What is the poor? My aunt was a retired worker, and her salary could be paid a lot every month, but she had never been able to jump out of the nest of suffering on her own in her life, and she really became a poor person for a lifetime.
My aunt was an old revolutionary, she joined the revolution in 1939, followed the Eighth Route Army south and north, rescued the wounded, cared for children, and almost lost her life in the hands of secret agents.
After liberation, she was arranged to work in the hospital, and she and her uncle did earn a lot compared to the common people at that time, but with the birth of children one by one, plus parents and relatives of both sides, the salaries of the two were difficult to support so many mouths in the family. The aunt had a total of six children, a family of eight, plus both parents needed help. The most difficult time, once wanted to give the youngest daughter to someone, everyone has been found, after the child was born, but how to give up, two bites of teeth will pull the children one by one.
In the fifties and sixties, the country was particularly difficult, and there was a time when money could not buy grain, and the rice directly distributed by the state allowed the vast number of workers to get rid of their own shells. As a northerner, who will do this, often mash the rice into a pile of powder, originally can not eat enough, become a pile of powder and not willing to throw away, can only sift off the shell little by little. During the three years of natural disasters, their family was seriously puffy, and several children were so hungry that they could not do anything, so they could only send them to their grandmother's house, whose family was in the mountains, and there was not enough food to eat, but with the addition of wild vegetables and grains, they could at least eat enough, without going hungry. And my mother was also working in the city at that time, my mother's meal was very small, and she could send her five or six pounds of food stamps every month, because of this grain, my aunt thanked my mother for a lifetime.
The leak coincided with continuous rain, the cousin was in his teens due to naughtiness and injured two eyes, in order to cure his eyes, the family traveled all over the big and small cities, and the huge cost made the family worse. It wasn't until my cousin was in his twenties that one of the eyes was saved, and although glasses were needed, at least there was no need to be blind.
At that time, as a city person, she lived a life that was really not as good as in the countryside, and she was eager to break a penny into two halves. The uncle was nine years older than her, a few years earlier than her aunt, and when the two left, the salary did not rise, and the family was still stretched. When my uncle died, he couldn't even afford to buy a birthday coat, so he was buried in tattered clothes.
What kind of food my aunt has been eating for many years is leftovers for the whole family, and she packs up the soup and brings water to eat. After the retirement, with the development of the country, their retirement wages have also risen. The family finally got out of the difficult times and moved into a new house. The children have successful careers, the worst daughter is a teacher, and even the cousin with eye problems owns the shares of the company.
But my aunt's mind still hadn't come out of that difficult time. She was reluctant to eat, she was reluctant to drink, and all her salary was saved in her hands. The thing she eats the most is steamed buns, and she can't do without scallion dipping sauce every day, and rarely makes meat. The steamed bun was repeatedly heated in the pot many times and accidentally drizzled with water, and she could not hold it, and when it fell to the ground, she would quickly shovel the steamed bun with a shovel and then eat it carefully. The steamed buns for many days have been moldy, and the old man is not willing to throw it, using a knife to cut off the moldy part, and the rest continues to eat.
The children brought her all kinds of delicious food, bought her cooked food, bought fresh meat, and the great aunt scolded the children every time, suspecting that the children were spending money indiscriminately, and what was even more excessive was that in the blink of an eye, she would give the things that her children gave her to others, and after a few times, the children did not dare to buy her anything. Until her death, the things she ate the most were steamed buns with scallion sauce and garlic. Because in my aunt's cognition, as long as it can fill the stomach, it is a good meal.
The towels that my aunt wiped her face were made of her old clothes, and the sheets on the bed were also made of various old clothes and old pants. After her death, the children turned over dozens of towels in her closet, into ten sheets and quilt covers, but none of them were of her use. Many years ago, she folded her old clothes neatly in the closet.
My aunt was an old Communist Party member, and she had loved the party all her life, because he had beaten Japanese devils, so she hated the Japanese people incomparably. No one in the family is allowed to watch Japanese anime, not allowed to travel to Japan, once cousin went to Japan for a trip, somehow she knew, she scolded her cousin to the dog bloody head, gifts also threw out the door. Before she died, she asked her son to pay the membership fee.
I especially respected my aunt and admired her, because she was a true proletarian revolutionary. But her attitude towards life, I think she is a poor person, because she has experienced hardships and hardships, she knows the taste of hunger, even if the living conditions have greatly improved later, she is still stuck in herself, trapping herself in the difficult years of the past, being able to eat is a good meal, not freezing is a good dress, she can obviously improve her life, but she still lives her life is not as good as the poor. Therefore, I have always believed that people's thinking should progress with society, and they cannot develop their own society and still stand still in the same place.