Asiff Hussein, at this digital site, …. A WALK DOWN THE MEMORY LANE OF COLOMBO IN PICTURES ….
A motley recollection of fond memories of that generation born in the carefree decades of the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s and survived in one piece through the 1980s when things were pretty much the same but had slowly begun to change….
Early morn saw folks take their tea with PERAKUM or COW & GATE condensed milk while kids had their milk with Marie or Nice biscuits from MALIBAN. Children back then got their fill of breakfasts with MD JAMS with fancy names like Golden Melon spread on bread. The sweet-toothed relished ZELLERS nut milk chocolates or went for a cool milkshake at Alerics PICADILLY CAFÉ on Galle Road, Wellawatte or a refreshing Faluda at BOMBAY SWEET HOUSE on Turret Road, Colpetty.
If it was lunch one was were after, one had a choice of Western fare at FOUNTAIN CAFÉ in Union Place, Slave Island or PAGODA TEA ROOMS in Colombo Fort or a sumptuous Buriyani or other oriental fare at PILAWOOS on Keyzer Street in the Pettah or HOTEL DE BUHARI in the old Moor quarter of Maradana. If it was catering for any occasion, then the choice of the rich and famous was always ELEPHANT HOUSE.
When it came to playtime for the kids, those were great times when one could buy some great toys at shops like SELLMARS in Colpetty or books from small bookshops like MALEE BOOK SHOP on Turret Road, Colpetty. Doting mothers looked around for dresses for their little daughters at fashion shops like DE SILVAS in Liberty building, Colpetty where they had a good choice of colourful dresses to choose from.
Those were the days when great movies showed in some equally great cinema theatres with high-sounding names like LIBERTY in Colpetty, MAJESTIC in Bambalapitiya and SAVOY in Wellawatte. The Liberty showed films by both Paramount and Universal Pictures including “A White Christmas”, “Knock on Wood”, “Summer Holiday”, “My Fair Lady”, “Psycho” and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”. Majestic showed Metro Goldwyn Mayer movies like “Scapegoat”, “Green Helmet”, “Tarzan the Apeman”, “Secret of Monte Cristo” and “The Mirror has Two Faces” while Savoy showed “Lady Chatterly’s Lover”, “The Case Against Brooklyn” and the James Bond Movies “Dr. No”, “From Russia with Love”, “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”.
The men did their thing and the womenfolk did theirs. Good mothers got their kids anything from aspirin to gripe water from AD CHEMISTS at the turn from Galle Road to Turret Road in Colpetty and their daily needs from general purpose shops like the well stocked NOORANIS in Colpetty. it was only in later times that CORNELS entered the scene not far from here, ushering in the age of Supermarkets in the early 1980s.
And ladies who found their domestic chores boring lost no time enrolling themselves at THE POLYTECHNIC on Galle Road, Bambalapitiya to learn typing or stenography which were about the only jobs women could get back then.
And life went on with relish and flourish and an OBLA DIBLA DA!
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