Workers and Peasants Academy students take souvenir photos. Photo archive
At the age of 16, I enrolled in the Kien Giang Province Workers and Peasants Cultural Supplementary School (August 1985). Because I was still young, before “departing”, my parents were very worried and gave me many instructions. My father said: “I feel very secure studying at this school. In addition to studying culture, you will also learn to become a cadre and study politics . When you graduate, you will be more stable…”.
The author took a photo at the 8-classroom area donated by UNICEF to the Kien Giang Province Workers' and Farmers' Cultural Supplementary School. Photo: VIET HOA
Unforgettable day of school
In early August 1985, I received the admission notice via post to the commune. I was so happy that I could not describe it. Lying on the water hyacinth hammock in front of the simple thatched house, I read and re-read the admission notice dozens of times, considering it a noble reward. I still remember clearly that at the bottom of the document there was a stamp (rectangular) of the Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee, the person who signed it was Le Hong Anh, but I forgot what his position was.
At that time, I and some friends had just graduated from junior high school (grade 9) at the village school (Hoa Thuan Junior High School, Giong Rieng), still "naive", but still confidently went alone to the Kien Giang Province Workers' and Farmers' Cultural Supplementary School. The first leg was to take a boat from the commune to Giong Rieng town, then from Giong Rieng bus station, we had to wait to buy tickets to go to Minh Luong (where the Kien Giang Province Workers' and Farmers' Cultural Supplementary School was located).
My admission notice was also very impressive, thanks to this paper I bought a bus ticket easily and quickly, without having to "hang behind" like other people. Then, after 12 hours or so, I finally arrived at the school "oh what an unprecedented space, so vast, so big school". At that time, the Kien Giang Province Workers and Farmers' Cultural Supplementary School was located in Minh Hoa commune, now Minh Luong town, Chau Thanh district. At that time, the administrative center of Chau Thanh district was located in Rach Soi town, now Rach Soi ward and Vinh Loi ward of Rach Gia city.
My first impression when I arrived at the school's Organization Department was to "present" the admission notice and the documents that the notice had instructed me in detail, including the document to cut off my household registration and completely separate myself from my family. At the Organization Department, I met a female officer under 30 years old wearing a simple red shirt. She introduced herself to me as Van. Later, I heard that she was an officer of the Provincial Party Committee's Organization Department assigned to the school to receive the documents.
Ms. Van happily and enthusiastically guided me to meet a middle-aged man wearing glasses, Mr. Le Thanh Hue, an officer of the Education Department. Mr. Hue looked at my file and report card and wrote a few words on a small piece of paper, "assigning" me to class 10H. Ms. Van pointed to the next room and told me to go see Ms. Huong (accountant) in the administration department to receive a daily meal coupon at the communal kitchen run by Ms. Tu Le, who was in charge of the kitchen, along with many other girls and women. Ms. Huong instructed me, "If you don't eat rice one day, report to the class monitor to cut off your meals. At the end of the month, the administration department will pay you back in cash..."
"Rice with grass"
Whenever I recall the memories of the Workers and Farmers, I am always grateful to the leaders of Kien Giang province for taking such good care of us students, even though we knew that the subsidy period was very difficult, lacking, even "hungry", provincial, district, and commune cadres, and even soldiers had to eat "mixed" food, but we were provided with enough rice, even though the rice bowl was filled with grass. The important thing in 1985 was that we, the Workers and Farmers students, were entitled to 17kg of rice/month and also had money for meat and fish, while the provincial and district cadres were only given 13kg of rice/month (if we ate mixed food, it would be converted from corn to rice).
Workers and Peasants Academy students take souvenir photos. Photo archive
The collective kitchen of the Kien Giang Province Workers and Farmers’ Cultural Supplementary School is a large house like a hall, about 400 - 500 square meters wide, each meal can accommodate over 500 students, the kitchen arranges 8 students per table. Before 1985, I don’t know, but from 1985 onwards, there was no shortage of rice, we ate comfortably, but the rice bowl was filled with grass flowers, we had to eat and choose each flower of grass while eating. Some people were so hungry due to studying overtime that they ate just to finish the meal, not having time to choose and separate each flower of grass.
Daily meals included vegetable soup and braised dishes, mainly braised small anchovies, sometimes braised meat or three-headed fish which we called “three-headed fish”. The reason for the phrase “three-headed fish” was because when eating three-headed fish at night, the men who had scabies, ringworm, and pityriasis versicolor were so itchy that they could not stand it. Lying under the mosquito net, they kept scratching all night like plucking a guitar string, so they gave this fish a new name, “three-headed fish”.
The most difficult time was after the summer of 1986, during the process of transferring the school to Mong Tho commune, Chau Thanh district, including 2 schools. At that time, there was a time during the week when we only had rice with vegetables and chili fish sauce. Despite that, with the strength of youth, in their free time, they went to the fields to catch fish, crabs, and pick vegetables to improve their lives.
Black market sales
Even though we were students, our main job was to study and eat, we still had the same allowance for buying necessities as other staff members. When we mentioned this, we sincerely apologize to the leaders for doing something wrong, but because we had no other choice, everyone did it. To be honest, at that time, because of the hardship, we students only had one breakfast a month, but usually we were happy with just a package of sticky rice, corn, or a loaf of meat bread. Therefore, when we received the notice to buy necessities, we had to borrow money to buy them and then sell them on the "black market" to make a profit, thanks to which we had a little "difference" to supplement a few breakfasts or, better yet, a cup of coffee at the school cafeteria.
The sweet taste is the workers' and farmers' meals imbued with the love of comradeship and the special care of the leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, and the female and female cooks who take care of our daily meals. That is a precious, precious, proud feeling. I consider it a beautiful memory of my high school days under the roof of socialism.
HONG PHUC
Source: https://www.baokiengiang.vn/phong-su-ghi-chep/ky-uc-cong-nong-an-com-bong-co-ban-hang-cho-den-27155.html
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