Surprised by new town, old village

(Baonghean) - My childhood was closely associated with Dang Thai Mai Street. In the past, this street was very deserted so we kids still skipped rope and played hopscotch every day. As time passed, Bac Vinh Industrial Park was formed, the street that was once considered the outskirts of Vinh became more bustling, and the lives of the residents in the surrounding area became more diverse thanks to that.

Every morning, when I take my bike out of the gate, hundreds of workers are heading to work at the factories. Some ride motorbikes, some ride bicycles, and there are also many people on foot.

They step out of their boarding houses to start their day, with their motorbikes and bicycles carrying lunch boxes. From garment workers, construction workers to other industries, they all rush to join the noise of machines, temporarily leaving behind what is reserved for their families.

I imagine that, next to the factory system, machines, and screws, the workers become much more confident than when they return to normal life. It is also possible that the work environment has more or less affected their personalities. The appearance of a series of factories with thousands of workers causes the entire residential area to change.

A corner of Dang Thai Mai street now.

In my memory, the land of Hung Dong commune used to belong to the agricultural area on the outskirts of Vinh. Here, people worked in the fields and grew vegetables just like any other rural area. In those days, in the early mornings, I was often awakened by the creaking sound of women pedaling their bicycles carrying vegetables to sell.

I got so used to that sound that it almost became my “alarm bell” every day. If I didn’t hear it, I would wake up late and unreasonably blame the vegetable vendor. I also remembered that my place was near the Hung Dong landfill, and every day I was tortured by the stuffy air. Summer was even worse. On top of that, the Dong Vinh vegetable area of ​​the commune was right next to that landfill. Luckily, the city finally moved the landfill to another place, and life in the suburbs became more peaceful.

Bac Vinh Industrial Park was formed, people also proactively built dormitories for workers to rent. My neighbor, Mr. Binh, used to have a vacant lot. On the vacant lot of Mr. Binh's house, a dormitory with 19 rooms for rent was built.

Thanks to the boarding house, Mr. Binh's family has a decent monthly income. Moreover, after more than ten years of operation of Bac Vinh Industrial Park, Mr. Binh's boarding house has become a second home for countless workers from Do Luong, Thanh Chuong, Quynh Luu districts...

Sometimes on my days off, I often stop by the workers' rooms to chat. I really admire the honest, simple nature of those simple, easy-going people. For nearly ten years, Mr. Tuan and Ms. Hoa from Quynh Luu have been attached to Uncle Binh's boarding house.

I will never forget the image of Mr. Tuan on the first day he came to Vinh city to look for a job. He looked so stupid. He was dark-skinned, a young man who had just finished high school at the district school. He had no chance to go to university, so Mr. Tuan asked his family for permission to go to Vinh to find a job.

Luckily, that day he was accepted to work as a worker at Trung Do Granite Brick Factory. That joy was sometimes comparable to the joy of passing the university entrance exam of a young man. Being from the countryside, having a stable job to do was much better than staying at home plowing a few fields. A few years later, Mr. Tuan fell in love and married Ms. Hoa, who was from the same district and came to Vinh to work as a worker at a garment factory.

The couple's small wedding was held right in the boarding house, with guests being all friends from the same company and a few neighbors like me or Mr. Binh's family, the host. Yet it was warm and happy. One after another, Mr. Tuan and his wife gave birth to a boy and a girl. Time flies, now the older child is in 2nd grade, the younger one has just turned 1 year old.

The overpass was built to help change the appearance of Dang Thai Mai Street.

The life of a worker far from home is sometimes enough to make people satisfied. There are thousands of workers from the districts who come here to work. They come here not only to find a stable job, but also to find a home for themselves like Mr. Tuan and Ms. Hoa.

Now I am married, just a few kilometers from my "maternal home". I only visit my parents occasionally. The last piece of land in Hung Dong commune is very different from the past. Different from the overpass that cuts across National Highway 1A and the railway line to enter Bac Vinh Industrial Park as well as connecting Vinh with Hung Nguyen and Nam Dan districts. At 6 pm, the whole street is like a festival, groups of workers leave the factory, blending into the flow of life with the sound of laughter and chatter throughout the area.

Thien Thien