I met archivist Lee Shin-ja of the Cheongju City Archives in a serendipitous turn of events. We discussed an entirely different matter when my history with Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, came up. I was a lad of 20 when I lived in the city for almost a year while learning the Korean language. Being an avid hobbyist photographer and an inherent anthropologist, I took photos of the city and its environs, places, buildings and seemingly random scenes.