Hai Duong city in my memory

River Street

In 1984, my mother applied for a job transfer from Hung Yen to the Hai Hung Province Collective Farmers' Association. I was just over 2 years old at that time, officially becoming a citizen of the town.

At that time, my family lived in the Provincial Party Committee's housing area, which is now the Bach Dang Guest House area. Each household was assigned a room of about 15 square meters. The house was also a kitchen. Only a few households took advantage of the small yard to build a small kitchen. The kitchen was already very small, only a few square meters, but it was still divided, 2/3 of which was used as a pig or chicken pen, the rest was used as a wood stove or honeycomb coal stove for cooking. The economy was very difficult at that time, so even the families of the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee also raised pigs and chickens. We collected duckweed and water spinach from the Sat River (I still call it the Bach Dang River). On rainy days, my uncles and my mother often went to the river to catch shrimp and prawns, and on many days they went to catch clams. The families that caught a lot would bring them to the market to sell, and the few would be used to improve their meals.

We also had access to tap water, but water shortages were a common occurrence. The entire residential area only had two water tanks at both ends. Days when the tanks were full were rare. Therefore, the house was cramped, but there were extra basins and pots to store water in reserve. Because of frequent water shortages, even we, the children, knew to use water sparingly: after washing rice, we would use that water to wash vegetables, then use it to clean pig and chicken pens, etc. The Bach Dang riverbank was still a dirt bank, and my uncles and mother took advantage of it to grow many seasonal vegetables. At that time, from Tam Giang bridge to the Sports Center, there were still a few households living there, some because of encroachment, some with "red books". It was only later that the residential area had septic tanks, but at first, we had to relieve ourselves in a public toilet built right on the riverbank. The scenery along the Sat river at that time was very different from what it is now.

Because of poverty, in addition to raising pigs and chickens, almost every family in the apartment complex had to find extra work, depending on the season, sometimes shelling peanuts for hire, sometimes rolling wool. Every evening after work or school, adults and children would sit together, working and chatting, it was so much fun!

It was not until 1996 that National Highway 5 was renovated. It was not completed and put into use until 1998, so before that time, Bach Dang Street, where I lived, was the main traffic route running through the town. Trucks and passenger cars had to pass through here to get to the old Phu Luong Bridge towards Hai Phong and vice versa. I still remember that many trucks carrying goods from the army passed by, and at night, the soldiers chose to rest right by the river. Wherever they went, they would stack bricks and set up stoves right by the riverbank. The soldiers often came to our apartment complex to ask for water to cook. The relationship between the army and the people was so close that even though water was very precious to us at that time, every time the army came, every house was willing to share.

As a vital traffic route through the town, Bach Dang Street to the old Phu Luong Bridge is also a “black spot” for traffic accidents, especially at the Tam Giang intersection. Occasionally I hear of accidents. Both ends of Phu Luong Bridge are often congested.

Impression "General Store"

On Bach Dang Street (now Notary Office No. 1), there were several shops selling fish sauce, salt, and dried fish. Occasionally, my mother would send me to buy fish sauce. The shop was always damp, and touching the counter felt sticky. The fish sauce was stored in large jars covered with cloth. The saleswomen measured the fish sauce with a pitcher, poured it into a half-liter bottle, and then transferred it to the customers' bottles and jars with a funnel.

What I liked best was the weekends, about once a month my mother would take my siblings and I to the General Store to play. That was the most luxurious “shopping center” in town at that time, selling mainly basins, pots, pans, curtains, clothes… I liked to go there to play because the lights were always bright, and in the summer there were cool ceiling fans. On really fancy days, my mother would treat me to ice cream. The general store had quite a few ice cream shops. The ice cream was served in styrofoam boxes, lined with thick curtains to keep it cool and from melting.

In the whole town, it seems that only Thuy Ta restaurant located at the beginning of Nguyen Luong Bang street now provides food service. The restaurant is located on the water, with a small bridge across, surrounded by many water lilies.

My mother was from Hung Yen, so every year she tried to visit her hometown once. Every time she wanted to go home, my parents would take us to the bus station early. The location of the bus station was still the Hai Duong bus station now. My mother stood watching us and our belongings, while my father would have to wait in line to buy tickets. The waiting room at the bus station was divided by iron fences into lines that could only fit one person. While waiting, my brothers and I were sometimes treated by my mother to some sugarcane or stuffed candy, which had malt and peanuts inside, and tasted delicious. Every bus trip was an unforgettable obsession. People, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, rice... were all loaded onto the bus. Bicycles were tied to the roof. On lucky days, we got to sit on the seats, but many people sat on the bags of goods placed on the floor.

Life was still poor, so entertainment was scarce. One year, a Belgian film crew chose Hai Duong as the setting, filming right on the riverbank. The crew mobilized many locals to play extras. Many uncles and aunts I knew also wore brown clothes and blended in with that crowd.

But we didn’t get to watch movies, because back then watching movies was a luxury. Only one house in the whole apartment complex had a black and white TV, and our parents let us go watch one movie a week. Every night I got to watch, I saw adults and children packed from the house to the porch. Those who went early got good seats, while those who were late could only hear the sound. Occasionally, the screen would get distorted, and the men sitting near the antenna had to turn it around for a while before they could get a signal again.

Indelible mark

In 1987, I started school, the main campus was located at the current location of Vo Thi Sau Primary School (Ho Chi Minh Avenue). But because there weren't enough rooms, most of the first graders would study at the Chinese Association Hall, also known as the Viet Hoa School on Bach Dang Street. As for our class, that year it was so crowded that after the opening ceremony at the Viet Hoa School, we had to study in a room in a small alley connecting Xuan Dai Street to Doi Can Street. When I was in 3rd grade, we moved to study at the Children's Palace. It wasn't until 4th and 5th grade that I was able to move to the main campus. The classrooms at that time were mostly paved with small red bricks, but they weren't flat and many places were sunken. The school yard was dirt, and during recess the boys played camping.

Every time on Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20, we often made an appointment to congratulate our homeroom teacher. My teacher's house was near the current Gymnasium area. The area of ​​Thong Nhat Square at that time was a pumping station area, with 4 large water pumps. That's why Bui Thi Xuan Street was called the Four-Spout Dike at that time. The road through the pumping station was paved with boulders, severely degraded, so after each heavy rain, the mud was ankle-deep. The Gymnasium area at that time was a field for growing potatoes or vegetables. The earthen dike, with houses on both sides, had sunk about 2 meters. A little further away was the shooting range where prisoners were executed. The Ecoriver ecological urban area looks modern now, but back then it was an area of ​​fields stretching as far as the eye could see.

Later, the province had a system of allocating land and houses to a group of cadres. Many of them were allocated land on what is now Dang Quoc Trinh Street or in Goi Village (now Nhi Chau Ward). My aunt’s house was also allocated a plot on Dang Quoc Trinh Street. The road to my aunt’s house was just a small muddy dike. From the dike surface, there was a small dirt road leading to each household. The whole neighborhood at that time probably had only a few dozen households, very sparse.

Our apartment complex was also disbanded from then on, each family moved to a different place. Many families moved to Hung Yen when the province was separated. My memories of the apartment complex stopped there, but the nostalgia never faded.