KENG SWEE'S given name literally means 'a celebration of luck'. Indeed, when he was asked years later whether he preferred to be born lucky or smart, he replied he would choose to be born lucky.

However, he disliked his Christian name of Robert; whenever his sisters referred to him as Robert, he would turn a deaf ear and not respond.

He had many nicknames, as was typical in a Straits-born family. These included 'Si Kudah' (kuda means horse in Malay, and Keng Swee was born in the Chinese Year of the Horse), and 'Tomang' or 'Mang' as his father would call him.

When GKS was two years old, his parents decided to move the entire family to Singapore, where Swee Eng's parents (GKS's grandparents) had several properties.

Siok Kim had already established herself in Singapore, and was staying at 432, Lorong 24 in Geylang. It was a spacious bungalow with six bedrooms on the upper level...

GKS's earliest childhood recollection is that of savouring a banana while sitting in the five-foot-way in front of his family residence in Geylang...

As was typical in Peranakan families, the Gohs spoke both Malay and English at home. On Sundays, church services were conducted at home in Malay, with the hymns sung also in Malay.

(After his father found work in the Pasir Panjang rubber estate, the family moved there. His father rose to become manager of the estate in 1933.)

GKS's sisters, Ida and Dawn, had by now become English teachers, and they would often read story-books to the young GKS at bedtime.

Introspective by nature, GKS was a shy, quiet boy, and thus books became his best (indeed his only) friends. From them, he acquired knowledge and ideas far beyond what life on the plantation could offer him. Also, as a means of passing the lonely hours on the plantation, GKS would read and re-read his father's many books.

By the time GKS had begun his journey into young adulthood, he was already armed with a healthy respect for good writing, and had acquired from his father and older sisters a remarkable vocabulary, and a mastery of the English prose.

The family

GOH Leng Inn was an upright Christian, frugal and hardworking, and a father whom GKS admired quietly. GKS was an inquisitive child; the father and son were to spend many evenings of quality time together.

GKS's almost Utopian lifestyle soon came to an end when the Depression of 1929 caused rubber prices to plunge from 34 cents a pound to an all-time low of 4.95 cents a pound by June 1932.

GKS, then 12 years old, was puzzled. He had begun to notice that there was less food on the dining table, and even as a young teenager he started grappling with the phenomenon of price and market volatility. The Depression was GKS's first brush with economics.

GKS's mother, Swee Eng, was not well educated by today's standards. As was the norm during those times, her wealthy father did not see the need to educate all his daughters - even though Swee Eng's sister, Siok Kim, was exceptionally bright.

Thus Swee Eng ended up spending more time in the kitchen than in academic pursuits. GKS would always remember his mother as a kind, sympathetic lady who ran the household efficiently and who never failed to pack sandwiches for his school recess.

Although she was a strong-minded person - she had been willing to forsake a comfortable life in Malacca for a new life as a plantation manager's wife - her most notable accomplishments, according to GKS, were her culinary skills.

GKS attended Anglo-Chinese Primary School in Coleman Street. GKS and his siblings went to school each day in a chartered school bus (known locally as a 'mosquito' bus) that they shared with the children of Kwa Siew Tee, Leng Inn's closest friend.

Siew Tee worked in the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), and he lived at the 7th milestone at Pasir Panjang Road, not far from the rubber estate which Leng Inn managed.

Siew Tee's daughter Geok Choo later became a barrister; she married a fellow barrister, a certain Lee Kuan Yew, who would end up playing a pivotal role in Singapore's history.

Each year on Chinese New Year's Day, the Goh family would make a pilgrimage to their maternal grandmother's house in Geylang to meet cousins and relatives.

But aside from these yearly events, they led a very quiet life. Leng Inn possessed a small car, but seldom went out in the evenings with friends, preferring instead to stay home.

On weekends, Leng Inn would take his two sons to the Chinese Swimming Club at Meyer Road where they would spend many a happy hour swimming in the sea.

There were no public swimming pools in those days and that was probably the only physical recreation GKS enjoyed as a young man.

There must have been a piano at the plantation house, for GKS could play the piano at an early age. His sister Ida was also a fairly accomplished classical pianist. GKS even managed to master the accordion all by himself.

He thus grew up with classical music, had a good ear and could syncopate on his own. His favourite tunes? When The Saints Go Marching In and other popular ragtime numbers.
Leng Inn possessed a small car, but seldom went out in the evenings with friends, preferring instead to stay home.

On weekends, Leng Inn would take his two sons to the Chinese Swimming Club at Meyer Road where they would spend many a happy hour swimming in the sea.

There were no public swimming pools in those days and that was probably the only physical recreation GKS enjoyed as a young man.

There must have been a piano at the plantation house, for GKS could play the piano at an early age. His sister Ida was also a fairly accomplished classical pianist. GKS even managed to master the accordion all by himself.

He thus grew up with classical music, had a good ear and could syncopate on his own. His favourite tunes? When Saints Go Marching In and other popular ragtime numbers.