Who remembers establishments like Cheers Limited, Cheng Lee & Co, Zlin Company, and United Happy Stores along Penang Road? In my story today, I 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, which was only open in the afternoon until late at night. I frequented this place while working 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 can imagine the hygiene or visualize the nightsoil collectors walking past with their buckets, you wouldn't want to eat here at all, but the curry mee was fragrant and delicious.
In the mid-1960s, I used to wander along Penang Road in search of books and magazines. There were numerous sundry-cum-book stores run by Indian entrepreneurs along the roadside, such as one at the junction of Penang Road and Burmah Road, another at the staircase going up Penang Bazaar, and yet another at the staircase of the Boston Cafe building.
I distinctly remember United Happy Stores, a treasure trove for Enid Blyton storybooks and later, school textbooks. 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, several times too.
But United Happy Stores eventually closed down as people moved away from reading. The shophouse was taken over by other businesses, and with the signboard replaced, I had forgotten United Happy Store's exact location until I saw a picture.
This picture was taken after 1988 because the completed KOMTAR tower could be seen clearly above the rooftop. Possibly, United Happy Stores survived into the 1990s. However, as I mentioned earlier, United Happy Stores was not originally at this location. It was on Penang Road itself, located in a small shophouse tucked between Kampong Malabar and Campbell Street.
My memories of United Happy Stores in this location are a bit clearer. 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, with an estimated width of maybe not more than 12 feet across. That meant 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 modest, squarish sign hanging above the entrance. The United Happy Stores also served as a newsvendor station selling all sorts of newspapers and magazines of the day, including The Straits Times, the Straits Echo, Chinese and Indian newspapers. Boys like me would read the newspapers for free and then clip them back on the metal wire when we were done.
Then I came across a second picture that struck me. That third shop without the signboard was the United Happy Stores. In the picture, I could see the metal wire strung along the five-footway with newspapers hanging from it. This was more evidence that this was the shop I was looking for.
My eyes then strayed to the left and right of the picture. 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 famous for its shoe-making. Possibly that's why the shop in Penang was called Zlin.
Then my eyes darted to the other end of the picture, and they grew wide open when I recognized 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. I entered the shop only once with my parents to pick up a toy, though I can't remember what it was now. Cheers later moved to Upper Penang Road.
At the far end of the row of shophouses was Cheng Lee & Co, which specialized 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 was yet another shoe shop selling Bata shoes for schoolchildren. Beyond Cheng Lee was the Ho Ping coffee shop, which has since closed.
When these old shops were finally forced to relocate, the row was demolished to make way for new five-story 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.
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