The shop front of my house was let out to a dentist. Between the road and the shop front was a vacant space that could park 3 cars. Every morning the area was occupied by illegal hawers selling vegetables, eggs and food for breakfast. My house was a refuge for them when the Hawkers Department raiding squad arrived.
No 75 was a tyre shop as well as a single pump Mobil brand petrol kiosk. The petrol pump was just by the side of the road, marked X in the picture. At that time there was only one grade of petrol. Later the owner changed the trade to selling and repairing of bicycles. The last business was an electrical shop. No 77 was a textile shop. In those days, very few Malays came to Joo Chiat for shopping. So the hard working shopkeeper took bales of textile on his shoulder and a measuring ruler in his hand to Geylang Serai to service his Malay customers.

Before
After
Between house No 67 and No 71 was a lane that led to a kampong behind the shophouses. The lane was my playground and the sandy ground was my drawing board. The kampong had about 2 dozens attap huts with a mixed population of Chinese, Malay and Indian. There was a public standpipe for the people to draw water for drinking, cooking and washing. At the edge of the kampong were 3 communal bucket latrines. I went to the kampong quite often to play dum (a game of a chess board) with my Malay friends. I also learned to speak Malay from them.
I was still staring at the vacant land but there was no buildings, no hawkers and no kampong. It was only a memory of my growing up years. The same place but another scene.