When he worked in the bank, he brought us to see where he worked, and introduced us to those in the office. He seemed to enjoy having us around him and his friends. Thus I was quite often by his side when he played mahjong at the Sibu Recreation Club.
When my grandfather pulled him out of the Hock Hua bank to help start the Kiong Ann Brickworks, my father continued to bring us work whenever we were able to go with him as Sg. Aup was quite far away from Sibu.
The Kiong Ann Brickworks was very important for my Grandfather who from then on was known as the First Foochow in Sarawak to make bricks using imported (British) machinery.
The Kiong Ang Brickworks saw the first conveyor belt machinery to bring mud into a churn to make bricks. I remember I was told that this was the first mechanized brick making factory in Sarawak. It was also reported in the Sarawak Gazette. And the bricks were labelled K.A.B.with the help of a simple label machine.
My father had gone to Singapore to help my grandfather order the machinery.
Most of the workers were the Ibans who lived in the surrounding longhouses in Aup, while some were itinerant workers from Kapit and elsewhere. My grandfather built sturdy wooden hostels for them. Many young girls were employed to stamp the KAB on the bricks and to dry them in the sun before they were burnt in the three huge kilns. Every week the brickworks produced more than 5000 bricks and they were all snapped up by the local builders.
The Brickworks had its own electricity and water supply. My grandfather who was a good engineer had all these planned and implemented and the employees were very happy working under him.
The brickyard office was actually the living room of the manager's house which was really well furnished. There was a gun, which was displayed in the cupboard in the office. We kids were told that the gun in the cupboard was a kind of deterrent and by word of mouth, the manager was protected by a gun!! That was nice to know that my father was safe in the "wild outback". A guard also had the use of a gun.
Once my father finished work, whenever he brought my siblings to work, he would bring us in the Landrover home. The slow drive home would take about an hour. Sometimes the countryside road was in very bad conditions and we were worried the brakes would malfunction. But father was a good and careful driver.
However I remember the few times my father would stop at an aunt's house at the junction of Sg. Teku and Sg. Aup road. Aunty (Mrs. Song) would make Milo Egg Nog for all of us. I believe my father really enjoyed that. But we kids did not like the eggy drink. Father would tell his cousin to make only two glasses. One for him and one for the kids to share.
My father was to later become the match maker for aunty's second daughter. He introduced Mr. Borneo Hardware Wong, who had a shop in Central Road, Sibu, to his niece.
A few years later, my father had a quarry licence to operate the Takang Quarry in Sg. Aup, quite near the Kiong Ang Brickworks. That's another first for a Foochow - to use dynamite to quarry granite.
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