the row of shophouses at the Penang Road end of Chulia Street. It meant a longer distance to walk there from the Goh Pah Teng end of Penang Road, but I did walk there nevertheless. And several times too.
But United Happy Stores eventually folded as people moved away from reading. The shophouse was taken over by other businesses, With the signboard also replaced, I had forgotten United Happy Store's exact location. Until I saw this picture:
This picture was taken after 1988 because the completed KOMTAR tower could be seen clearly above the rooftop. Possibly, the United Happy Stores survived into the 1990s. But as I mentioned earlier, the United Happy Stores was not at this location initially. It was in Penang Road itself, located in a little shophouse tucked between Kampong Malabar and Campbell Street.
My memories of the United Happy Stores in this location are a little better. It was the third shop from the start of the row of shophouses, counting from the Campbell Street junction end. The shophouse was very narrow. If I were to estimate the width of the shophouse now, I would venture to say maybe not more than 12 feet across? That meant with the display shelves in the shop, there was very little space to move around except to walk straight through the shophouse!
There wasn't a big signboard above the shop front. Just a little modest, squarish sign hanging above the entrance, which could be easily missed. The United Happy Stores also served as a newsvendor station selling all sorts of newspapers and magazines of the day: The Straits Times, the Straits Echo, Chinese and Indian newspapers. And like all newsvendors, the newspapers were clipped with clothes pegs to a hanging metal wire. One only needed to pull the newspaper off the line. Boys like me, wearing shorts, would read the newspapers (for free, since the shop owner and workers did not bother with us) and then clipped them back on the metal wire when we were done with them.
Then I came across this second picture. At first, I thought it looked very familiar but i couldn't place it exactly. Then it struck me. That third shop without the signboard, that was the United Happy Stores. In the picture, I could see the metal wire strung along the five-footway. Newspapers were hanging from it. What more evidence did I need that this was the shop I was looking for?
My eyes then strayed to the left and right of the picture. There at the far right was a vertical signboard announcing the Zlin shoe shop. Zlin, as one of my friends told me, was the name of a town in Czechoslovakia that was famous for its shoe-making. Possibly that was why the shop in Penang was called Zlin, to capitalise on this name.
Then my eyes darted to the other end of the picture, and they grew wide open when I recognised the name of Cheers Limited. Back in those days, it was a premier Scouting and sport accessory shop in town. It also carried imported quality toys. In my whole life, I have entered the shop only once with my parents to pick up a toy, although I can't remember what it was now. Cheers moved to Upper Penang Road much later.
And at the far end of the row of shophouses was yet another premium, household name: Cheng Lee & Co which specialised in musical instruments and accessories. Cheng Lee later moved to MacAlister Road. But for a very long time, it was located just a shophouse away from Cheers. The shophouse in between? Yet another shoe shop but one selling Bata shoes for schoolchildren. Beyond Cheng Lee was the Ho Ping coffee shop which has since closed its business.
When these old shops were finally forced to relocate, the row was demolished to make way for some new five-storey blocks. A little attempt at rejuvenating this space. Eventually, however, even the businesses here suffered the march of time and today, many of the shops are empty and awaiting sale.
(This story includes some recollections by my schoolmates and classmates from Westlands Primary School and Penang Free School.)
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