In my hometown of Taojiang, Hunan, the sour jujube tree is called the mountain jujube tree, and the neem tree is called the bitter jujube tree.
Jujube trees and bitter jujube trees, tree-shaped leaves, bark trunks are similar in shape, both bear dates, and the shape and size of jujubes are basically the same. But the dates can be eaten, but the bitter dates cannot be eaten.
Mountain dates can be eaten, bitter dates can not be eaten. That's why there's a story.
On this side of the river and on the other side of the river are two villages, belonging to two different communes. The river is neither wide nor narrow, and there is a flagstone bridge over the river.
We're on this side of the river, they're on the other side of the river. Our side is more lively, their side is more deserted. There is a sandy beach on the bank of our side, and the bank on their side is very steep. If they wanted to swim, they had to cross the bridge and get into the water from our side.
The bridge is our bridge.
It doesn't matter.
The important thing is that they have a very big date tree on their side, but we only have a very big and big date tree on our side.
The date tree on their side was very large, and the trunk was very thick and tall, and it was slippery. The jujube tree grows on a high steep slope, and below the steep slope is a wide curved canal, and the water is very deep and urgent. The jujube tree was inserted obliquely into the steep slope, and the leaves covered the canal with shade. It was easy for the children on their side to climb the date tree, and their village was halfway up the mountain, and under the date tree was the house over there. If our children were to pick dates, they would have to cross the canal, climb the steep slope, and climb the slippery date tree. All of this must be stolen. They absolutely did not allow us to pick dates on our side, and it is said that this has been the case since ancient times. But the children on our side are going to do everything they can to get dates.
At that time, the countryside could not even eat enough, let alone snacks. Waiting for the dates to mature has almost become a child's dream.
The dates are hanging, and the children absolutely can't wait for the dates to mature, and they circle around the jujube tree almost every day, and most of the year is turning. Summer dates are sour and toothless, and autumn dates are sweet. In late autumn, the leaves have fallen out, and on the tip of the tree, under the blue sky, there are several mountain dates hanging - the dates that have been lucky enough to escape the children's "search for him for thousands of degrees". Winter dates, thin skin, meaty, small core, yellow, soft, sweet. I once picked up one of these dates under a tree and put it in my mouth for half a day without spitting out the core.
But it's hard for us to pick the dates on this tree—the children over there are too fierce, and the places where the jujube trees grow are too dangerous.
When we can't pick the dates, we gather under the bitter jujube trees on our side almost every day, pick up the bitter dates that fall on the ground, look at them and look at them, and hope that they will all become dates at once.
"The flowers of the bitter date tree are very beautiful, and the trees are also very fun." My dad said. The bitter jujube flowers are really beautiful, blue, soft and soft, and the piles are blooming on the trees. But there are too many mountain flowers in the village, and no one has seriously looked at which flower, and no one thinks that any flower is beautiful.
The bitter date tree is quite interesting.
This bitter jujube tree is not tall, the branches are very large, almost all the children of the whole village can climb, almost can climb the children of the whole village.
We climbed to the tree, and the old buffalo lay down under the tree. We picked bitter dates to smash the belly of the old buffalo. The smashing hurt, perhaps the itch, and the old buffalo "mooed" and continued to sleep in it.
While climbing on the tree, everyone looked at the jujube tree opposite and discussed how to get the jujube.
"There's a way!" Hua Ge said, "We don't allow them to come to our side and swim in the water." There were many people on our side, blocked on the bridge, and hit them with bitter dates. ”
"Yes! Right! "That's it."
On that day, when the sun was setting, the children over there came to swim as usual.
We execute as planned. A bitter date battle broke out on the stone bridge.
The kid over there was completely smashed by us.
They immediately conceded defeat and finally reached an "armistice": we let them come to our side to swim in the river, and they asked us to pick dates.
......
It seems that the next year, a few big men came from the jujube tree and ran amok to drive away the only pig in my family, saying that my father had cut the firewood on their side. Because they were so powerful, Dad didn't say a word. My mother and I were crying uncontrollably. Dad said, "Don't cry! When you grow up, our family will not be bullied. ”
You know, at that time, a pig was almost the entire property of a family.
I kept crying as I watched the men drive our pigs to the other side of the date tree.
Later, I studied teacher training and became a teacher.
I don't know when, the bitter jujube tree on our side is gone, and several houses have been built on the small dirt bag of the long bitter jujube tree.
Whether the date tree over there is still there, I don't know.
Today, both sides of the river are covered with silt and weeds. The river has long since ceased to be filled with the laughter and fighting of children playing in the water.
Only the stone bridge was still sleeping alone on this quiet river.
When I go home, I occasionally meet my childhood friends and often talk about picking dates.
INTERVIEWER November 29, 2021
(Author Zhan Danian, Principal of Kunming Ugly Duckling Middle School, President of Love and Education Research Association)