Years are a long river of fluctuations, everyone in the flow of the river will leave some good memories, the yellow river on the white sails, is the best memory in my mind for more than 30 years, this memory often appears in my mind, let me reminisce, let me sigh, let me be fascinated, but also let me sigh for it.....
"My family lives on the shore, I am used to listening to the trumpet of the slightly public, and I am used to seeing the white sails on the ship..." This is the theme song of the movie "Shangganling", which is a classic patriotic song sung by the famous singer Guo Lanying. To me, this song seems to have been written for me, my home is on the edge of the Yellow River, wide and long, ancient and old Yellow River meandering from the edge of the village, constantly telling a new chapter in the struggle of our Chinese nation.
Perhaps it was because he was born and grew up in Si, perhaps he was influenced by Guo Lanying's older generation of singers, or perhaps he was influenced by his father who was a boatman in his childhood, and he was particularly impressed by the boat, the river, and the white sail.
When I was in elementary school, I often went with my father to the Yellow River wharf to play, the wharf was at the west of the village Yangshui Station, the high diversion canal was connected to the machine room pumping water from the Yellow River, just like a giant python that was drinking the water of the Yellow River, just on the south side of the diversion canal, it just formed a natural bay harbor, quietly riding many wooden boats with white sails, the mast of the boat stood tall, the sails hung on the mast, the boat was pushed by the waves of the Yellow River and swayed; on the shore was a piece of fortified stone, (a kind of local mat house stone, The west bank of the Yellow River is saline and alkali land, and this stone is needed to make a roof foundation, anti-salinity, a small dozens of pounds, a large hundred pounds. There are also stones piled up like hills by people, and occasionally donkeys with bells sneezing, leisurely looking at the busy people on the shore in the open space in the stones; looking at the Yellow River in the distance, the waves are turbulent, and the rushing river violently lapped at the hard bank, making a cheerful impact sound, and the thin morning fog drifting in the woods on the shore, and the occasional flock of geese flying in the sky.
My father was a boatman, and when he arrived on the boat, he greeted his friends and acquaintances on both sides of the river, and then helped to bring the people crossing the river onto the boat, or to carry the bicycle to the boat, or to lead the donkey pulling the donkey cart to the boat and tie it... After a busy time, with a roar, the shipwrights put away the iron anchor, shouted the trumpet and began to set sail, and the sailboat full of people and goods first went up against the current, to the center of the river upstream, slowly raising the white sails, and the wind puffed up the high white sails, driving the sailboats to the other side of the river. For many years, this beautiful picture scroll has been deeply imprinted in my mind, becoming a microcosm of my beautiful hometown, and often reminding me of Guo Lanying's songs, which is a beautiful motherland and where I grew up...
My father often said that he began to ferry to the Yellow River ferry at the age of sixteen to earn money to support his family, and I was convinced of this, and I had seen him many times carry stones on the back of the ship made of wooden planks, and I had seen him shouting trumpets with his friends in the headwind, holding the boat with long artemisia, and I had seen him pull up the high sails when the wind was downwind; trip after trip, day after day, transporting the stone, peanuts, and sweet potatoes on the east bank to the west bank, transporting the lint and cotton oil on the west bank to the east bank, like ants moving, back and forth, constantly loading and unloading, At that time, I felt that my father was very tall and big, and I wanted to grow up to drive that beautiful sailboat like my father.
The long river of history, like the Yellow River, has suddenly accelerated at a certain stage. In July 1983, when I returned home from junior high school, I inadvertently heard my father, who had returned home to farm, say that the wooden boats on the Yellow River had been replaced by iron boats, and that the ships had a high-horsepower machine and could hold four tractors filled with stones. It was a summer dusk, the shore was piled with sparse stones, a few people waiting for the boat, a tractor full of stones, no donkeys, no planks and coachmen pulling stones, the shore was a little empty; a lonely wooden boat on the other shore was slowly falling on the patched blackened white sails, about to set the sun, the red glow shone on the river, the whole world was like a beautiful kasumi suit, under the afterglow of the sun, an iron ship without a mast rumbled toward me, Smoke is rising in the woods in the distance, slowly enveloping the woods, like a mysterious curtain, and faintly singing from behind the scenes, this is the hero's motherland, where I grew up...
One night in August a few years ago, I accompanied my distant visiting classmates to the Yellow River in my hometown to play, and in the distance I saw the street lights on the long-built golden pontoon bridge, like a golden lantern dragon swimming into the distant forest, the silver river in the lights flowed quietly, in the lights, the large Steyr cars, the Yellow River car was full of stones or stone seeds hurriedly passed, small cars, tractors came and went, the sound of cars and people drowned out the sound of flowing water, and there were several tourists on the wide riverbank, wooden sailboats and iron boats seemed to be avoiding me I looked all over the river and did not find the familiar figure, I secretly sighed that the white sail in my heart has quietly passed away, I am glad that the people on both sides of the Yellow River can now easily communicate, now whether it is day or night, whether it is spring, summer or autumn or winter, the people on both sides of the strait are no longer bound by the Yellow River, the history of sailing ships as roads and iron boats as roads has ended, and the golden pontoon bridge industry is shouldering the heavy responsibility of promoting the economic development of the people on both sides of the strait.
As a peasant child who grew up on the edge of the Yellow River, I stood on the bank of the Yellow River, looked at the gushing Yellow River, felt the changes in my hometown, and remembered the various good news of the motherland in recent years: Tiangong No. 1 went to heaven, the dragon entered the sea, high-speed speed regulation, 6G development success, etc. The pride in my heart suddenly arose, and the song that had been sung many times slowly rose from the bottom of my heart, and then spewed out from the chest cavity, a big river with wide waves, and the wind blew rice and flowers on both sides of the river..... This is a strong motherland, where I grew up.
January 7, 2022
About the author: Zhou Changli, a person engaged in the financial industry.
One point number three friends