Quang Trung Multi-storey House: Sadness, joy...

(Baonghean.vn) - In a few years, the Quang Trung apartment complex, with its prime location, will be rebuilt withSkyscraperand become the most beautiful neighborhood of Vinh, the central urban area of ​​North Central Vietnam. To have luxurious and convenient buildings... over the past 40 years, Quang Trung residential area has gone through countless joys and sorrows..

During the war, American planes dropped tens of thousands of bombs of all kinds on Vinh city. According to calculations, on average, the people who remained in Vinh city had to bear two tons of bombs and shells. Bombs and shells exploded day and night, shaking and drowning out all other sounds, as if they would never stop, never knowing when they would stop. All the streets and villages were torn apart by bomb and artillery fragments.

The most intense were the Ben Thuy area, the Ram bridge church... and of course Quang Trung was not outside the range of American bombs. To keep up with the progress, the Quang Trung area carried out both mine clearance and construction. The Nghe Tinh military command assigned an engineering platoon to be stationed on the 5th floor of A3 Quang Trung building to facilitate daily mine clearance.

Photo: Truong Manh Ha.

Many of the first residents who came to live here were unfortunately hit by leftover American bombs, some passed away in grief, some were lucky to be slightly injured... Long, a friend of mine, passed away while carrying his schoolbag to school on a late winter day in 1978.

At that time, Quang Trung Sub-district did not have a school, so we, the children of the high-rise houses, studied in Quarter 4 (now Le Mao Ward). Long and his brother went to school in the afternoon, the younger brother picked up a cluster bomb, Long grabbed it and threw it far away. The bomb exploded and Long stood in front, his chest spread out to catch dozens of marbles instead of his younger brother and his friends standing behind. I still remember Ms. Nguyet, Long's mother, a literature teacher at Quarter 4 Primary School, fainted over and over again when death took away her little son who had not yet finished 4th grade.

As for us, we will forever mourn our classmate and the first citizen of Quang Trung who was forever lost to the American bombs left over from the war. That talented classmate (Long’s father was a painter) passed away, his lips still smiling, the innocent smile of a schoolboy. The place where he died was on Quang Trung Street, right in front of the Ten-le-man Children’s Cultural House. A few years later, we would occasionally hear bombs exploding, the loudest explosion being at the bunker behind the 12/9 Cinema, and it was said that a few people had to leave.

The old stairs of building A2. Photo: Truong Manh Ha.

**

Nowadays, if we talk about the lack of clean water for daily life in the multi-storey building, some people will say it is a joke. But if anyone lived in that time, they know that clean water was the biggest concern of the people of Quang Trung at that time. Because of the design, there was no water tank on the roof, there was no regular electricity to pump, and there was not enough water to pump, so the pump had to run at any time.

With no water for daily use on hot summer days, people brought buckets and drums to the sub-district to make a mess. There were countless meetings, at the sub-district, city and even provincial levels, to discuss solutions to provide water for the people, tens of thousands of households.

Later, people built a large semi-above and semi-below tank in each area. Area A had the tank located right at the gable between buildings A1 and A4. The tank still exists today. During the day, the management board opens the lid for people to bathe and wash, and at night, they take turns pumping water all night according to schedule for the high-rise buildings.

Children playing in the apartment building yard. Photo: Truong Manh Ha.

Once the water tank was built, whenever the weather was sunny, mothers would bring a bunch of blankets, curtains, mats... and go out in groups to do laundry, laughing and chatting. We kids, after lunch, would take advantage of the lack of people to go out there to bathe... one of us was so bold that we got into the tank to swim to our heart's content. And unfortunately, Hoang Khanh (son of Professor Hoang Ky in room 26, building A3) passed away... That 7th grade student at Vinh City Gifted School with bright red lips passed away for a ridiculous reason. The bucket was dropped into the tank, Khanh got in to feel for it, slipped, struggled and gradually drowned... at noon the tank was empty, some friends ran back to call their parents but couldn't save them in time. That July 1981, the whole area A was sad for several months.

**

Many times I told Hong Toan, my friend from the same era, “Why do we always love and remember Quang Trung, our childhood memories, even though they are not always beautiful and poetic?” Perhaps, those years have permeated each of us, it is like a part of the life of each person who has lived there.

Quang Trung, in me, is exactly as I said!

AT