William Lai who resides in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada wrote about his fond memories at La Salle for the March, 2008 edition of the Edmonton Chapter Newsletter. Link to the article written by William:
http://www.lscobaedm.org/newsletter/Newsletter2008-03.pdf (pages 6-10).
The following is an excerpt from his memory piece:
“Believe it or not, I was a choir boy at La Salle Primary School which was housed at Perth Street at the time. The year was 1954 and we were taught to sing all the Christmas carols. I had known the carols before, but we were being trained to sing them in a choir for a road show. We had many practices to learn all the lyrics by heart. The practice sessions were enjoyable breaks from the routines of the school.
The road show took the choir a-caroling to the patients of various hospitals. One of the hospitals we visited was the British Military Hospital, aka La Salle College before it was returned to its rightful owners. The choir then had an exclusive preview of the Dome and its interiors before it became La Salle College again. The visit to what was then called 33rd Hospital was recorded in pictures. One of the pictures of this visit appears on page 131 in Mark Huang’s Son of La Salle Everyone. If I am not mistaken, this picture came from my collection. Challenge for the reader: find me in the picture.
The choir training to sing the carols made such a mark on me that I would hark back to that time every Christmas since then whenever I hear the carols being sung or played on radio.”
To see the picture in its original size, click the picture below, then click the “small” picture that appears on the next display.
If I am not mistaken, I was in the same choir with William Lai. I remember being driven to various places and sang out hearts out. I did not remember the bell incident though
David Cheung wrote:
“I was in the choir. The fun is still in my head, and everything is still alive.
I am the kid second from the left. William Lai should be the fourth one from the right.”
I participated, not because I like singing, but for the opportunity to stay up late and the free refreshment. The rare treat of visiting the 33rd Army Hospital was icing on the cake. I can still remember the thrill of standing under the dome and looking up at it. One sad incident ruined the otherwise perfect outing.
The choir was driven around in public buses chartered from Kowloon Bus Company. There was a mechanical bell over the head of the bus driver. The bell could be rung by pulling on a long cord which ran along the roof from the bell to the rear door of the bus. The bus conductor would ring once to signal to the bus driver to stop at the next bus stop and would ring twice to signal that it would be safe to resume the journey.
As the choir left the hospital, the boys piled back onto the seats of a waiting bus. One boy noticed the cord of the bell and could not resist the temptation of ringing the bell, an act not normally permitted to the bus riders. Within seconds, almost every one inside the bus had grapped hold of a section of the bell cord and the sound of the ringing filled the inside of the bus inter-mingled with the laughter of happy children.
Out of nowhere, Tiger Lim stormed up the aisle of the bus from the rear, his nostrils breathing fire. Without uttering a single word, he slapped, with all his might, the back of the head of every one on the left and right as he proceeded to the front of the bus, turned around and walked toward the back of the bus, slapping the faces to the left and right along the way. The sound of laughter vanished.
Peace on Earth. Merry Christmas!