It will never rust (Singapore)

My father came home one day with a sheet of steel, looking very pleased with himself.  

He’d dropped by the timber yard on the way home and someone told him there was this sheet of steel going cheap at S$300.  It was a lot of money in the mid-60s, but my father said confidently, “The man at the timber yard said it will never rust!”

And he was right.  It sat out there at the back of the garden, under one of the coconut trees, year in, year out, being rained on, but sure enough it never rusted. 

My mother nagged him after the first two years about it.  He said he’d think of some way to use it, and that there was no great hurry as “it will never rust”. 

After a couple more years, she had another go at him.  Then another, after two more years.  (My mother must have had a nagging alarm clock somewhere that worked on a two-year cycle.)  

One Sunday, hammering and sawing sounds could be heard from the garage, which went on for quite a few hours.  Finally, my father brought in his handiwork: a dustpan.  He proudly declared, “The wooden handle may rot and fall apart, but the pan will never rust.” 

One could get about a dozen dustpans out of that sheet of steel.  It’d take ten minutes to go down to the shops to buy a dustpan, for a couple of dollars.  That sheet of steel cost him S$300, and it took him a few hours to make one single dustpan.

(Singapore, 1960s)