Meet your own memories

Some pictures of colleagues of Uncle Nam and Aunt Chinh's generation. Photo archive

At that time, the villa on Le Thanh Ton Street was requisitioned to become the housing area of ​​Da Nang Radio Station, divided into four households, three of us and Ms. Chinh and Mr. Nam's. Each house was probably less than 30 square ^meters , but it was a memorable gathering space of the time after the country's reunification. Ms. Chinh and Mr. Nam were local people, while our parents had moved from Hanoi. Each family had its own situation, but they all had one thing in common: someone worked for the city's press. It was only a short while ago, but it had been 50 years.

Strangely enough, journalists and poets after 1975 had similar housing styles. Journalists clustered in houses on Le Thanh Ton Street, while writers and poets shared a villa on Ba Dinh Street. Stranger still is that these places still have the same owners, “not leaving an inch, not leaving a glass”. The only change is that everyone is getting older.

We grew up in that common space. Four families, Aunt Chinh and Uncle Nam lived in a room inside. At that time, almost every family raised livestock except Aunt Chinh's family. Perhaps at that time, she was the youngest and grew up in the South, so she did not have the happiness of "Every day, happy with a pink egg". When we grew up a bit, we felt that Uncle and Aunt were a beautiful and gentle couple. Uncle Nam was very gentle. In 1973, after graduating from Bach Khoa (Phu Tho), he was assigned to work at An Hai broadcasting station, "a 7.2ha area".

At that meeting, I learned that, in the historic moment of the city, Uncle Nam was the one who directly handed over the key to the broadcasting station to the revolution, and together with the technical staff, made the first broadcast through the voices of Uncle Minh Luan and Uncle Anh Trang: "This is the voice of the Da Nang City Military Management Committee, broadcasting from Da Nang City". As for Ms. Chinh, in 1976, through the Radio's selection rounds, she was selected to be a broadcaster. The standard was "Quang accent but not too strong" so that it could be heard everywhere. The Southerner and the Centraler were destined to play music and they kept each other until their hair turned white and their teeth fell out.

The day I invited the couple to dinner, I asked her what she remembered from the days when “This is Da Nang Radio Station” every morning? The feeling of excitement and pride when the station’s leaders assigned her to read the live commentary with Uncle Minh Luan at the celebration and parade of the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Quang Nam - Da Nang province on March 29, 1985, which took place at Chi Lang Stadium. Generous, expressive and… praised by the uncles.

She said, how come every time she was complimented, she was happy for days, because the compliments and criticisms were specific and a real source of motivation for each employee? And Uncle Nam was very kind, for more than ten years living in the same apartment building, I have never seen him displease anyone, I always saw him smile. We lived together, we were only a little older than each other so we were always close, the best thing was to go to each other's houses to eat for free. Flying fish was split in the middle, crushed onions were folded under Ms. Chinh's skillful hands and fried with fragrant peanut oil. That kind of fried flying fish seemed to only exist in the South, we were workers so we found it strange and our mouths kept drooling with admiration. The bowls of rice during the subsidy period, I don't know why it was as delicious as the triangular peanut candy my mother bought every time she went to the market.

Among the types of journalism, is it true that radio is less popular now (?). Do you remember the old saying “one person speaks for ten thousand people to listen”? Now it is the opposite, thousands of people speak for one person to listen. Just a phone is enough to read, listen, and watch live almost all events no matter where they happen. Technology changes, types of journalism change, ways of doing and reading change, only the heart of remembering each other does not change. The people of Ms. Chinh and Mr. Nam’s class are now few, but I still remember clearly the times when the whole family eagerly participated in “One story a week” on Da Nang Radio.
We met Ms. Chinh and Mr. Nam again, as if we were meeting our own memories.

KNITTING

Source: https://baodanang.vn/channel/5433/202504/gap-lai-ky-niem-chinh-minh-4003530/