Korea Recalled
By G. George Ostrom
Leading world headlines this week involved North and South Korea meeting for "peace talks." Reminded me that exactly 20 years ago I was in Korea and later reported here:
So there I was, 7,000 miles from home and no suitcase. Early Saturday morning in Seoul, Korea was fairly quiet with only about 3 million of the 10 million residents on the streets and in the tunnels underneath. Into the tunnels I went to find clean underwear and a shirt. A worker in the hotel told me that was where to go.
Seoul is among the largest cities by population in the world. Right up there with Calcutta, India, Shanghai, China, and Mexico City, Mexico. When you cram that many people in a small area, you utilize space to the max. There are hundreds of tall buildings in Seoul and a huge underground. . . several stories below the streets with miles of shop-lined tunnels. From a single intersection of these underground-shopping areas, I could see 100 shops.
A woman about 4'8" stood on a box and measured around my neck and chest then dug in some boxes for a shirt, "This one fit you." Took it back to my hotel room and put it on. She should have also measured my arms. The cuffs came four inches above my wrists.
It cost $2 to get a shirt laundered, the same as a new one, so I washed out the one I wore from Kalispell along with the socks and shorts, and hung 'em up to dry. Did figure the hotel maids would peg me as a cheapskate, and that reputation would help if they were communicating with the resident streetwalkers. What self-respecting call girl would try making money off a guy who did his own laundry? Must have been right. The "working girls" never looked at me again in the 10 days I was there.
The lost suitcase finally showed up in my room late Monday night. Man from the airline said he thought it went to Bangkok. Everything was intact but that was the first and last time I'll ever tuck several hundred dollars inside check-through luggage.
On many of the Korean hills little mounds are seen. These are the result of a former custom of burying leading citizens sitting down in a chair with their heads above ground level. If the purpose was to let them continue looking over the area, the dirt piled over their heads didn't help.
Few women drive. Out of thousands of vehicles seen, only observed three driven by females. Asked a girl who was guiding me around an old palace about this and her reply led me to believe males are still considered more important in the family and therefore have more rights.
Did however see many women doing hard labor. A bricklaying crew on one of the big Olympic site buildings was all female, trowels, wheelbarrows and all. A majority of the bookkeepers, store clerks, and cashiers were female. South Korea is a clean country. Not quite as tidy as Switzerland but certainly ahead or on a par with American rural and urban areas. One reason involved here is the need to utilize everything, including trash. They even collect cigarette filters which are recycled as stuffing for various things from toys to pillows.
Haven't the slightest idea why a man of pure deeds and thoughts might have noticed this: but, while Korean women are very pretty, they could not be cited for chest measurements. Walking down a main street one day, I got to wondering what kind of crowd control would be needed if Dolly Parton strolled through there.
You bet! I had interesting times fascinating experiences, many humorous moments, and some emotional hours on that trip to the "land of the Morning Calm" but the bottom line reason I attended an international media conference so far across the Pacific, was a personal one. I lost one brother, came close to loosing another in the Korean War. Youngest brother Alva was killed fighting the invading Chinese just above the 38th parallel in February of '51.
For over 36 years, I had been troubled regarding the reasons and the results of 35,000 American soldiers dying in the rice paddies and mountains of Korea. I believe I got some answers last month, and that's something I'll discuss on another day.