Children Little Museum at Bussorah Street

Even though this was my second time to the shophouse, which has been converted to a nostalgia museum, it felt new somehow. It was extra fun perhaps because my cousin was with it and it was cool to see her reaction to the memorabilia from my time and that of her parents. As an tot of the 80’s, most of the stuff there was before her time. Sometimes it’s not just about the place, but the company.

The toys galore.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

It was so much more fun to dial this rotary phone. I used to play with it as a little kid, repeatedly dialing the zero and pretending to make calls. Vintage phones are so pretty too. I was sad when the government took them away and replaced them with push button ones. In the old days, the government provided the phones. I think Telecoms (Singtel today) was totally under government control then.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

The drinks that I used to drink straight from the glass bottles at home, or through a straw when I was at the hawker centre.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

I hated my schooldays, but in a strange way, I am glad that it’s added a rich dimension to my childhood.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

We did all kinds of propaganda art for the various Singapore campaigns. That my cousin recalls as well.

photo by bookjunkie

That blue thing is a pen eraser because we did not have liquid paper then. In my cousin’s time they had liquid paper, but they were not allowed to use it. Anyway the horrer of erasing and creating a hole in your exercise book which would then incur the unreasonable wrath of the teacher. We really had abusive teachers, especially in the 70’s and earlier.

photo by bookjunkie

The one thing we all looked forward to, was the twenty minute recess and the bus ride home where we would jump around the bus and play to our hearts’ content. Oh the poor bus driver, but he was so kind to us all. Well it was more like a small van.

photo by bookjunkie

I could never get the hang of this – but I saw that some girls could play this well. It was pronounced cha-thay. It was skillfully bounced on the inner part of your foot with your knee bent inwards. The goal was to bounce it as many times as possible without letting it fall to the ground. One of the very cheap local toys that my mum’s generation played with quite a bit. It’s quite sad to see the proliferation of video games and none of these simple toys with so much charm.

photo by bookjunkie

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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11 Responses to Children Little Museum at Bussorah Street

  1. Nice pictures and post! 🙂 Yes, even for me, I miss my childhood games. Nowadays kids only watch tv, play wii/ computer games, I certainly don’t want my child to do only that… But I think it’s inevitable.. These toy museums cannot disappear, otherwise we would lose our only link to our childhood games/toys!

    What I found really really nostalgic was the red/blue bottles of glue! I remember opening the plastic cap and dipping into it for art =) Other than that, not a big fan of chapteh nor dolls. hahaha

  2. Crystal says:

    It’s really interesting to see toys from your childhood.

    My childhood had very different toys, although like you, I really liked the old school rotary phones.

    • bookjunkie says:

      what are some of the toys you loved Crystal?

      • Crystal says:

        As an 80’s kid in the US, when I think of toys I think of the lite bright, lincoln logs, barbies, jem dolls, cabbage patch kids, my little ponies, transformers, star wars toys, slip n slides, care bears, she-ra dolls and my Crystal Castle (yes, I especially loved that it was the *Crystal* castle–best Xmas present ever when I was like 8), popples, teddy ruxpin, smurfs, color forms, garbage pail kid trading cards, and I’m sure I’m missing tons of others.

        When ellie was a baby, I was so excited to find her a big apple with a chime inside it (I’ll have to find it and dig it out…might be in the US now) that was exactly like the one I had as a baby. I can’t wait for my #2 to play with it this time next year.

      • Crystal says:

        I found this website, which has a lot of the toys I mentioned with pictures. http://www.liketotally80s.com/80s-toys.html

  3. bookjunkie says:

    From your list I recall my cousin having the cabbage patch doll, little ponies, star wars. She had a smurf birthday cake 🙂

    From my time…Barbies were highly coveted and I finally got one at age 9. Birthday cakes were usually numbered ones which I found cool.

    will check out your link.

  4. harlsmits says:

    That is a really neat museum. I wish I could go! If I’m ever in Singapore I will definitely go there.

    • bookjunkie says:

      I think many people don’t know that it exists and probably think it’s just an old toy store 🙂 I came upon it and only realized it was a museum when I read about it on someone else’s blog.

  5. steph says:

    i LOVE the children little museum. In fact, it’s my favourite museum and I try to make it a point to visit it at least once a year! There have been some changes made to it since last yr… the addition of a new “toy shop” and re-arrangement of some of the displays. Do you reckon that it is possible to organise a mini party at the little cafe on the first floor?

  6. bookjunkie says:

    I just love the wonder of museums too. I didn’t know there were changes…..only been recently. I don’t quite know it you can have a party as the space looks really crammed, but I am sure for the right amount the owners would probably agree.

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