Thanks for the pic. Yep, those NG flats do look decidedly sad and weather-beaten these days after some 30-odd years. They were built right on the heels of the Malaysia Mansion (MM) flats which went up in early '70. One of my siblings lived on the 2nd floor of that very corner NG flat in your pic during the late 70s.

In late '70, a 7-year-old boy fell to his death from the 3rd floor of the back block of the MM flats not long after his family moved in. Blame and finger-pointing soon went around. Naturally, spooky tales of the dead boy's ghost haunting that particular flat spread like wild fire. His family moved away after his funeral and the flat remained vacant for quite a few years. Like most superstitious folks, their neighbours were scared witless.

Do you remember the "roti" man with his "ting-ting-ting", the yodelling "kueh kochi santan" seller, the operatic-sounding father-and-daughter "laksa" sellers, and the father-and-son "wanton-mee" hawkers who heralded their presence by hitting two broad bamboo sticks? And there was the toothless Indian man who sold "cendol" from an aluminium cylinder mounted on his bicycle. My siblings and I used to buy 5 sen glasses of "cendol" from him until I spotted the small green parcels floating in his "cendol" container. Dad told us that live worms were wrapped in those green parcels to keep the "cendol" from going off. Yikes!