Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street and some personal memories...

(Baonghean) - In the hustle and bustle of life, old people often remember the old streets where almost all generations of the first urban families have gradually retreated behind the street or moved elsewhere, but they left behind mossy memories. That is Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, which is now famous as a street of computer and telecommunications equipment in Vinh City.

In the 1990s, except for offices, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street was still sparsely populated with high-rise residential buildings. Walking on the sidewalks full of bricks, sand, and concrete; craning your neck to look to both sides, you could see clumps of wild myrtle trees framing the garden fences of the small, shabby houses. Every night, in the dim red light of the street lights, there was the creaking sound of cyclos picking up passengers or bicycles of workers finishing their late shifts, spreading out to the small alleys of the Lien Co area. The street was only really crowded at night when the Labor Culture House had a big entertainment event that attracted people from the northern part of the city.

A street of Electronics - Telecommunications on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street.

The old street during the subsidy period was bustling and full of the hustle and bustle of civil servants and workers concentrated in the Lien Co area on the East side of the street, now in Hung Binh ward, and of the freelance workers on the West side, now in Le Mao ward. There were not many features of the culture and people in a neighborhood that was formed early in Vinh city, but on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street in the 1980s, there were still many houses belonging to the petty bourgeoisie before the August Revolution, keeping the small hobby of reading books and drinking tea by the rockery in front of the small yard, teaching children about the virtue of a gentleman "eating without seeking to be full...".

That's why they have a somewhat strange life, the new generation growing up seems to be indifferent to the times in the pressure of innovation, the streets compete to buy and sell land and houses, expand services that start with just photocopy shops using "domestic" machines, motorbike washing shops, karaoke for 7 thousand dong per hour, or ready-made coffee shops... But they are full of worries about food, clothing, work, and because of a little education and gentlemanly spirit that they were taught, they gradually retreat from the excitement of the new streets.

I know a family like that next to the Student Cafe now. The old retired civil servant and his three sons live by renting out children's storybooks. The sons' hair is long and tied in a bun, their clothes are old but always ironed, and they only go out after meals to drink with a gentlemanly and "indifferent" style, but in fact they are all kind and always help people, whether it is a beggar woman or a karaoke bar employee who was rejected by the owner... That house still retains the old urban charm, and it is unclear where it moved to, but it makes the people who stay remember the scenery and regret the past peace in the hustle and bustle of today's life.

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street seen from the Provincial Post Office intersection.

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in the early years of renovation gradually cleared the old Lien Co area to build offices. In the cold winter night, when fathers and mothers were buried in warm blankets or entertained themselves in front of the mostly black and white TV screen, young couples went out to the street to huddle under the kerosene lamps of the tea shops, sticky rice with corn at the Nga Nam intersection next to the Provincial Post Office. The entire end of the street towards the Fountain Flower Garden became more bustling thanks to the bustle from Vinh Bus Station... The streets gradually became more crowded, the 4-storey stone-clad street-front house of a red stone tycoon was built around 1992 and then the Trung Nguyen, Sinh Vien, Cay Ngo Dong coffee shops always attracted customers and the first repair shops and mobile trading shops sprung up which were considered a bustling sign of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, the most dynamic street in the city now.

Famous electronics and telecommunications brands, or cafe spaces, whether luxurious or ordinary, are all unique and attractive to customers, always being renewed to be more impressive and modern. I suddenly remember one autumn day in 2005, when I was lucky enough to sit and chat with Mr. Jacques Lebai, a French international tourism consultant, sipping a glass of "Vida" beer in Sinh Vien cafe on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street. He said he knew he was sitting on a street named after a heroic female martyr of the Vietnamese revolution born in Vinh city, who fell in the struggle against oppression by his fellow countrymen. He looked up at the clear autumn sky of Vinh city that day, saying that the people here are friendly, the nature here is very beautiful, and he hoped that one day when he returned, he would see the street named after Mrs. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, whom he admired so much, also develop strongly, beautiful like the street where he lived in the provincial capital of Cot Damo, his hometown. I don't know if Mr. Jacques Lebai has had a chance to return to Vinh city, but I want to tell him that the street now has between him and me a new pride in the street, as his sincere wishes!

So there are things in life that become more beautiful because of coincidences. I remember the family of the father and son who rented out storybooks, I remember the French travel consultant, to sow a private belief that the soul of the street still allows many people to keep such soft and deep memories, is for the true prosperity of the most vibrant commercial street of Vinh today and tomorrow.

Sam Temple