The Naughty Boys

  The old Beatles song played on, bringing back memories of our bus rides to school. Many of us crammed like sardines, into hot rickety buses. Nevertheless, these buses dutifully brought us to old RI at the junctions of Bras Basah, North Bridge, Stamford and Beach Road. We came from kampongs faraway or from old Chinatown nearby.  Lionel Lee, Amos Koh Ah Meng, Alec Lim, Tan Boon Tee and Cheong Moon Foo lived in the Airport Road-Lorong Tai Seng area. We trudged for two miles along the gangster streets of Tai Seng, Malay kampongs, passed smelly soya sauce factories and dirty pig sty to meet at the Singapore Traction Company (STC) bus stop along Airport Road. We clambered onto the #12 STC bus which took us about 10 miles and 45 minutes through MacPherson, Serangoon, Jalan Besar and North Bridge Road. and alighted at the bus stop opposite the old Odeon theatre.  It took us a long time to get the school. We didn't mind so long as we got there in time for at least 30 minutes of ...

About 300 boys of ages 14-15 years must surely and evidently manifest strong testosterone urges resulting in growth spurts, muscular development and attraction to the girls. Alas, we are but an all -boys school and there was little opportunity for the meeting of the sexes. We can only look forlornly across North Bridge Road towards the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, an all-girls school. Being a convent, there were very high walls surrounding that school thus shielding the girls from view. Nevertheless this did not stop us from  the sharing of  juicy girlfriends stories, fantasies and 'naughty' pictures. Raffles Institution is a great school which prided itself not only for its extraordinary academic results but also a superb all round education with much emphasis in sports, the arts and extra curricular activities. An intensive school programme and activities occupied the attention of the boys. It must have been so designed to divert attention from the testosterone ...