Welcome to pay attention to "Fangzhi Sichuan"!
Father's scissors
Hong Lin
The family treasured an old object, a sharpened scissors whose handle was polished but had been protected by the eldest sister rubbing oil, which was left by his father.
The scissors used by the author's father
The father is a tailor, the past long shirt and horse coat, and later the Zhongshan suit, military dry suit, etc., as long as it is made by the father, the neighbors praise him vigorously, "Master Hong, the clothes you made are good to spread, and it is comfortable to wear, and it fits very well!" Father always smiled and said, "Fit is good, fit is good!" ”
As far back as I can remember, my father was a tailor and head of the sewing club in his hometown. At that time, there were no clothing stores on the street, and the people had to find a good master in the local sewing club to customize the new clothes for the wedding and funeral, and the new clothes for the New Year. His father was humble and good at craftsmanship, and many people looked for him. He had to take orders and cut them; he had to dispatch orders and sew them himself, and he was very busy all day long. However, my father's salary is not high, and all the income of the sewing club is basically distributed according to the "work share" you have and I have everyone has.
Later, the sewing society disintegrated. His father was given two South China brand "blackhead machines" and a pair of scissors that had accompanied him for many years. My mother was worried that she would work at a sewing club, and although her income was not much, it was fixed every month, and the harvest was guaranteed by drought and flood. The unit disintegrates, nothing has been gained, there is an old one, there is a small one, how is it good. My father said that with scissors and a "blackhead machine", life would not be troubled.
The Author's Father Used the South China Brand "Blackhead Machine"
My father was the third in the family, but he was the eldest. Seven of their brothers and sisters, the eldest uncle and the second uncle were arrested, and there was no news, and the fourth uncle and the seventh aunt died in their early years, leaving only their father and the fifth and sixth uncles. Listening to my father, my grandfather was a small tailor, who used to help the landlord Lao Cai make long shirts and horse coats in Longchang Genting Village, and he was tired and sick. When my father was eleven years old, my grandfather died of illness, and in order to support her family, my illiterate grandmother entrusted her father, who had only studied for two years, to Longchang Mule Beach, dozens of miles away, where she studied with a teacher. The father learned to tailor, which can also be regarded as "the son inherits the father's business". After all, my grandfather was a small tailor, and he also relied on his industrious hands to support his family.
Author father
At that time, there was no sewing machine, and the traditional long shirt and coat were all tailor-made and sewn out one stitch at a time. After we were a little sensible, we often listened to my grandmother's nagging, my father learned the craft in the shigong family, chopped wood and carried water, washed and cooked, and did everything, just to learn the craft as soon as possible, to pick up the burden of subsistence, filial piety to the grandmother, and to raise the fifth sister and the sixth uncle. When he was thirteen years old, his father went out of school, and the master rewarded him with a pair of scissors. My father took this pair of scissors to an independent portal and began to run a family with hard work. The scissors accompanied father for sixty-one years until his death.
In 1994, the author (first from the left) three brothers took a group photo with their father
With the "blackhead machine" and scissors that had accompanied him for many years, his father opened a tailor shop in his hometown store. Father's craftsmanship in making traditional clothes is excellent, the first time to the door, still need to measure the height, shoulder width, bust and waist, such as a repeat customer, take the fabric over, say what style to do, when to make it. Father once said that when making clothes, three parts, seven points of cutting, and after working the cutting, the sewn clothes will not be bad.
His father's reputation for sewing clothes is getting better and better, and more and more neighbors are looking for him to make new clothes, especially when he is idle, he is specially invited to go to the house to make new clothes for their family. At that time, when going to the countryside to make clothes, the master wanted good wine and good food to entertain the master. Fathers knew that they were not easy, and usually cut the way of life for a day and a half or two into a day. Sometimes, my father and mother came home in the middle of the night.
In the Spring Festival of 1998, the author's family (top left) was reunited
Later, a boss found his father and wanted to process the finished clothes, eight cents a pair of pants, and a dime and a half cents of clothes. At that time, except for my father and grandmother, who were in the town household, I could go to the grain station of the township commune to buy a dime and a quarter of the supply of grain with a ticket, and my mother and our six sisters were all rural households, but they lived with my father on the street, and life was tight. Father said that although the price is not high, but the amount of processing is large, more scissors, the income is still very considerable. Therefore, in addition to the neighbors who usually come to find their father to make new clothes, the family tailor shop expanded its business scope, the eldest sister and the second sister began to learn the craft with their father, the third sister learned to sew in the shop, to order buttons, and the fourth brother also learned to cut long shirts and coats, and the main task of my brother and I after school was to go to the rice milling station, pick up the rice bran that others did not want, or go to play pig grass. A family of old and young, everyone has a division of labor, everyone has a task. The days are also getting better day by day in the completion of the division of labor and the implementation of tasks.
In the Spring Festival of 2011, the author (third from the right in the second row) took a group photo with the family
Later, the land was decentralized, and the people's lives were better. Clothing stores have slowly sprung up on the street, and the traditional Zhongshan suits and military dry clothes are no longer "popular", and the processing of incoming materials is gradually decreasing. Fortunately, there is a custom of making "Shou" clothes in the countryside of the hometown, and my father used the craft of making long shirts and horse coats on the ordering of "Shou" clothes, and the business of the tailor shop was as busy as ever. As long as the mention of making "shou" clothes, the neighbors will think of their father, "Find Master Hong, the shou clothes he cut, the rules and regulations!" ”
At that time, many people on the street laughed at the fathers and children and looked down on us as rural people. Father pulled on the scissors, always happy, "Afraid of what? I have craftsmanship. Big deal bitter point, tired point! "Every spring ploughing and autumn harvest, my father would also put down his scissors, and together with his mother, he would take his brothers and sisters to walk dozens of miles of mountain roads, return to our rural hometown, pick up the fields, and then move the harvested grain home little by little.
During the Spring Festival of 2018, the author (first from the left) took a group photo with his family
My father was a craftsman, and he had also suffered from the countryside and knew that life was not easy. He only studied in private school for two years, but he often warned us that "it is better to read than to read", "Either study well, or go back to the countryside to dig up fields, or pass on the scissors to you." In fact, in my father's heart, it is not that the countryside is not good, nor is it that it is not good to be a craftsman, it is that I feel too bitter and tired. He hopes that through reading, we can jump out of the "farming" door and change our lives.
The eldest sister and the second sister followed their father the most time and learned more crafts. They gave up the opportunity to study and took the initiative to stay at home to help their father take care of the tailor's shop and help their mother take care of the fields. Later, the third sister was admitted to the teacher's training, and the fourth brother and the younger brother became teachers successively. I was the only one in my family who studied pu high school and chose to work as a teacher after graduation. We went to work one after another, and every time we came home, my father did not forget to remind us that the work was not easy to come by, cherish it, and the chalk head is always lighter than the hoe and scissors.
Group photo of the author (first from left) and father (first from right) on his 73rd birthday
My father never played cards or sat in a teahouse in his life. His greatest hobby is listening to the yellow plum drama on the radio, while pulling his scissors and cutting the style that his neighbors like on the rattle, indeed good or polyester fabric. At that time, we all felt that our father was happy and happy. When his father drew his scissors, he also told us that we must "work hard to live a good life", "be diligent and thrifty to run a family", and "be down-to-earth to go further".
Last year, I told my eldest sister that I had a wool coat, too long, bought for more than two years, did not wear it, or new. The eldest sister took the coat and cut it into a medium-length dress with scissors that had been polished long enough to accompany my father for sixty-one years, which was particularly comfortable to wear.
Written on April 4, 2022
About the Author
Hong Lin, senior middle school teacher, entrepreneurship consultant, career guidance teacher. He is a member of the Sichuan Essay Literature Association and the Luzhou Critics Association. He likes literature and has published more than 500,000 words of papers, essays and poems in various journals at all levels.
Source: Sichuan Provincial Local History Work Office
Author:Hong Lin (Luxian Migrant Worker Service Center)
Pictured: Fang Zhi Sichuan
Some of Fangzhi Sichuan's pictures, audio and video come from the Internet, only to disseminate more information. The copyright of the pictures, audio and video contained in the article belongs to the original author or media.