Nostalgia essay: Bayberry in the back mountain of Grandma's house
Text: Wang Shichun
When I was a child, I spent most of my time at my grandmother's house in the countryside, and there was a bayberry forest in the back mountain of my grandmother's house, and I missed the bayberry forest in the back mountain of my grandmother's house because there were many childhood memories there.
Rain is a regular visitor in June. As the saying goes, "June day, the face of a child", change is change. The rain in June is mostly showers, come and go. The bayberry in the rain is like a young girl in Dongxiang, the water spirit, the shy answer, the pavilion standing on the branches, smiling against the wind, charming and moving. When the rain has passed, the sun has just emerged, and it is shy and astringently red, without carving, nor whitewashing, still graceful and colorful, chuchu and moving.
Every June, the red bayberry on the back hill of My Grandmother's house hung on the branches, which caused a bunch of our children to salivate, inviting them to hurry up and carry the bamboo basket to the back mountain, scrambling to climb the slippery trunk to pick the arbutus. Picking bayberry in the gentle drizzle is not allowed to wear a bucket hat, nor can it be clothed, because the branches and stumbling branches will remove the bucket and the coat at any time, which is very unfavorable. After going up the tree, as long as you gently touch the branches, it will cause countless bean-sized raindrops to fall on the body, sometimes stretch your neck to look up at the black bayberry overhead, just reach out, the raindrops will fall in the eye socket of the looking up, only to feel sour and astringent, can not open your eyes, every time you go to pick the bayberry, you will be wet and return. However, when I came home, my grandmother wrapped in small feet would boil hot water, force her to take a hot bath, change into dry clothes, and then feel so comfortable.
Grandma's back mountain of the bayberry there are several kinds, the black bayberry, is the ripe bayberry, of course, is the sweetest, every time I pick the bayberry, I choose the black bayberry to take to grandma to eat, grandma always sipped the mouth without front teeth and smiled closely, and it took half a day to eat the next one. Of course, the bayberry that is still red is not fully ripe, but it can also be picked, a little sour, young people are not too afraid of acid, or, where is there so many black bayberry in a tree? There is also a kind of bayberry called white bayberry, the fruit is white and crystalline, the flesh is thick, and the ripe white bayberry is also very sweet, but there are fewer bayberry, and there are only two or three trees in the back mountain of Grandma's house. In addition, there is a kind of bayberry called charcoal bayberry, the reason why it is called charcoal bayberry, that is, this bayberry fruit is as black as charcoal, but this kind of bayberry is also very rare.
Picking bayberry we have also done this kind of thing: that is, in the tree to grow low, climb up the tree to extend the hand to pick, or bend the branches and barely can pick the bayberry are picked, leaving those growing on the top of the tree, the tip of the tree really can not be picked, and these bayberry because of the good light, often are ripe black bayberry, we also have a way to deal with these bayberry: from home to bring an old grass mat, spread under the bayberry tree, and then climb the tree with your hands or use your feet to stomp on the branches, The ripe arbutus will fall, just go down to the tree and pick it up on the old grass mats. However, I and my friends have also encountered several dangerous things, that is, when slamming the branches with their feet, because the arbutus branches are very brittle, accidentally broke the branches and even people with branches fell off the tree, but there was absolutely no big problem, the main thing is that the tree is not very high, people fall on the branches like sitting on a parachute, children are not afraid of falling, no matter who falls from the tree, everyone laughs for a while.
My grandmother and uncle told me that bayberry is also called "fairy fruit", so eating bayberry is not afraid of bad stomach, that is, you can eat everything you pick up under the tree, unlike rotten peach and rotten plum rotten loquat, eating will have a bad stomach. It's true that we've never had a bad stomach for eating bayberry.
My uncle usually likes to drink two sips, and sometimes he personally takes me to the back mountain to pick bayberry, washes the picked somewhat sour bayberry and puts it into the wine, soaks it with the best home-brewed rice wine, seals the mouth, and after two months it becomes bayberry wine. The bayberry wine was bright red and bright red, and it was tempting to look at, and the altar lid was opened, and the fragrance wafted all over the house. My uncle used to call a bunch of friends to come to the house to drink bayberry wine, and I saw it with my own eyes, and several times they were all drunk. But when I was young, my uncle wouldn't let me touch the wine. Until I later joined the work, taught in the middle school in the countryside, and made bayberry wine several times, all of which were successful. The bayberry wine is moderately sweet and sour, the taste is excellent, not only does not tip, but also feels that the mouth remains fragrant after drinking.
Later, I heard my mother say that her neighbors at my grandmother's house had a "doll kiss" for me, which was the daughter of her close sisters, saying that they were still doing boudoir sisters when they were not yet married, and as long as one of them gave birth to a boy and the other gave birth to a girl, they must be "pro-family". Sure enough, my mother's girlfriend sister later gave birth to a girl named Meizi, which was born in the season when bayberry was ripe, a year older than me. My mother called my mother who managed the plums "Aunt", and I was only a teenager at the time, and where I understood the things of men and women, I also called sweetly, and "Aunt" also smiled sweetly and responded.
Every time I picked the bayberry, my mother must have asked me to send a little to the plum, and I also sent it, and the "aunt" praised me directly for being "good", saying that I was sensible, probably looking at my future "son-in-law", and now that I think about it, it is really funny.
Later, I went to school, followed my mother to the county town, my mother worked in the Chengguan vegetable garden team, but Meizi was still in the countryside, I heard that I only read the third grade of primary school, she was skillful, gentle and virtuous, and helped her mother work at home. Of course, my mother and aunt's "family" was not done, and Plum and I had our own destinies. Later, Meizi also married to the county town, and was married to the Tao family at the south gate. Nowadays, we are all people with grandchildren and granddaughters, my mother and aunt have also passed away, before the New Year last year, I met Plum selling rice on the street, I also bought her two pounds, plum mouth is still so sweet, on behalf of her son called me "cousin".
Now, more than half a century later, in the blink of an eye, I am over the age of flower armor. Last June, another year of Bayberry Red, I was invited by my grandmother's hometown middle school to give students a middle school entrance examination composition guidance lecture, by the way to go to my grandmother's home back mountain, the back mountain of the bayberry forest with the passage of time, has long ceased to exist, there has become the township of kudzu science and technology planting demonstration base, I tried my best in my mind to search for the grandmother's family back mountain that piece of bayberry forest, want to pick up those childhood memories.
About author:Wang Shichun, Miao, born in 1952, a native of Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, retired teacher, member of Guizhou Writers Association. Since the 1980s, he has been creating amateur literature, and his novels, essays, and prose poems have been published in public journals and online platforms at all levels inside and outside the province, and he has published a documentary literary collection "Life Station" and a collection of essays", "Xiang Wanyin".
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