Beautiful Tainan Photographs from 1967-1969 Time Period - Part III..- UPDATED

More photos from Captain Ralph Henricks, USAF,  the Base Procurement Officer at Tainan Air Base from November 1967 to December 1969. 

Today, photos taken in and around the city of Tainan. 1967-1969

Be sure to click or double click on each photo for a larger easy to see photo

 

Small suburban Railroad Station - A welcome smile from station personnel..

Curious boys, something interesting behind the fence.

What are these goods?  More youngsters have stopped to watch something.

Activity outside a Tainan Temple.

A cold early morning in Tainan

A busy business day in Tainan. The Palace Hotel offers a great street view with a large picture window on the 4th floor.

School boys on their way to an event.  Anyone have an idea where this group was headed?

Same group of boys, arriving or returning?

Typhoon Coming!  Trees beginning to bend as typhoon approaches.  The building is the Tainan Air Base Dispensary (small hospital.)

Captain Henricks talks about his family residence in Tainan:

"We lived in "20 House Compound," which was a military off-base housing complex for enlisted and officers assigned to Tainan Air Base.  It adjoined the American School (K-12) and was owned by the Bank of Taiwan, I believe.  It was a very favorable place to live and we were very fortunate to snag a place there (even if it was House # 13.)  

I asked Captain Henricks about the typhoon that struck Tainan while he was living there:

"As I recall, the locals didn't think it was much of a typhoon -- but we surely did!  It mostly took out trees, denuded a lot of them and took off some ill constructed roofs ( I believe no damage was incurred to the military buildings -- could be wrong, but it wasn't a big operation for the base to clean up the damage, so we didn't have much of any contracted work to do just for that event."

"It hit in the middle of the night, and our 'houseboy' Chuan Bing Han and I were out in our skivvies and sandals in a downpour of rain that was like being in a warm shower!  We had to 'batten down' the hatches' on the house in an attempt to keep from having any broken windows. (We succeeded.)  We lost the 20 foot avocado tree in our back yard and a lot of limbs down all over the base and town, but very little property damage, as I mentioned above.  The Air Asia maintenance area on the north end of the base was fully loaded with battle damaged aircraft from 'Nam', tied down nose to tail, wingtip to wingtip.  Nary a one was lost or came unmoored.  Now, THAT was a miracle and the result of great planning by the Detachment Commander, Lt. Colonel George Yoo, USAF."  

Avocado tree down at House #13.

Additional damage on the grounds of "20 House Compound."

 Rain pouring down as the last of the broken tree limbs are hauled off.

Lots of typhoon debris around the area.

 

"My son,seen here, hiding his eyes from the strong morning son, is embarking on a pedicab ride out of our carport at House #13. We still have that pedicab.  My son now has children of his own about the same age he was when this photo was taken in Tainan."

  

 Thank you Captain Henricks for sharing all of your wonderful photographs.

I hope you enjoyed our peek back into some sights of Tainan in the 1960s.

If you have old photographs and/or stories of your time in Taiwan, please contact us.

We would be pleased to display your old photos and remembrances on this blog

Beautiful Tainan Photographs from 1967-1969 Time Period - Part II - UPDATED

Captain Ralph Henricks, USAF, was assigned to Tainan Air Base, where he served as the Base Procurement Officer from November 1967 to December 1969.

We have posted photos from Captain Henricks previously. 

There are a number of his photographs in the Taipei AS Web Pages, look HERE.

A previous series of photographs from Captain Henricks, which followed the construction of a new water line were posted on this blog, look HERE.

Today, photos taken in and around the city of Tainan. 1967-1969

Be sure to click or double click on each photo for a larger easy to see photo

Tainan street 1968.  Looks like cool winter weather.  Nice looking pedicabs.

Lots of weight in those Rice bags.  Life was not easy in Taiwan during this period.

Have these folks just purchased this charcoal or are they on the way to market their charcoal?  In most homes, charcoal was the fuel used to cook meals, which caused terrible air pollution.  

This peddler has every type of broom and household gadget you might ever need.

Tainan Main Railroad Station

Not a privately owned vehicle in sight.  A few taxis, a couple of motor scooters and bicycles.                              Today, on this circle - ciaos....

On the circle, Hotel Tainan.  What is that old Japanese Era building on the right?

Anyone recognize the government building on the right?

The school's name written above the gate.

Late afternoon shadows along this street. Do you recognize the Lions Club sign.

077 sign on street level.  Is it a knock-off 007 film or a typical misspelling?

Fruit vendor outside gate to a park. I see citrus and bananas on the cart.

UPDATE: A reader of this blog, wrote in and identified the name over the entrance as, Taiwan Provincial Cheng Kung University.    Read about the university HERE.

Taipei Air Station 1962-1965

I received a note from Lawrence Russell this week.  Lawrence worked at the Joint Operations Center close to Taipei Air Station during the mid 1960s.

He sent a few photographs along, remembering some of the happy times he and his wife spent in Taipei.

Click or double click on each photo for a larger view, much easier to read and see details.

A 1963 Menu for members of the "Chow Chow Club" This weeks menu from Hotel Taiwan. Lawrence was a member of the club.  " Members of the club from Taipei Air Station  would go to a different restaurant each week to sample their cuisine. The menu looks wonderful.

Ladies of the NCO Wives Club cooking BBQ outside one of the doors at "Club 13," during one of their "Fund Raisers."  These events raised funds which made their way into the civilian community for charitable projects sponsored by the NCO Wives Club.

Bob Hope during his visit to Taipei in 1963. 

New Years Eve 1963 at Club 13.  Looks like the Champagne glasses are half half empty.  Has the New Year arrived?

Another event at Club 13.  The merry makers still have their hats on.  Must be early in the evening.  Notice the old "glass beer cans" on the table.  Those were popular in the early 1960s. What's the brand name of that beer?

William and his wife having a wonderful time at Club 13..

William's wife Barbara, standing with Ferlin Husky, a popular Country Singer at Club 13.

William's wife Barbara took up Chinese painting while they were in Taiwan.
 

These photos from William bring back some of the good times of his tour in Taiwan. 

We all experienced some of the same feelings during our times on the island. 

I missed the opportunity to experience the Chow Chow dinners, but I can visualize in my minds eye the hotel table and smell the aroma as the plates of steaming food are set on our table. Oh my... those were the days... our time in Taiwan.

Lunch Anyone?

We stopped in a favorite small restaurant in Taipei for lunch recently.

I use chopsticks, but keep a plastic 7-11 fork handy for slippery morsels.

Quite a hearty meal for two folks.

Hot and Sour soup

Sliced Cucumbers

Scrambled Eggs with mixed Vegetables

Thinly sliced White Radish and Carrots

Pork and Cabbage boiled dumplings

Steamed Vegetable dumplings
and Hot Tea

Everything was delicious...

Seldom Seen MAAG Taiwan Aircraft Resting at Tainan Air Base

Larry Michel sent in this photo of a MAAG Taiwan U-8F aircraft parked at Tainan Air Base sometime during 1968-1970 time period.

In 1962, Beechcraft delivered 46 new-build U-8F aircraft  to the US Army.  

A MAAG Taiwan U-8F rests at Tainan.

Color photo courtesy of Ralf Manteufel.

This U-8F was photographed at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin Germany.

Can someone comment on how many U-8F aircraft were stationed in Taiwan.

Where were the pilots assigned, and other information about MAAG Taiwan aircraft.

You can see more photos from Larry Michel in an earlier post HERE.

More Color Photographs from 1962-1963 Part III.

More beautiful color photographs from Ben Hilmes.  All were taken in 1962-1963.

Be sure to click or double click on each of these photos, the quality and detail can be seen and appreciated..  These are truly wonderful photos from the 1962-1963 time period! 

Today, a few street scenes from the Ximending area of Taipei.

This is one of the old South Gates - This one is referred to as the "Minor" South Gate.

It sits on West Aiguo Road, 1 short block east of Zhonghua Road, the main north - south road in Ximending.

The same gate today.  Courtesy Google Earth.

Looking north, this is basically the same view as the old photo above.

Lots of changes have taken place in 50 years.

We move a block west to Zhonghua Road and turn right.

Looking north, along Zhonghua Road.

Most of us shopped at one of these stores sometime during our tour in Taipei.

This was one of "must see" areas of Taipei.

"Back-in-the-day," I would describe this as the busiest corner in Ximending.

Just to the left of the half-circle, across the street, off the left side of this photo, was a large circular street with small food stalls along the inside of the circle.  On the outside of the circle were all of those huge movie advertising posters hanging from the roof tops. 

It was the area referred to as the "movie or theater district," by most folks.

Same corner as above, this shot taken from street level.

What do you notice in this photo?  I note the small number of cars.  We can see a few taxi cabs, and two or three buses.  

Traffic was light 50 years ago.

Today, traffic is very congested on Zhonghua Road, filled with buses, taxis and POVs.

Today, the Metro runs under this street and stops at this corner, Ximen Station.  
There are at least 6 different street exits from Ximen station. 

We're at the end of the old shopping area.  

You can see the North Gate in the center of the photo.

If you turn right (east) at the gate, a short distance up the road is Taipei Main Railroad Station.

It's time to grab a pedicab and head to the Linkou Club for a cold drink and a sandwich.

Thanks to Ben Hilmes for sharing his photos.

Many more of Ben's photos coming in future posts to this blog.