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History Where were you, all on July 20th, 1969
2019.07.11 13:35
Where were you, all on July 20th, 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on Moon?
I can’t believe this year is going to be the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon Landing!!!
Indeed, it was the first summer I had here in the U.S. since I arrived in Richmond, Virginia
to start my new life in America.
Dr. and Mrs. HM Lee, my mentor, kindly invited me and my family, my wife and two daughters, 5 and 3 years old,
to join to his family vacation to come to Virginia Beach to spend one week together.
This first summer vacation was the most memorable affair to me, especially because of Apollo 11 Moon landing
we watched on TV with such suspense. Dr. HM set up the TV for such special occasion in the screened porch of
the beachfront house he rented to watch this once in a lifetime event.
We spent the whole evening with Chesapeake blue crabs and beer, watching Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin to step onto the lunar surface.
I still vividly recall such ecstatic moment I never had again for the last 50 years,
together with Walter Cronkite’s exciting voice, ‘liftoff! liftoff!’, still ringing in my ears!!!!
What a summer it was!
BB Lee of ‘63 Class
Comment 7
-
"I was making a round at 서 3 외과 병동, old SNUH. Heard the news on the floor and watched
the landing from a small B/W TV somewhere in the hospital later. I was 24.
"Where were you, all on July 20th, 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on Moon?"
This was the exactly same question asked by the lead character in one of my favorite movies
of 1960's story-telling, autobiographical, by Arthur Penn(Bonnie & Clyde) 1980 production.
Title,” Four Friends “—-Very well made movie by a great director and a great screen writer
named Steven Tesich but not a commercial success.
But I strongly recommend the movie and guarantee it would wet your eyes with the stories of 4 friends
during those harrowed years of our younger lives, during Vietnam War, Pueblo, 김신조,
-
Dr. Choh
I can't recall clearly but 서 3 외과 병동, old SNUH, belonged to Medicine Dept and I believe its
opposite wing, East 3 was used by Surgery Dept, where all the surgery faculty offices as well as
the "EIGOOK" for the surgery residents including the locker room and one small room behind
where quite a few including my buddy, senior resident Lee HyuckSang used as 'SOOKJICK SIL'.
Is my memory correct?
During my days till I left in November 1968, main surgical- general- ward was at one wing behind,
East 6 while thoracic surgery ward was at next one wing behind, West 9 opposite to East 9 wing
for Pulmonary (mostly tuberculosis) Disease.
So what happened with East 6 surgery ward on your days? Why did they move(?) to West 3 wing?
Anyhow, I would like to talk about East 3 wing where all surgery depart professors' offices were located then,
with a strange reputation as the spookiest place at night among the surgery residents. I ignored the rumor,
till I by myself experienced because the offices at East 3 wing were closed in the evening so that whole wing
was virtually empty and only surgical residents on call or the residents who finished the work late
had to come to the locker room occasionally to change the cloths to get out the hospital.
Indeed, I shared one weird experience I had in that locker room with one senior resident, Kim???-
Heaven's sake, I can't recall his name but he finished his thoracic surgery resident a few years before
and remained as a JOGYO at thoracic surgery dept to assist Prof. Lee YoungKyoon while preparing
to go abroad (I heard later he immigrated to Canada to follow his wife who was a nurse and got a job
in Canada)- and shocked he also had a similar experience like mine.
So I still vividly remember East 3 Wing!!!
BB Lee
P.S. In our days, there were still many sad stories involved to the screaming wounded ROK
soldiers, mercilessly massacred by NK murderers right after Seoul was taken over by NK,
who were simply burned and left behind. They were also buried alive along the hilltop mound
right behind old psychiatry ward which was all removed to construct the new hospital building later.
So that the last/remotest wing of the old main hospital building, East and West Wing 11,
right across this hilltop- heard later it was flattened to accommodate a new funeral house!-
carried many spooky stories among the nurses who refused to walk out from the building to use
a short cut along the hilltop mound to get back home at night.
-
(Trailer; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
Theater near you on July 26. 1969 in LA.
In 1969, I was 2nd year med school student. I did not care much about
Appolo II or Woodstock. All I want “leave the hell 조선 ASAP! Let’s go
to America! 5 years later I was abroad to US in the plane looking down
the country. It was one of two coolest moments in my life. Another was
when I knew I solved 9 out of 10 math problems in the SNU entrance
exam.
-
Wow, 50 years! Half century?
Amazing stories to bringing us back for 50 years, aren’t they!
Many says ‘keep talking about the past events only’ is the sign of aging!
So? I love it! Good(?) old days like good old wines or good old wives?
Wish to hear more! What a fun!
BB Lee
-
황규정*65
2019.07.12 21:01
My residency of Ob & Gyn was started on July 1, 1969
at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.Program of Ob & Gyn Dept of WSU consisted of 3
years of Ob & Gyn training and elective service for
1 year of each resident's choice at rotating through
3 hospitals(Hutzel hospital, main Ob unit with some
private patients, Harper hospital, pure private set up
of Gynecology,Detroit General hospital,non private
Gyn only city hospital.).Residency life was nothing different than experiences
of all of us as unbearably tough one!Luckily our program was mixed well in private and city
hospital set up and we learned academically from professors
and surgical techniques by numerous excellent attending
physicians. I could not remember whether I watched Moon
landing live on TV or not, but I bet it wouldn't or couldn't.Those are the toughest years of my life, but it was the foundation of
my career as OB and Gyn and it was worth every bit of it. KJ -
Memory, memory, memory!!!!!!
I don’t know how long and how much my small brain could hold up nitty-gritty stuff registered in my memory
but I sure know many of them already slipped away to make me regret that I didn’t jot it down
as my wife always asks to share later with friends.
Indeed, one of the main reasons why quite a few former roommates, who shared overnight on-call room
force them to make a sentimental journey to Richmond, Virginia, was for such unique let-out opportunity
to share funny and also painful experiences over the drinks.
And whenever we talk about such stories we never miss to drink ‘cuba libra’,
cheapest one to become quick drunken, we could afford in those days with yearly 8,000.00 USD salary.
For example, through the last trip to Richmond for home coming day, I heard TWO stupid (?) new stories
involving me, from one of my junior residents from Ohio.
The first one was about the foods we had at the hospital canteen when we rotated to the VA Hospital,
including the soul food (e.g. pig knuckles) as a special(?) treat/occasion, turkey dinner like
a gigantic turkey drum stick for Thanksgiving Holidays, etc.
The darn thing was many recalls and still complains that ‘crazy BB Lee always got a special treat
by the food servers, 100% big fat black women, who always saved the biggest drum stick,
baby head size if I exaggerate a bit, for me for dinner.
Besides, they shoved/added extra half dozen crisp bacon strips on my tray to enjoy southern grits
for breakfast. Plain but funny stories to make us relax and laugh at how stupid we were, etc, etc.
The second story was my unintentional threatening(?) to my junior residents to frighten them
with ‘death threat (?)’, shouting ‘I’m gonna kill you if you continue to fool around, boy!”.
Indeed, it was a mere three years after I started my new American life so that I didn’t know much
about different impact/weight of each word like ‘I’ll kill you’ to American boys in comparison to Koreans.
I didn’t know they take my casual comment ‘I’ll kill you’ such serious way, still remembering.
Indeed, one guy said to me “BB, you know we called you ‘Killer North Korean’ and we were really scared!”
quoting one infamous story developed at the OR after midnight I always feel embarrassed.
If I have a chance I will share later!
Anyhow, I am sure you all have such funny moments to share, laughing as ‘Good old days!!!’.
Funny, we used to swear to each other ‘we will never ever go over dreadful Richmond even by the plane’
till we left Richmond but within 5 years they all came back to Richmond to enjoy Home Coming Days -
although we don’t do ‘show moony on the dining table’ when we all drunken any longer. Too old!
Wish to hear any funny memories to enjoy the weekend.
All the best,
BB Lee
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On July 1, 1969, I just became the chief resident in the General Surgery program in Louisville, KY.
It was a long dream that came true under the pyramidal system.
I worked my ass off for 4 darkest years of my life to get there.
I quit smoking "cold turkey" on 6-30-1969 knowing that I was going to be a real surgeon.
I used to sit in front of a small B&W TV (possibly 16-18 inch screen) all alone in my rented room.
I am not sure if I watched it "live" at the moment or watched later.
Anyway, I watched the moon landing and was greatly impressed.
Then, I did not realize that my life would be as much epic as the moon landing,
simply because there still was a lot of barriers to overcome. The future was uncertain.
In 1970, I finished the GS training and entered Thoracic Surgery training at the University of Louisville.
In 1971, I pass the general surgical board and then passed the thoracic surgical board in 1972.
Looking back far into the past, I had landed on the moon as well in July, 1969.
It was the beginning of a new world for me.
Thanks for asking me about the year of 1969. I was 29 years old.