Uncle Chorn’s Story

 

 

 

Even it lasted 40 years ago, but the picture of my father carrying “cacti” in a tiny box back home has still printed in my mind. These little beautiful plants were still seemed to be expensive for our family at that time. “Just wait a little more time, these plants will earn us” he said to my mother.

 

       (A.C.1958) At the age of 46, my father started to collect and cultivate those little decorative plants that were so rare and expensive that we had to buy them from a Taiwanese who imported some from USA, and from other collectors in Thailand. Little by little, collected and cultivated, they became more and more. And when my father retired from his routine work in advertising, he started a new loving job by selling some of his fascinating cultivation.

 

         In 1961, Uncle Chorn’s shop was established at the approaches of the Saew bridge, opposite to the Department of Revenue that is the approaches of the Prapinklao bridge these days.

 

 

         In 1976, we moved to our new home in Bangroey, Nonthaburi. My father gave our home a name, that’s why, “Uncle Chorn’s cabin” still remained up until now. He kept on searching and seeking for some new species not only from USA but from Japan and from many Latin-American countries.

 

      Commercially, my father always emphasized on the principle of high quality at reasonable price and tried to give our customers and other collectors lots of knowledge and information. Growing from a small job to be a bigger one, this shop has supported our family continuously. Uncle Chorn’s cabin, as I may say, has been the first ultimate cacti shop in Thailand.

 

            For 4 decades, the cacti society has been enormously changed from it used to be. Hopefully, we expect to see our society keep going up to be comparable to other countries in a few years.

 

 

                Should my father know that his plants of which he has spent his life and his love taking a great care, showering happiness to all people in Thailand as they do nowadays, surely, very happy, he will be.

 

 

                                                            Written by ‘Auntie Pom’ Pikune  Sungsuwan

 Translated to English by ‘Tar’ Sirapassorn and ‘Win’ Sikarin