High rise residents and their 'tricks' for making a living

(Baonghean.vn)-Only now do I know that in those old houses there are different lives and identities. To make a living, during those difficult years, the people of Quang Trung tried every way to earn money to maintain their family life....

The man devoted his whole life to carpentry in area B3, Quang Trung apartment building.

During the subsidy years, most people's lives were miserable, but those who received state salaries suffered even more because rice, meat, vegetables, and fuel had to be bought with coupons. While civil servants who lived on land and houses could still improve their lives by raising livestock and growing crops, only a few Quang Trung residents could do that. Others chose to do other side jobs "with Quang Trung's colors" to earn a living.

On a return to Quang Trung, Dr. Le Thong Nhat - a teacher who lived in house A5 for many years, then house A6 happily said: "Talking about teaching exam preparation, I am already famous in Vinh, but I am even more famous for my skills in making peanut candy and rolling cigarettes." He said that outside of class time, he and his wife sat at the table rolling cigarettes by hand, and at night they cooked peanut candy.

The advantage is that there are many parents selling tea shops, the talented teacher of Vinh Pedagogical University contracts most of the peanut candy and tobacco products of the tea shops along Quang Trung Street and the surrounding area. Not only Mr. Nhat but also many teachers living in Quang Trung sit diligently at the table rolling tobacco after hours of grading papers. Children are busy cutting the "tobacco beard" and packing it so that their mothers can take advantage of their free time to deliver the goods the next day.

The old man's candy and cigarette shop is under the stairs of Quang Trung's house.

At that time, the demand for ice to quench summer thirst in Vinh city was quite large, so some families who had members who went to the Soviet Union bought Saratov refrigerators, the ice making function was fully utilized. It usually took about 8 hours to make a batch of ice, each refrigerator could hold 2 trays like that... It was sunny, the ice had not yet frozen when the shop stood on the ground and shouted: Mrs. G., is it ice yet? Hurry up so people can sell? Usually, the supply could not keep up with the demand because the refrigerators were small, and the multi-story buildings sometimes had power outages.

Many families are said to have refrigerators, but their children only “look at the ice” because any ice they make is taken to the shop, and the family still does not dare to use it because “ice feeds people”. Remembering the subsidized summers, the sunny noons when he would bring some ice cubes to the drink shop to sell as refreshments, I remember my father, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quy Dy, in a moment of excitement with his colleagues in the Faculty of Mathematics, “Saratov Bay”, the fishing rod for my family’s livelihood:

Plug in shaking whole body
Drain the water from your feet to the floor.
Hey rich gentleman
Insert it, do not pull it out too quickly.

Some mothers and sisters who were afraid to "show their faces" in the street chose to knit wool to increase their income. At that time, Vietnamese people favored Lao woolen hats, which covered their ears and heads in the winter, but buying genuine products was expensive. So someone bought wool and hired mothers and sisters to knit it for them. It usually took about 2 days to complete a woolen hat like that, the salary was about 400 dong, enough to buy 2 bunches of Vinh Tan water spinach, the "best" vegetable at that time. Quang Trung mothers also formed a "knitting club", meeting to gather at a house where the husband often ran away to play, knitting and chatting about all kinds of things, when they were excited, the mothers and sisters also sang Vi Giam Lua Oi melodies...

Van Dan noodle shop in B2 Quang Trung area.

The better-off families who had sewing machines took on the processing of ready-made garments. Most of them processed clothes for export to Eastern Europe, the “contractors” provided the thread, buttons for shirts and pants. Most of the sewing machines at that time did not have motors, they had to be pedaled by foot. The sound of the sewing machine pedals could be heard clearly at night, some people heard it so much that they got used to it until they ran out of stock and had trouble sleeping. My family also had a Butterfly sewing machine from the former Soviet Union. During the summer, my mother painstakingly cut and sewed school uniforms and sent them to my father’s hometown in Nam Dan to sell before the start of school. When she started to have a “brand”, my mother occasionally received “orders” from relatives in the countryside, if she could not finish them in time, my mother would pass them on to the neighbors to help them earn more income. In poverty, the love of sharing is always abundant!

Every evening, families near the 12/9 Cinema gather together to hold a tray with a few packs of cigarettes, a few jars of peanut candy, sesame candy, and a pot of green tea... eagerly eating dinner and inviting each other to "compete in a beautiful way" to sell their goods.

History never repeats itself. There are memories that seem to be forgotten by the passage of time, but if someone accidentally mentions them again, they still make those involved feel moved. My life and that of my contemporaries, closely tied to Quang Trung, was like that, difficult but full of pride!

Article: An Thanh

Photo: Hazone - Binh Nguyen