I enjoyed spending some of my spare time visiting Korean friends that lived in the farms below the radio site. We would talk, eat and walk to local rice beer (Makali) houses in the area. There we would meet some of the Koreans who worked at Tacoma Site so we would have to have another drink. Then my friend Kim would take me to meet a friend of his and we would have another couple of beers. There was a few times that Kim or the house boy Mr. Kim would help me back up the trail to our site and make sure I got to bed safely.

The Korean people were warm, friendly, and curious about American culture and enjoyed a conversation in English to practice what they learned in school. I saw how the farmers raised silk worms in their houses, tender their kitchen gardens and toiled in the rice paddies during every season. I ate many types of Kimchi, the national dish and learned to like it hot or plain, winter type or summer cucumber variety. You get use to the smell I guess!

I was told that the mounds of earth in places around Tacoma Site were Korean graves. It was customary to be buried setting upright so the spirit could look out over the valleys and hills or over their fields. Some graves had beautiful stone markers that stood about 4 ft tall. There is an annual holiday when the families of the deceased go into the countryside to the family grave sites and celebrate with the spirits of the dead family members.