This is an idyllic picture, is it not?
I don't know where precisely this kelong is, but in Singapore waters for sure, that I certainly know.
Kelongs are described as offshore platforms built predominantly with wood oft found in the waters off Malaysia, Indonesia (and once Singapore). They're built without nails, instead using rattan to bind the tree trunks and planks of wood together.
Primarily meant for the purposes of fishing and fish farming, kelongs have open spaces where nets dangle in the water keeping the captured fish live and fresh until it's sold, or cooked. Kelongs- whether in shallow water or deeper water- sometimes double up as dwelling for the fishermen, and their families.
Most kelongs are isolated, but some are connected to land.
It depends.
In the original (uncropped) picture Miss Brown's family is seen coming down a wooden gangway.
They are smiling.
Her husband is in the picture.
So is her son, who looks to be about eleven years old.
A picture like this we don't get to see very much anymore.
Not merely because of the years that have passed but because there aren't that many kelongs in our waters anymore.
Wikipedia tells me that there're some still in the northeastern waters.
I however haven't seen them, and even if there were, they wouldn't be so open to visitors casually dropping by their premises anymore.
It should surprise no one if they have become more reticent.
After all, the offshore kelong community has shrunk.
And (I think) we have far fewer local fishermen than we used to have.
You can say that the directives have changed.
Where once we had regular fish farms, ornamental fish farms, fishing vessels and kelongs, today much of what we have (I think) are ornamental fish farms, and regular fish farms.
If there be a fishing fleet plying about our waters still, I don't know.
I also don't know if Four Fish Farm Road still exists.
I hope it does.
I had a friend who lived there.
We sat next to each other, two little girls just starting primary school.
I don't know when it was that we exchanged addresses, but I haven't forgotten the moment she told me she lived on (what I thought super unusual) Four Fish Farm Road.
Much later I discovered where that road was.
During our fifth year in primary school there was a guppy craze.
Everyone was buying little fish tanks, collecting guppies, exchanging guppies, adding guppies.
She brought beautiful ornamental guppies to school- as gifts, and to sell.
These are wonderful memories.
And I think they're worth a story.
Better yet if we can revisit them.
Like a kelong that maybe kids and adults (who haven't been to one) can visit.
After all, at one time, we could.
Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents also could.