This is a photo I took from the same neighborhood that I took the Opera and Story teller photos. The first photo is of a rice field across the street during Typhoon Amy, before things got too bad to be outside. The other photo is of children and other residents at another time.
I knew it as Min Sin E. Rd. but the spelling has changed so much now. It was hard for me to finally locate the area on Google Earth. I believe I have it now. It is Minsheng E. Rd. I have a couple of images from Google Earth and I am pretty sure this is the same building that I lived in for a few months. I lived in the second floor apartment and another sailor lived in the 3rd floor. The first photo is what I believe was my apartment and the second photo is looking directly across the street from there.
If indeed this is the same building and area you can see the changes that occur in almost 50 years. I'm amazed and I'm sure that some of the blog visitors from Taipei will be amazed also.
Here's a story about that day of the Typhoon. The back part of the apartment had two walls of glass panes that went from ceiling to waist high. There was a section that was about 6 feet long and then another section that went the length of kitchen, bath and water heater area which was a good 12 feet. I often thought that it was odd to have all glass and thought that maybe it was cheaper than using brick.
Anyway, during the storm my wife and I could see the long section of glass panes bowing in and out and we were afraid it would break and throw glass everywhere. We went to the front of the apartment far from the panes of glass and stayed there. Just as we got settled we heard a crash and thought our wall of glass boke. We stole a peek and saw that it wasn't ours but we heard screaming upstairs.
We went upstairs to see if we could help and sure enough their wall had given way and the Navy guy had pieces of glass sticking in his chest and stomach. He and his wife had both been drinking and didn't seem to feel any pain. I asked if I could help and he said they were okay. I went back down to our apartment and got back in our safe zone. We could still hear the guy and his wife arguing.
We moved to another apartment soon after this. I had never seen anything like that entire wall going in and out like it was breathing.
2 comments:
I too remember being in a monsoon and we lived in Koushung at the Naval Compound. I was a little girl but we also had a giant glass that went from one side of the living room to the next. I could here the wind howling and I was holding onto my bedpost for dear life. It subside but I will never forget that night.
Another thing that was odd was when the tide went out so far and fish were flopping everywhere and my mom and I want out to get a piece of coral and some drift wood. We still have the coral the tear was 1969.
The other comment about the Diamond hotel was from me too. I was not signed in sorry. I'll repost if you did not get it.
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