Interview with grandmother Jeong
H: Hojung Yoo(유호정), born in Incheon city, 1937
V: Vatae Kimlee (바태), born in Suwon, 1995
E: Eunsol Cho (은솔), camera woman
relationship between h and v : grandmother and a grandchild.
relationship between E and v : friend
this is an excerpt from interivew
E: Grandma, you look so pretty in screen
H: what?
E: you look pretty
V: you look beautiful
E: I think you could be an actress
E: Should we start filming?
V: yep
V: roll
E: look at the camera of Minkyeung(vatae), grandma
V: Here. You can look here
V: What came to your mind when you came here?
H: me what?
V: What comes to your mind the most in Songrim-dong
H: What comes to my mind is that when when I got married here but I was buried in house chores for fourteen years. I didn't have time to hang out or whatever. I gave birth to four children, raised them, I took care of my father-in-law and mother-in-law. I did the laundry day and night and cleaned the house. I lived like that. After moving to the new house in Suwon I lived comparably comfortably
V: I heard that you studied well in middle school
H: Yeah, back in the days you could go to middle school only if you studied well. But while I was in middle school, Korean war started. The military police were shooting people at the sea to catch North Koreans.
In the past, you can become a teacher if you go to a middle school for teaching for 3 years. When I was in the first year of middle school, I was going to school with my two friends. The military police were shooting gun to catch North Koreans, but my friend was shot. I quitted the school and only the other friend continued the study and graduated from the middle school. I couldn't go to school because I was scared. There were gun fires from all over the place. To catch North Koreans. Back in the days. The military police. After the Korean war. I was 14 years old or 13 years old when Korean war broke out. I could not go to the school because of the military. If I went, I should have been shot. So I quitted the middle school. I could not graduate. I went there to become a teacher but could not graduate. One friend got killed and the other girl who was one year older than me could only graduate.
V: which middle school was it?
H: it was called “middle school for teaching”. It was located in Sungui-dong, Jemulpo, in the city of Incheon. In the past, only the people who were good at studying and the rich could go to school. Poor families couldn't study.
V: Weren't you disappointed that your husband was so poor when you met him?
H:He was really poor when I married him. Didn’t I tell you that he sold yeot(Korean sticky candy)?
H: After my parents met with a prospective marriage partner, which is my husband now, they told me he was selling yeot(Korean sticky candy), made in a small bucket. My parents said they won’t let me marry that poor guy. He was a refugee from North Korea. He had nothing. He lived here in Songlim dong.
To go to his house, you need to go this steeeeeep hill from the salvation army church. That was the only road. The salvation army church distributed corn flowers to people and sold the leftovers. We bought the leftover cornflower and we made a sticky candy with it and sold the candy to people. I had to push the bicycle from the church to our home. Because it was so steep. We sold the long sticky candy.
I married your grandfather near the first full moon of the lunar new year and I had to make the sticky candy overnight during that time because it was busy. I sold the candy for more than 10 years. After over ten years of selling the candy, we quitted it and moved to Suwon. Your mom was around 13~14 years old when we moved to Suwon.
Oh my god. We lived here before that. Most of the people who lived here were refugees from North Korea. We sold candies so we could make a living but the other people were really really poor. I could feed rice to children but the neighbors were eating mixed millet and sorghum. We used sawdust to make sticky candies. We paid people to bring the sawdust from the down of the hill to our place.
v:how do you feel after hearing that this place will disappear?
H: what?
v: It's all being demolished now. What do you think? How do you feel?
H: what do you mean?
v: The city will get rid of all these houses
H: We didn't plan to demolish the houses back then
v: No no, not the past but right now. How does it feel to see everyone leaving?
H:I knew a lot of people around here, but it's too bad I can't see any of them. There is no one. They all moved to other place. I asked the person who lived in here that I will visit here today and if she know someone who is still living here . But she said “there will be no one because it will be demolished”. Now that I'm here, and everyone really moved out. I thought they will be still here. So I expected to meet them today.
V: You wanted to meet your neighbors back in the days?
H: yes, but I cannot meet them any more. But I am fine with constructing the new apartments. The old houses were pathetic and scary.
Our house was at the summit of the hill. There was a huge transmission tower right in front of my house. Our house was big, with five rooms. People called us “five rooms”. Your youngest aunt was also born here, Songlim 8th district. Songlim 8th district. All your aunts and uncle are born in here. They went to Seryu elementary school, and they went to Seorim elementary school when they were little. The school was in front of the local market. We went to the salvation army church. Me and my husband sold candies so we could make a living so we could send our children to kindergartens.
H: let’s wrap it up
V: are you done? yeah let’s go
H: The old ladies look familiar too. That's why I kept looking at the ladies.