Grandma and little redheads

My husband brought back a few small bamboo baskets after work, and I went up to pick them up. "Little redhead", three red characters on the wrapping paper jumped into the eyes. A kind of kindness comes out of nowhere. Hurry to open it, it is really the little red head of Lujiang that Grandma used to nag. For dinner, I fried some in oil and put it on a bone china dish. Under the light, the little red heads on the plate opened their mouths, as if to ask" Where is Grandma?" "My eyes are moist, and my heart drifts back to the distant past.

At the end of the 60s, Grandma came to the ancient city when her eldest brother was born, and since then she has begun to take care of the five of us brothers and sisters. When we were children, we surrounded our grandmother like a flock of chickens every day. Grandma used to tell her stories while doing housework.

Grandma said she was born in a place called Bao Jiawei, which was a large manor. Zhuangzi is surrounded by a wide and deep trench, and a large family of dozens of people live in Zhuangzi. Her family's life is very solid. The family runs a private school, and when the meal is opened, each household sends someone to the kitchen to collect the food and return to their own house to eat. Poor she didn't have a mother when she was 3 years old, but fortunately her father and sister hurt her very much, and she had never been bullied since she was a child. She went to private school for a few days, and was reprimanded by her husband for fighting with her cousin and tearing up each other's books, and she was embarrassed and did not want to step into the school. More than once she regretted the reckless ignorance of her childhood. She said, "If I had been literate, I would have been able to go out and work with your grandfather later."

Grandma told us that she was 16 years old and married to her grandfather, who must have had dolls since childhood. Grandpa was the only son in the family and had two older sisters and one younger sister. When Grandma married into the Qi family, the two sisters were already married, and Grandpa was studying in the city. Every time Grandpa came back from vacation, he always looked for her first when he entered the house. Once, several of Grandpa's classmates came to the house as a guest. When they left, Grandpa smiled and told Grandma that the classmates had come to see her in order to verify that Grandma was as good as Grandpa had boasted. Whenever she said this, Grandma smiled like a little girl with an embarrassed smile. Her mother-in-law always lovingly called her "old nest", and her father-in-law secretly put her embroidered shoes in his arms and went to the tavern to show off. A few years passed, and Grandma gave birth to three children. One morning, the red yingshan that spread over the mountains stained Yunxia red, and Grandpa was gone. He joined the revolution and followed the troops into the Dabie Mountains. Since then, I have never heard from my family. In the years that followed, her in-laws died one after another in Si'er's pain, and she gave everything she could to marry her sister-in-law. The only thing she was glad about was that her children grew up safely.

At the beginning of the liberation, Grandpa returned from Beijing and brought back the divorce agreement. Grandma said that she did not cry or make trouble, followed Grandpa to the city, and quietly went through the divorce procedures. She continued to live in the countryside with her three children. She sent her son and two daughters to school. People around them say that boys can just study, and girls help work at home, don't you have to be more relaxed? Grandma just smiled at people's well-meaning advice and never defended. We often hugged grandma and scolded grandpa for Being Chen Shimei. Grandma always said lightly: "Don't blame him, he is for the revolution." I raised a college professor, two middle school teachers, and I was content. ”

Grandma often talked about a snack in her hometown, the little redhead. She said that there is a pasta called "little redhead" in her hometown, which has a history of more than 200 years. During the Qing Dynasty, a Lujiang general led jianghuai disciples to korea, and the military cook made a kind of noodles to comfort the soldiers to boost morale, because it had a red dot on its head, which people called "little red head". Later, the army returned to his hometown and brought back the little red head. Since then, little redheads have become the most popular noodle dish in the region. Grandma said that Grandpa especially loved to eat the crunchy little redheads that were fried in oil. Grandma sang the song: little red head, little red head, white body, red head. The boy is fighting on the battlefield, and the daughter's family is worried about each other.

I once ate a small redhead. I remember when I was in junior high school, once, Lujiang's relatives brought a small red head. Grandma fried it in oil and distributed it to us. To be honest, I didn't have a special impression after eating, but it was just a normal pasta. I even thought Grandma was a bit exaggerated.

Today, I ate a little redhead again. I picked one up and put it in my mouth and chewed it slowly, trying to find something special about it. Caramelized, oily, sweet and soft, and the faint aroma of green silk, the taste of small redheads spreads in the mouth. Slowly, slowly, after passing middle age, I finally tasted the unique taste of the little red head, which was the taste of acacia, a taste that hurt in my heart but could not be said!