Quang Trung House: 'Had a sweet childhood'

(Baonghean) - Childhood... Is a staircase with chipped steps, each time going up you have to take 2 steps at a time and going down you have to take 3 steps or if you slip... it's terrible!

Childhood...

It is building A6 with peeling pale yellow lime walls from the 1st to the 4th floor.

The stairs are chipped, so you have to go up 2 steps at a time and down 3 steps or if you slip, it's… terrible!

It was a handrail made of gallito stone, and its main function, besides tearing the buttocks of his pants, was to help the neighborhood kids slide down from any floor and then fall with a thud! It left a deep mark on his younger brother's chin with two scars!

It is a noisy and boisterous communal water tank every afternoon. There are rows of buckets lined up with carrying poles that are typical of each house. Just by looking at where they are hung, one can tell which house has not yet had its turn to collect water.

It's an image of naked kids bathing freely in front of everyone, but they insist on holding on to their clothes and waiting until they can go into a private room to put on pants!

In the apartment buildings, there are still cars that were once symbols of a golden age, still brand new like this. Photo taken at apartment building B1. Photo: Manh Ha

The jackfruit tree belonged to the houses next to the chemical factory apartment complex, but all day long, we, the kids from the MSG factory, would spies on the young jackfruit to dip in salt and chili. It would choke us to death, yet we still craved it!

Childhood...

Being friends of the same age, same class, sharing many interests such as hide-and-seek - a game we love to play all day long without getting bored, especially when the power goes out.

It is planting buds and flowers that burst open. It is both boys and girls playing rock, paper, scissors to carry each other from one end of the apartment building to the other. And the game of leading a circle on the road with wrought iron rings of all sizes that almost everyone has under their bed. It is the excited cheers every time a car brings sugarcane residue to dry in the communal yard. The whole group of children climb up and down to find the remaining pieces of sugarcane or the thick peels to peel off and nibble together.

My sweet childhood probably had something to do with the mountain of bagasse or candy scraps from my mother's factory?!

Childhood is also 3 months of summer activities together with 4:30 am mornings calling each other to go exercise in the A5 yard. There is team ceremony practice in August and sightseeing in September for all the "elite" children in the summer. Exciting... bustling...

And there are also the cries: "Who wants ice cream?" every sunny noon, bringing endless cravings, not just me. Or "Who wants taffy or candy...", "Who wants to exchange cakes"... All of us have had our teeth fall out from chewing taffy or had our hair and ears stuck to that clear, shiny, honey-like candy stick.

Back to childhood...

Bougainvillea clusters are also a common sight in old apartment buildings. Photo: Manh Ha

With first and second grade, studying on the first floor of the apartment building. With the teacher's name... I only find it interesting now, but at that time, I loved her so much. Ms. Hot, Ms. Mao - I don't know if my friends still remember... We all had names that came with our father or mother's names like Ha Du, Huyen Toan, Thang Liem, Van Bao Tho, Thang Phuc My, Huyen Khuy, Nam Toai... But there were also some kids whose middle names had no connection to anything or any meaning, but just hearing the name... everyone understood, like: Linh chec, Ngan Teo, Phuong lo...

The yard connecting the two apartment buildings A6 and A7 is where many generations have witnessed the "steps of maturity" from sitting behind the luggage rack of their parents' motorbikes to pedaling and bouncing around, often getting their butts pounded painfully, until they learned to ride a motorbike. A mini motorbike is a luxury that probably haunts the dreams of many people my age...

Last apartment. Photo: Manh Ha

Childhood...Yeah. It's been a long time.

Linh Dan

(Recorded story of Ms. Pham Viet Dung)