By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
SPENCER ó This shows how dedicated Thanh “Long” Dang is to his business, Carolina Seafood & Oriental Market.
Every month or so, Long leaves Spencer for a drive to a huge fish market in Texas where he buys anywhere from 400 to 500 pounds of saltwater jumbo shrimp.
The purchase complete and the shrimp stashed safely in big coolers in the back of his van, Long begins the trek back to Spencer.
Round-trip, the excursion takes 37 hours, and would take longer still if it weren’t for the fact that Long doesn’t bother stopping along the way to rest.
“He doesn’t sleep,” said Long’s 21-year-old son, Danh “Yawn” Dang. “He’s a machine.”
Long, 49, and his family opened Carolina Seafood at 912 S. Salisbury Ave., a couple of months ago. The building is a few blocks from downtown. The store occupies a renovated 1,200-square-foot building that used to house a ceramic shop.
Carolina Seafood’s third ó and final ó employee is Long’s wife and Yawn’s mother, Oanh “Wanda” Nguyen.
As evidenced by their names, the family ain’t from these parts. Long and Wanda were both born in Vietnam, though they met in the United States.
About 10 years ago they owned a seafood shop ó Salisbury Seafood ó that was at the intersection of South Main and Horah streets. They’ve since spent most of their years in Florida.
They returned to Rowan County to escape Florida’s heat and, because, Long said, “I love Salisbury.”
Despite having been in the United States for the better part of three decades, Long’s English remains ó at best ó broken.
“I’ve never been to school,” he said. “My wife, she went to school.”
Yawn admits to being his father’s translator.
“You ought to see him when he’s trying to talk with someone on the phone,” Yawn said, laughing.
Long escaped Vietnam in 1980 with several members of his family, stealing away on a small boat. He said that because they encountered a hurricane and engine problems along the way, the trip to Hong Kong took 12 days. Typically, Long said, it could have been covered in 72 hours.
From Hong Kong they went to San Francisco before eventually settling in North Carolina.
Long said that before he was born, his father lived in France for 14 years. His patriarch spoke glowingly of France, Great Britain and the United States, places where freedom of speech was not only allowed, but encouraged.
Long said the Vietnam War was raging during his childhood. He said numerous American troops ó he remembers all as being friendly ó visited the small village where he was raised.
Whenever fighting commenced, he and his siblings would escape to an underground shelter.
“Every time they’d start the war, we’d hide out,” Long said.
He said Carolina Seafood is something of a dream come true for him and members of his family. They spent two months renovating the facility, its aisles now clean and pristine, the business having the feel of a small shop that might be found in the center of a major metropolitan area.
“It was a shell,” Long said of the building he purchased not long ago. “Nothing in here.”
There’s plenty inside now. In additional to a variety of Oriental food offerings, the business specializes in fresh seafood. Packed in ice is red snapper, mullet, tilapia, king mackerel and more.
Long said his best-selling offering is that aforementioned jumbo shrimp, which fetches $6.89 a pound, a bargain, considering all that goes into getting it to Spencer.
Carolina Seafood is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Bear in mind that the business has but three employees, and Yawn’s time at the shop is limited because he’s studying computers at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.
Yawn said his father invests at least 72 hours a week into the store, displaying a work ethic that most can’t fathom.
“This is hard work, too,” Long said, picking up on enough of the ongoing conversation to realize he is being spoken about.
“It’s a little dirty, but I love it.”
Yawn’s days helping his parents are limited, saying he plans to relocate to either Japan or Korea once his education is complete.
He graduated with honors from high school in Vero Beach, Fla., and is already well-schooled in a variety of computer programs, capable of repairing just about any make.
Asked if a career in the fish business wasn’t his calling, Yawn laughed before answering, “No way.”
Just inside the entrance to Carolina Seafood, the first thing that shoppers see is a smiling statue of Buddha, the religious philosopher who was the founder of Buddhism.
A pat to the belly is welcome, though Long said he hopes the statue simply conveys a spirit of well-being.
“I call him ‘Lucky Man’ or ‘Happy Man,’ ” Long said. “He’s always smiling. I hope he brings me luck.”
Yawn stood and watched his father laughing as he spoke on a recent weekday morning, the elder Dang alternating between his broken English one moment and his native Vietnamese the next.
Father and son would occasionally converse with one another solely in Vietnamese, the talk coming in a tongue that customers couldn’t begin to understand.
During the midst of it all, Yawn lowered his voice almost to a whisper so his father wouldn’t hear.
“He’s very happy here,” he said. “I hope this works.”
Yawn pointed to the barred doors his father had welded outside the shop. When the business closes, the bars are slid across the doorways and locked, providing an extra measure of security.
“He said he’ll quit working when those rails rust,” Yawn said, motioning again to the bars on the sliding doors.
“He’s going to be here a long time.”