oral histories

Could you tell us about your life in Vietnam?
I was born in Saigon, Vietnam. To be exact, I was born very early in the ‘60s. I was raised in the situation of the country, the war. I’ve seen a lot of stuff. People being shot in the street and stuff like that. Then in 1975 when the war ended, the Americans withdrew. We weren’t able to stay in the city anymore… because everything was confiscated.… I continued my school and I grow up.

My parents passed away when I was fifteen years old. We lived by ourselves, with four of our brother and sisters. We struggled really badly. Sometimes we’d go to bed without food. It was tough. It was tough, those days. You know, to make the story short, in 1983 my girlfriend and I – at that time I dated my wife – we decided to leave the country.

We left the country in the middle of the night in a little boat. We escaped. They call us Boat People. We were rescued after seven days and seven nights in the ocean, we did not have enough food or water or anything like that. We had to drink our own urine to survive. At the end we were rescued by an oil rig in the middle of the ocean that belonged to Indonesia. They rescued us and they brought us to the refugee camp in Indonesia. We stayed there for fifteen months. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know where to go. Refugee camps were the worst place on earth at the time. I mean the UN supported so many people, [but] they wouldn’t be able to support them all. They just give us some food to survive.

It’s tough, but we were lucky to be accepted by the Canadian government. They brought us to Canada in the late – we arrived in Ottawa in late 1984 in the middle of the summer (laughs) – winter, actually winter. You know, I remember one night, I got up from my hostel, I think on the fourth floor. We stayed in a little room, and then in the morning we looked down. We said, “It looks so weird. So different. What happened here?” Every car carried a pile of white stuff on the roof. We didn’t know that was snow. It’s so funny, right? It’s so cold, you know, coming to Canada from the other side of the world. In Indonesia it was really hot. We didn’t have enough clothes. When we arrived at the airport, they gave us a jacket to put it on but it’s still not enough. That’s how we came to Canada.

How did you end up in Richmond?
Well, I moved to some places before I came to BC. From Ottawa, I lived there for a year, then moved to Toronto. In Toronto, I worked different jobs. In the winter of 1990, I came to Vancouver to visit my cousin. That was in the end of October. In Toronto, it was really cold at that time. I came down here, people were still wearing shorts on the streets. How come the weather is so much different? Right? In Vietnam, if you want to move from city to city, they have a government permission. If you don’t ask permission and you move without permission, you can be jailed. In this country, you can move any-where. And then I thought, “Okay, I’ve got to move to BC.” So, that’s how I decided to move to BC. From BC, I stayed in Surrey for a few years and I started my small business, and then I headed up to Richmond.

Apart from the weather, did you speak any English when you came? What was different?

You know, that’s one of the hardest things in those days – that I didn’t speak any English when I came to the refugee camp. In Vietnam, my mother sent me to school to learn French because for that generation it was a French colony, right? So, they bring us to the school for French. I came to Ottawa, I remembered a little bit but English is zero. So, I started learning every day, every day. I tried harder and harder, every day to learn little by little. Vietnamese and English is totally different. It’s very hard.

Were there other things you noticed that were so different?

You know, the culture is also quite different. The weather, definitely. You come in and you see a lot of people so friendly, so helpful. That time, my kid, we went to the bus and the bus driver left his seat to carry my baby cart, this little chair, into the bus. I was amazed at how people were friendly, how people were helpful. The love of the people here, you know, it’s unbelievable.

That’s really nice to hear. What was your first impression of Richmond when you came?

I came to BC, as I told you, the city is beautiful, nice and clean, the view of the mountains with ocean, everything, and the food is amazing as well. I did not go out very much to eat because of my budget. We tried to eat at home, mostly. We tried to cook. We tried to save money. Even though, you know, once in a while we go out, we really enjoy.

Can you tell us how you built your life here, your business?

I don’t know if you believe, but I really believe in miracles. I really believe in God. So, whatever I have I really thanks for what I have, right. I came to BC, here, I have a little money. We worked hard in Toronto for a few years and we saved up. I came here and I went into the Mac’s Convenience Store business. At that time, they just needed a little money for investment. So, I was lucky that they applied, I mean, accepted my application, and gave me an opportunity to operate one of the Mac’s Convenience Stores with a little investment. So, I worked hard. I worked like six to twelve midnight every day. I hired only one person who do graveyard. My wife and I, we worked so hard for like ten years straight. No day off.

From there, I saved money and I had two stores, two Mac’s Convenience Stores. We started with a very small store and I built it up, built it up, right? Then, one time, a couple people from Chevron, they stopped by my store, I mean, they stopped by my store and had coffee many times. They’d see how I was operating my business. They’d see my business and said, “Tam, are you ever thinking about going to a bigger business?” I said, “I’d love to but, number one, is I don’t have much money. Number two, it’s very hard to get into gasoline business. Truly, really hard to get into business.” They said, “Okay, you apply to it, put your name down, and you might have a chance.” Those people from Chevron had opportunities in early… late 1990 to 2001, 2002. So, I was lucky to be accepted for Chevron. So, I left Mac’s Convenience.

I started working in one of the smallest stations in Surrey and I proved myself, that I can work, and I work hard. You work hard, you be honest; people see that. When they see that, they gave me an opportunity to operate at bigger stations. From there I do a lot of stuff for Chevron, training people for them. Finally, I ended up in Richmond. They offered me the biggest station on Bridgeport, Number Five with the Triple O’s.