One of Singapore’s last licensed itinerant hawkers, Ng Teak Boon, has passed away. He was 92. He was cremated today without a wake.
Known affectionately as Uncle Boon, he was a well-known sight outside Sim Lim Tower, where he has been selling old-school ice cream blocks from a mobile pushcart for over 50 years. He wrote: “Sad to announce the passing of Sim Lim ice cream uncle Ah Boon last night. Uncle Boon will be cremated this evening at Mandai . I will be dropping by later to pay my last respects to Uncle Boon. Two weeks ago I saw him at Jalan Besar hawker centre. And I still talked to him. Passed some kopi money to him. Today he passed on.that due to age, he had been unable to sell his wafer and bread-wrapped ice cream blocks as he no longer had the strength to split the frozen blocks.
As ice cream pushcarts become a dying trade, Uncle Boon’s sales gradually dwindled over the years. He earned a few hundred dollars a month selling ice cream, and lived alone in a one-room rental flat in Geylang Bahru.that he had been patronising Uncle Boon’s ice cream cart since 2007. He shared: “I would always buy the ice cream from Uncle. He was always earlier than me to start . Very nice uncle, very humble.