My Family Story that would make a Good Book or Movie

I found some old paperwork and it made me a little nostalgic...
I've always thought my family story would make a great movie or book.
I'll give you a little synapsis and you tell me...

It's the 30's and a young man named Taek met a beauty named Pok.
My grandma's surname is very rare in Korea and originates from a clan in Manchuria China. There is a lot of history on how that name came to Korea.
Apparently the women there were considered the most beautiful in all of Asia. In addition they were know for being
the most stubborn women alive (apparently that gene is very strong). A common tradition was for them to wear three identical earrings.
The two lived in an area that is now known as modern day Seoul.

My grandfather was a slim and very tall man. He was also very smart. It was rare for men to work in an office. You really had to be something extraordinary to have a non manual labor job. The marriage was arranged and all was well. Taeks brother also had an arraged marriage. He was betrothed to an older sister of the family, but he was madly in love with the younger sister..............So he married both. They were allowed to do that at the time and it was completely accepted as long as you had the money to support it. That's a whole other story. Back to Taek, tall, handsome, slim and dressed to the nines. The couple quickly had a baby girl, and then another, and then another, and then another, and yet one more baby girl. What a curse to have five daughters in a row. Yes five girls! Taek was exceptionally close to the eldest daughter and the only photo that exists of of the two of them.

Are you following along? This is where is gets messy. Pok had the girls one after another, When my mom was 3, and her youngest sister was just born, Taek was either murdered, or died from sickness. I've heard every story imaginable. I've heard that he was killed by the Japanese, he was killed by a faction of the North, what is now known as North Korea, or that he just got sick and died. I asked my mom before she died and she said she really doesn't know because she too was told different stories, but she believed it was actually Koreans that killed him being most likely.............

The tragedy doesn't end there. The eldest daughter, the one grandpa was closest with also died or was murdered, and as did the very youngest. We were told Buddha took them, but deep down I know that isn't true. My dad knew some of the stories and I can only image they were too horrible to repeat. He had great pity for my grandma (his mother in law) and would often say she went though more than any person should and he would always blame the Japanese. By now war was everywhere, my grandma was a widow with three young girls, two dead childen and a dead husband and now had to flee the only home she ever knew.

The only home she ever knew.....Remember I told you my grandpa and his brother were officemen. My grandpas brother was so wealthy he never walked, he was carried everywhere he went. My grandpa was also rich, but not quite as rich as his brother................but he was apparently rich enough to own a lot of land, in a city called Seoul. Can you imagine the worth? During the war, mysteriously all papers dissappeared. Birth logs, family books.......gone... Funny thing how a family can be land rich one minute and gone just like that!

During the war my grandma struggled, lots of starvation going on. I mean real starvation, not like we say today when we are slightly hungry, so she sent my mome to live with friends. They were an older elderly couple with no kids, they cherished my mother like their own. Mom was a middle child, the youngest and eldest stayed with grandma. Mom lived with the couple for years until it was time to reunite. It was not a happy unification. My mom had lived with the old couple for so long she picked up a different accent and dialect.
She spoke like someone from the South,(think of our southern twang vs a New Yorker) while her mom and sisters spoke like Northerners. Grandmas was disgusted by the change in her speech and would harshly correct her. Times were not easy but they were together.

Soon my mom was a young lady and she met a military man. This man told my mom he knew who she would marry. He introduced her to his friend from back home. A poor farm boy drafted during Vietnam. He was instantly in love, instantly. They asked my grandma for her blessing and she said absolutely not. She said nobody in their entire ancestry married outside of their race. We all know how that works. My mom and dad were shortly married. Soon grandma liked my dad even more than my mom.

Want to know what is hilarious...How even the hardest hearts can turn soft...

Grandma, never lost her looks and soon was courted with an older GI too! We knew him as Grandpa Miles. Grandpa Miles was from the Pacific Northwest and I truly believe only a person of his character could have won my grandma over. (remember most stubborn women part?). Grandpa M was in WWII, The Korean war and was Medevac'd out of Vietnam. In short dude was one heck of a bad Azz!!! I have a box of pins that he ripped off of Nazi's he killed.
My dad was very high rank in the Army and accomplished a lot, but nothing gave him awe like Grandpa Miles. Even with that impressive background, all his medals, all his war experience, if I had to bet money on who was a tougher cookie, I would put money on my grandma any day of the week.

I remember being about 5 years old and my mom and I taking my grandma to school to learn English. Grandma and Grandpa Miles moved to the Seattle area. They lived in a big house with a fenced in yard. Grandma grew a garden and grandpa walked me to school. Life was idyllic but every now and then I would see remnants from a different time. Both had grown up during the depression. They would not waste anything, not a scrap of paper, but especially not food. To waste food was the biggest sin.

These are just a few of the stories I know, all 100% true to my knowledge. I'm sure there are many more that were buried deep down.
I know I come from a long line of survivors, that beat all odds, that went through atrocities. I wish they could see my comfortable life, that what they went through was worth it.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Good stories...could be a series or feature.

I work for a production team and sometimes help out with dialog for the screenwriters. We use this....

www.finaldraft.com...

And when I first started my own film production LLC, 20 yrs ago, I used this.


www.celtx.com...

There is also other good software but I have no personally experience with it.

I also work for an organization turning novels into film scripts....btw, this isn't an advertisement.

Good Luck....when and if you decide to market your piece, we've had great luck with our agent.

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a reply to: JAGStorm

A few more tidbits.

My mom really didn’t know the truth of her dads death but somehow I believe my dad did. I wonder if Grandpa Miles had told him (because he heard from his wife) but it was always kept from the three surviving daughters.

My grandma was an unbelievable cook. When my mom and dad came to live with me, both knowing their were close to death, they both wished they could eat grandma’s food just one last time. Imagine how good it was that, that was their only wish! Grandma made everything from scratch scratch. I’m not taking American scratch either. I’m talking actually growing everything and processing it. She would chop meat to make ground beef, she would brew her own soy sauce. She would make her own noodles and all seasonings from drying herbs. It’s the kind of flavor only achieved by gardening, tending, and hard work.

Here’s another tidbit. My mom is sister #3, sister #4 survived too. Sister #4 doesn’t look anything like my mom or other sister at all. I’ve never broached the subject but alway wondered if she was perhaps a result of “impregnation” during the war. Our cousins look nothing like us either. We have exceptionally strong genes in our family and everyone has this… look. Hard to explain but we all have it but them. I’m not just saying that either, when we were younger the two cousins made note of it too.

a reply to: olaru12

Thank you, I will look into those links.

There is a whole story on my dads side too! We can trace roots really far back and one of my ancestors even
Hosted George Washington! Even though my dads family was from the North some of them joined the confederacy.
We were brought here as a slave but also had slaves. It’s a very complicated past that also includes marriages with Native Americans…

To make the story even more crazy, my husbands mother had an unbelievably similar background to my mom just in another country… Perhaps there are a lot of stories like this!

Always protect your intellectual property.

wgawregistry.org...

www.copyright.gov...

You should write it JAG.

It's funny to me. I was reading through your posts with that thought in my head when I started thinking about my own writing here on ATS. I've never shared any stories or such with anyone other than family or very close friends, which, I suppose says something about how I feel about y'all here. Having written 4 stories now in the last couple of months it struck me that I can see bits of me in each story.

Write the story dear. Nobody can tell your story better than you.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I think Rob Zombie should direct the film.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: JAGStorm

I think Rob Zombie should direct the film.

You know I think Korean zombie films are the best.
There is a little story my mom has told me a few times in my life that would fit right in.

When she was little and went to school all the kids were required to clean it, no school janitors! She said there was a floor cleaning day. They would wipe and wax the floors with the butt of old candles. They had to bring the candles from home because the school wouldn’t provide them either. She said as she waxed the floors the wooden planks would have cracks and in between the cracks you could see the “basement” or cellar area. She was the entire floor of the building was filled to the brim with skeletons. Even in her old age she would shiver telling that story.

I have no clue why the skeletal remains were kept there. Were they soldiers, were they for safekeeping until the war was over. I know Koreans usually bury people in mounds so this was kinda out there.

originally posted by: Moon68
You should write it JAG.

It's funny to me. I was reading through your posts with that thought in my head when I started thinking about my own writing here on ATS. I've never shared any stories or such with anyone other than family or very close friends, which, I suppose says something about how I feel about y'all here. Having written 4 stories now in the last couple of months it struck me that I can see bits of me in each story.

Write the story dear. Nobody can tell your story better than you.

Thank you, and I’d love to hear yours too. There are so many stories that are being lost, and they are often the most incredible tales of the human experience!!!

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: Moon68
You should write it JAG.

It's funny to me. I was reading through your posts with that thought in my head when I started thinking about my own writing here on ATS. I've never shared any stories or such with anyone other than family or very close friends, which, I suppose says something about how I feel about y'all here. Having written 4 stories now in the last couple of months it struck me that I can see bits of me in each story.

Write the story dear. Nobody can tell your story better than you.

Thank you, and I’d love to hear yours too. There are so many stories that are being lost, and they are often the most incredible tales of the human experience!!!

If you'll read through the short stories they're there.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: JAGStorm

I think Rob Zombie should direct the film.

or perhaps..

Bong Joon-ho 봉준호

originally posted by: olaru12
or perhaps..

Bong Joon-ho 봉준호

I think that would be more appropriate considering the source and he's also a big Quentin fan.