Memory of the dry smoke pot
Text/ Song Jizong
"Bah Blah Bla
In childhood memories, whenever they have leisure time, people are in pairs of threes and threes, or cross-legged in hot kangtou, or crouching in the yangpo, or sitting in the shade of trees, leisurely smoking dry cigarettes with their respective cigarette pots, chatting and talking about anecdotes, witty tone, and leisurely demeanor.
Speaking of dry smoke pots, young people nowadays do not necessarily know that it is a special tool for smoking dry tobacco. Its structure is also simple, in the middle is a bamboo pole about 50 to 20 centimeters long, thick fingers made of cigarette poles, the two ends are filled with stone or agate mouthpieces and curved copper cigarette pot heads, and with an iron hook for digging up smoke and embroidered green cigarette pockets, it becomes a complete dry smoke pot.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the men in their early thirties in Huining's hometown almost had a dry cigarette pot in their hands. When smoking, put the head of the cigarette pot into the cigarette pocket, rub it with your fingers a few times, and the smoke pot is filled with dry smoke, take it outside, and press it flat with your thumb, and smoke it with a match. People with big smokers, especially those who have worked for a while, can't wait to dig up a pot, take a few sips of beauty, and then slowly spit out the cigarette, which is very comfortable and comfortable, and deduces a wonderful mood.
Since I can remember, I have known the dry smoke pot, because the fathers and fellow villagers in my hometown almost all use the smoke pot to smoke dry tobacco, and the love for the dry smoke pot is their only hobby. Mo Xiao looked at an inconspicuous dry tobacco pot, which played a great role in promoting the labor of every father and fellow villager who smoked dry tobacco. When you are tired from work, sit down and smoke a pot to refresh your mind and continue to work. In particular, some people lie down on the field, take a full sip of smoke, close their mouths tightly, and then raise their heads, open their mouths again, and slowly spit out a round smoke ring, rising in the air, floating leisurely. It seems that a pot of smoke after work is so fragrant.
At that time, there were five or six older people in the production team, all of whom were good at the crop line and smokers together. When the captain arranged the farm work, he deliberately arranged several of them together, whether it was ploughing, planting, grinding, they were all properly matched. When it was time to rest, they gathered together and drew a cigarette pot from their waist or neck to fill it, as long as one of them drew a match and lit it, and the others borrowed fire from each other. Sometimes they would give in to each other: "You taste my cigarette." "My smoke is hard, you taste mine."
Green smoke swirled and rose above the field, and the old cattle stood on the ground and flicked their tails slowly, regurgitating unhurriedly.
Today, those old people are gone, but their few dry smoke pots still remain in my heart, the green smoke from the smoke pots still rises in front of my eyes, and the suppressed and frustrated sound of "bar click, bar click" still echoes in my ears.
I have a grandfather, the fifth oldest among the brothers, and I often call him "five grandfathers." The old man has a straightforward personality, is proud, loves to smoke dry cigarettes, tell stories, whether it is out to relax or cool off in the shade, always holding a dry cigarette pot in his hand. When he saw me and a few children playing, Lao Yuan greeted us with his spoken words: "Call a doll, listen to the ancient scriptures." "Hula, a few of us went around, and Grandpa Five was not hurried, filled a pot of cigarettes, lit and smoked while talking." Wu Song Fights Tiger, Wild Fox Jun'er, Ma Da Liu Er Shi San Bao, Gaga, Cow Slip and Fall Lu Qiao Beat... The vivid image told by the story is very realistic, and the two lips are "bar click bar click", smoking with taste. My friends and I listened to it again and again, and the more I listened, the more fascinated I became. When Grandpa Five wanted to smoke, we rushed to put a cigarette on his cigarette and light a fire, and when we were tired, we wrapped around him and shouted, "Grandpa, talk about it again, talk about it again." It wasn't until noon or when it was dark that Grandpa Five came wittily to say: "Call to know the story behind you, and listen to the next explanation." "Grandpa Five's dry smoke pot accompanied by his interesting story has always haunted my heart.
The dry smoke pot was a patent of the rural people at that time, and it was a lingering memory. When guests or neighbors visit each other at home, the host always says enthusiastically: "One ha on kang, one ha on kang." Then he filled a pot of cigarettes and handed it over with both hands. As the smoke rose, a leisurely chat began, and the conversation was most of the day. There are some small contradictions between neighbors, or there are some difficult things to solve, as long as they can sit together and smoke a few pots of dry cigarettes, all contradictions are resolved, all things are solved, and the dry smoke pot is a tool for fathers and fellow villagers to communicate with each other.
At that time, the fathers and villagers called smoking "eating" cigarettes. In their view, everything produced from the yellow soil, as long as it can be imported, is "eaten", and does not care at all about the statement that "smoking is harmful to health". Their concept is that health means a good mood, food, enough to eat, and to be able to work in the field.
Dry tobacco is planted by the fathers and fellow villagers themselves. Every spring, they get busy in the open space behind their houses in front of their farms: fertilize the ground and then raise seedlings. When the seedlings grow to two or three inches tall, transplant, water, hoe, and play fireworks.
Playing fireworks is a little technical work, playing the right kind of smoke "hard", smoking up a lot, on the contrary, the planted smoke "cotton", smoking is not energetic and choking. In the autumn, before the frost, it is shoveled down, bundled into small bundles, hung in a cool place, slowly dried in the shade, processed into dry smoke, and packed in a container that can block the moisture for a year. If there are relatives or people in the village who have not planted dry tobacco, they can give some to each other, which is also a hometown specialty.
Everyone has memories of the smell of their hometown, and in my memory, the dry smoke that filled the room was a lingering smell, a real taste, although not so strong, but enduring.
The times are developing, and today, the dry smoke pot is rarely seen in the countryside, and the rich smell of dry smoke is far away, and that era is also far away. But the imprints left by that era, like the green smoke in the dry smoke pot, always appear in front of the eyes, and behind the smoke, there is a thick and eternal smile...
December 8, 2021
About author:Song Jizong, a native of Pingtouchuan Town, Huining, Gansu, and a member of Huining County Writers Association. Life motto: Where the footsteps cannot go, the eyes can see; where the eyes cannot see, the state of mind can be reached. When a person has a dream, he can say: where his footsteps cannot go.