| Made
in Korea: From orphanage to true American riches
By Diane Denning
April 2, 2009 | An orphanage in Seoul,
Korea, was the first place he ever called home. Now
he sits in his white house in Logan. Pictures of his
four children line the wall directly behind him. A computer
and TV are both things Scott Salisbury never knew existed
as he started his life in Korea, but now owns both.
His American wife, Shelley, of 22 years helps Salisbury
remember the specific facts of his past from the kitchen
in their home.
"I was made in Korea and shipped
to the U.S.," Salisbury said as a smile came across
his face. "The orphanage is very rough life, not what
you would call easy."
This orphanage was strictly a boy's
orphanage, with about 500 children ranging from 2 to
16 years old. There were two different levels for the
boys to live; older kids on the lower level and younger
kids were on the top level. As far as Salisbury can
remember, he lived in the orphanage since his birth
on June 30, 1964.
In the orphanage the boys were given
three meals a day. "The meals were soup consisting of
just broth, no vegetables or meat, and a bowl of rice,"
Salisbury said. "On Sundays you were very lucky if you
got fish or an egg."
Sometimes, the boys were lucky to
get food at all. Salisbury said there were times he
would go days without food. The older orphanage boys
ate the younger children's portions causing Salisbury
and others to go searching for food elsewhere.
"Sometimes after school or
before school we would steal from the store owners to
survive," Salisbury said. "I would distract the store
owner and my buddies would stuff as much food as they
could. When they had the max they could carry, they
would yell 'done,' and we would spread out and run.
We would meet in one location and distribute the food."
The bedrooms in the orphanage were
15 x 20 feet in dimensions and housed 15 boys around
the same age. The floors were made of concrete, with
an underground pit in each bedroom for hot coals to
be placed that heated the floors.
"Everybody would sleep around
this pit," Salisbury said. "You didn't want to be right
in the middle because you would burn, so everybody would
sleep around the pit like a campfire. Our feet would
be close to the center and our head on the other end.
Each boy took a turn heating the
coals in their room, Salisbury said. If your turn came
in the summer, you were lucky, but if it came in the
winter and you forgot to put the coals in the pit, making
everyone else cold, you weren't allowed to sleep in
the room the next day. You had to sleep outside.
The winters in Korea can get cold,
similar to Logan, said Rylee Tervort, a senior majoring
in speech and communication. Tervort lived in Korea
for two years while serving a mission for the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"Spring is green and gorgeous
with cherry blossoms everywhere," Tervort said. "Summer
is hot and humid and just miserable. Fall is gorgeous
like spring and winter is cold. Colder than Logan with
a little more snow."
The orphan boys were given clothing
with changes in the seasons, and were allowed to wash
their clothes only when they became dirty.
"We had to make the clothes
last a long time, because they were only given in those
{four} quarters," Salisbury said.
Shoes for the orphans were made of
rubber, making them last longer. "A lot of children
got one pair of shoes every other year," Salisbury said.
"If you lost your shoes, you didn't get another pair.
You just had to go barefoot until it was time to get
new shoes."
Orphan life didn't include entertainment
for the boys; they had to find other ways to have fun.
Soccer was one activity the children played and sometimes
if they were lucky they were allowed to watch a fight
on TV.
"There wasn't much to do in
the orphanage but try and stay out of trouble," Salisbury
said.
One way they stayed out of trouble
was by playing games, such as soccer, or they would
make up games. Up the road from the orphanage was a
prison, Salisbury said. The prisoners walked past the
orphanage to their rice fields and gardens. Along the
road to the prisoner's fields was a wall surrounding
the orphanage. The children knew what time the prisoners
walked past and would wait by the wall.
"We kids would get little rocks
and put them right next to us," Salisbury said. "We
weren't tall enough to see the other side of the wall,
but we knew when the prisoners were coming, so we would
just throw the rocks. That was our funnest entertainment
because we didn't have anything else to do except throw
rocks. We would keep score of who hit them to find the
winner."
In the orphanage there were about
eight to 12 boys who grew close to Salisbury. "When
the weekend would come some of the older orphanage kids
would become drunk, and beat the tar out of us," Salisbury
said. Instead of putting up with it, the group of younger
boys dug a hole. In this hole all the boys could fit
straight up and down, just big enough for the boys to
hide until the next day when they would be safe. "This
happened pretty frequently," Salisbury said. "Especially
on a weekend or after a big celebration day."
When Salisbury was nine, he received
news that a family in Meridian, Idaho, was going to
adopt him. Salisbury said there were about 20 orphanage
boys getting adopted around the world at the same time
he was.
"We got our picture taken,
but we didn't know what they were doing," Salisbury
said. "They didn't explain to us what they were doing
and we had no idea there were cameras and pictures.
Those were not common where we lived."
Technology wasn't even presented
to Salisbury and the other orphanage children at all.
He didn't know what a camera was until he came to America.
All of children being adopted flew
on a 747 plane to America. They boys didn't know what
this big plane was, but they knew they finally had enough
food to eat and were headed somewhere far away from
Korea.
The family Salisbury was adopted
by had four biological children and two other adopted
children. "They were good to me," Salisbury said. "My
father taught me English, and my mom bribed me with
candy. I had never tasted sugar."
Salisbury attended Meridian High
School in Idaho. He was introduced to wrestling by his
neighbor and wrestled all through high school. He graduated
at the end of his junior year and completed one semester
of college at Boise State.
Salisbury was introduced to the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his adopted
family when he first came to America. He was raised
Catholic in the orphanage, so at first he didn't want
anything to do with this new church. Salisbury said
he enjoyed fishing and playing on Sundays and didn't
want to have to go to church. He decided to join the
church when he was 15, 6 years after he was adopted.
When Salisbury turned 19, he served a mission to Los
Angeles.
After his mission he went back to
California to attend school at El Camino College. He
finished another year of school there before he was
offered a job in Centerville, Utah.
It was in Utah when he met his wife
Shelley, from Centerville. She met Scott when he invited
her to a singles dance for their church.
"I didn't dance well," Salisbury
said. "I just jumped up and down. But she was rich,
and I was poor."
Something clicked. The two were married
in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on Sept. 19, 1986. He and
Shelley have four biological children, three boys and
one girl.
"Having kids has been my success
in life," Salisbury said. "I never knew what my generation
would look like."
Salisbury and his wife moved to Logan
in 1987 when Salisbury was offered a job. Since they
have lived here, Salisbury has worked in a few different
jobs.
"I have worked for numerous
companies," Salisbury said. "But I have always been
blessed with good jobs."
Salisbury has been active in his
community as well as his church. He has served in numerous
callings including young men's leader, executive secretary,
elders quorum, a member of the bishopric, a ward missionary
and is currently in the high council.
Mishelle Palmer has been a resident
of Logan for 26 years and has known Salisbury for over
ten years.
"The first time I met Scott
was when he and his family moved into our ward," Palmer
said. "Scott is always cracking jokes. He is a comedian
and a genuinely nice guy."
Palmer served as a committee member
with Salisbury as her supervisor. As she was serving
under him she noticed the leadership skills Salisbury
possessed.
"He is good hearted and would
do anything for you," Palmer said. "He seems like a
real good leader, one who wants to accomplish things.
He is a real go getter."
Brian Godfrey has also worked with
Salisbury in leadership positions over the last ten
months. His first impression of Salisbury was his friendly
and welcoming demeanor. Godfrey said Salisbury was the
first person to reach out to he and his wife when they
moved to Logan.
"This first thing that comes
to mind when I think of Scott is that he is not afraid
to talk to people," Godfrey said. "He is one of the
most blunt people I know, but in a good way. He is organized,
always has a game plan and is prepared to execute it.
He takes charge."
Godfrey has learned from Salisbury.
"Scott shows excitement for the work he does," Godfrey
said. "You have to do that as a leader; lead by being
excited."
Salisbury came from a rough beginning
as an orphan but has overcome his challenges to become
a respected member of the community and his church.
It has been 36 years since he was adopted by an American
family and he still hasn't returned to his first home
in Korea.
"I had the chance to back to
Korea, but I didn't take the opportunity," Salisbury
said. "I have no desire to go back."
Salisbury said life is precious and
luckily only comes one day at a time. He has lived his
life to this point without any regrets.
"Life is no mistake, just learning
opportunities," Salisbury said. "You make your own success
and we can succeed together or fail together, but failure
is not an option."
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