The memory

I try not to forget the name as an old friend, Guhwa, Sambok, Dongbo and Woolworth.

Trader Joe’s will be opening a new one soon on 93^rd and Columbus Ave. Some times I go around and look forward to seeing how much progress has been made. H Mart also opened on 110 street and Broadway. The Korean H Mart was a bonus even though I didn’t dare. Both markets were within walking distance of my walk, making it easier to procure food.

A long time ago, I lived in a student dormitory in Long Island and ate three meals at a school cafeteria. My lean body becomes thinner because I couldn’t eat Korean food and weighed about 90 pounds at that time. It was a completely blocked with Seoul and Koreans.

Take a train cross the water and over the mountain, the place was a Guhwa market in Flushing. I bought seasoned radish and red pepper paste from Dongbo, and rice. Unfortunately Kimchi can not buy because it might smell bad. I cooked the rice in a pot that I bought at Woolworth. As soon as I brought white rice with my mouth, I was moved to tears and sobbed. It’s been half a year without Korean foods.

Loneliness was a disease. But what was more urgent was that you could not eat properly in your short appetite. I moved to Manhattan. And I met a man. He was also very thin too.

On a very cold snowy day, I bought kimchi at Sambok market in mid-town and went to his place that I had once visited to give him kimchi. I wandered for a while and found his place barely. The fierce wind from Hudson Valley caught on to the acceleration as it passed through the Broadway buildings. I'm going through the blizzard and I was sick with a cold. At that time, I had earned his heart because the Kimchi was so precious.

Nowadays, Guhwa, Sambok, Dongbo markets have disappeared. I am so glad to see red pepper paste that the Dongbo food mark was engraved a few years ago, but I do not know whether it is the same as before. Woolworth, that seemed to be scattered all over the place where I could find anything, also disappeared after leaving a splendid building in downtown.

Guhwa, Sambok, Dongbo, and Woolworth, which reminisce in my memory and revived with longing, rewind my memory. The thought is like a submerged tail and sink into another memory. The gaze of gazing at the corner of a faded wallpaper pattern seems to move for a long time as it moves to the side pattern. Bitterly....