Remembering a  Small Town’s Past- Kenneth

  He greeted me with a smile on his face as I entered his home to begin the process of the interview. Kenneth  was born in 1932, in Hailar, China, a town with approximately 3,000 people. Now at the age of seventy-six, he still remembers his experience living in Hailar. He vividly remembers his town as a safe place to live, where one could leave the door open and no one will barge in. Even though he grew up in a wealthy family, that didn’t stop him from working hard as a Russian teacher for the Chinese. For enjoyment, many either went to clubs to socialize or to church. His life is different now, living in the United States with his wife and three children, but he still has those times when he misses the place where he was born and wants to go back. Even though he grew up in China, because he was surrounded by so many Russians, he said, “I lived in China, but it seemed that I was living in Russia because there were so many Russians.” He built his way of life by incorporating his beliefs and life style.

 When I came to America I had to change my Siberian name Inokenti to Kenneth because in those days no one could pronounce it. I was originally born in Hailar, China closely bordering Russia. In the community we had actors, singers, famous sports people; they traveled throughout Europe and America. Though names I forgot, we go to high school for instance we were all friends, you know and then maybe some famous people who run sports and play soccer. Girls did ice skating; ice skating was not competitive. Those kinds of things we did in our community, you know, we go to club and then we play lapta, like baseball America; Russian kids play with the stick. We did Russian things because parents came and teach us everybody and they open up Russian schools everywhere.

 People cared about each other absolutely. There were so many Russians and other nationalities it seemed to us like we lived in Russia. Chinese were of course everywhere, but Russians were so many we established our city.  The Russian Tsar built rail roads, from Moscow all the way to, I think, Beijing, or something like that. Everybody had a great community, people felt safe and felt that they could rely on each other, there was no problem. Everybody was kinda friendly then, we know everybody who lives on our street, you know. For instance if I went somewhere I don’t have to lock the doors; nobody will break in or anything like that, you know. 

I remember we had newspaper and radio and that is how we got our information around the town. Radio usually played maybe one hour, two hours, that’s all, you know. They play some Russian music and they tell the news a little bit. The newspaper was about our lives when we were living in China, what’s going on, it was all local for us. They write a story about being in the war or something, maybe somebody who graduated and they are straight “A” students.

 The main social class, I think, it’s just regular people, some merchants. Like I said, American you can say middle class. They have some super rich too, you know, but majority, uh uh, like I said, the middle class. Orthodox was the main religion for Russians, but majority [of the town] was Catholic. Churches were one of the events that everyone attended. Even though in the US we have Republican and Democrats, we had one party, you know, just stay together, real Russians, you know.

 Events that everyone went to, well, they have concerts and plays, movies, all Japanese, we didn’t go there. Sometimes sports in the summer; people go see soccer game, you know, sometimes basketball. Something that the town treasured was the church; we like to go to church. In summer, everybody went across the Sunbury River to swim. The big river, we had some good times over there. When the river froze people could walk on it and go across to enjoy the beauty.   In winter time too because ice froze and then Chinese guys, you know, they had sleigh. We sat on the sledge and Chinese people pulled us on snow by using sticks. Near the water people put a cross and other people came and prayed when there was Baptism, the water was blessed and then all the people [broke through the ice and] swam in the cold water.

 Well, I was happy to be from that town. I was happy there; all Russian people speaking one language and all that stuff so you feel that way, you know. We went to Chinese restaurants, that’s when food is not like here, food was good, you know, sometimes we go to club, you know. I wasn’t deprived, it was all good. The city wasn’t crowded, depends where you live, you know. Four story buildings; now there are a lot of apartment houses.      

I think living in my town makes me what I am today, because our church taught us about geography, history, and trained us after school everyday for the army and things like that. [Speaking of the army], my hero was my father’s sergeant, who was strong and well-built, and I wanted to be like him.       

Interviewed by Angelina Nilssen