Placing gigantic emojis on the faces of photographed persons in a picture is not something I like to do.
Actually, it's something I have never done.
But... I don't have a choice.
Not with this picture.
Because it isn't mine.
I got this picture from Miss Brown's personal collection.
Someone- perhaps her husband, or her son- had taken the picture for her.
We don't know where this place is.
And, truth be told, even if we were to ask, no one knows.
It's been one too many years.
What's we can be sure of, however, is that this was one of the locations where Miss Brown used to distribute the newspapers to, and the lady sitting opposite her one of the many vendors.
The lady doesn't look like a customer.
At least I don't think there're that many customers sitting with the vendors as comfortably as this lady has done.
There is a lot to be seen in this picture.
The first thing that catches my eye is the table.
It's amazing how some things don't change.
Newspaper vendors today still set up their stalls in the very same way.
The way they place their tables, chairs, and newspapers are the same.
The way they cover up the papers with tarp (in case it rains) is the same.
As do the way they hold down the newspapers with random paperweights of some sort so that customers won't get rumpled first pages.
Another thing that struck me about this picture was the stack of newspapers on the floor.
They're still stacked the same way, tied the same way, even placed the same way.
Very little about the newspaper vendor and her stall has changed.
But the surroundings... that's certainly changed
If it were Miss Brown and the lady opposite her that first caught my attention, it were the environment they sat in that made me look one more time.
The environment- the void deck of a public housing HDB block- is why they've got emojis plastered on their faces.
Because, seated as they were, they were centerfold in a space that- had they been edited off- would have been meaningless otherwise.
I know.
I tried.
It isn't merely the presence of them both that makes this picture charming, but the fact that they sit in an environment that we nowadays hardly get to appreciate anymore.
This is how (I think) our 'hoods looked like back in the 80s.
They're more spruced up these days.
Not that every estate is new and spanking, but to the very least I don't think we'll find splotches of paint (or is it cement) on the walls of the void deck anymore.
We probably won't see benches as plain as these along the walls anymore either.
Everything's become more comfortable, even prettier.
In many estates- even the mature ones- the cement floors aren't this black anymore, and parked bicycles will be more aesthetically placed.
Everything about this picture reminds one of the 80s and the 90s.
Maybe some of our housing estates still look the same.
But maybe many of them have become brighter.
The beautiful thing about newspapers, and newspaper vendors. is that they're a consistent part of our society.
They're like a staple that you know are there just so long as there is a newspaper to be had.
Doesn't matter if they're near the bus interchanges, the MRT stations, the hawker centers, or just about anywhere that has good footfall.
Doesn't matter also if they be the kind set up at the side of the road where drivers make a very quick stop for the evening paper, and where money changes over swift hands.