The du pear tree of the hometown
Jiang Baobing
The place where I was born was an ordinary small village on the Lubei Plain, just to the south, at the head of the village, with a du pear tree. When I was a child, the du pear trees were very ordinary, and almost every du pear tree scattered around our village for miles, whether it was on the side of the river ditch, beside the road, or between the mounds in the wilderness, contained an unforgettable memory. Decades have passed, and when I return to my haunted hometown, I can no longer see the scene of my childhood, and the pear tree in my dream is gone.
Du Pear counts an umbrella-shaped cluster of flesh and fruit, which is called Tang Pear in the dictionary. The flowering season coincides with early spring and February, and in the spring breeze of green willows, a tree of white pear blossoms floats out, and it is full of fresh and elegant vitality in the distance or near. When I was young, the grain production in my hometown was low, the land was expensive, and it was not common for people to plant fruit trees and they were not used to it. Therefore, this natural and wild pear blossom has become a unique scenery in the rural field.
When we were young, we were not particularly interested in the pear blossoms, we were interested in the fruit of the pear that could relieve the hunger. From the time of flowering until autumn, the trees were covered with clusters of du liers, and I often let my friends and I look up at my neck until my neck was sore, salivating and looking forward to the day when it was ripe. Sometimes I couldn't help but use the sickle of the grass to break a branch, pluck a green du pear and fill it in my mouth, eagerly and carefully chew it down, a stream of sour and astringent juice overflowed the tongue, making the whole face numb for a long time to recover. So I could only swallow my saliva and wait for it. In order to taste the du pear early, we took advantage of the time to work in the field, selected a few unripe but grown into a child, took home a few branches, removed the excess branches, wrapped in cotton cloth and hid them tightly in the haystack and stuffed, about ten days to eat. After taking it out every two days to take a look, those ripe and blackened pears are the sweetest, those from the green and yellow also eat the taste of noodles, pick up the rest and then put it back and then stuffy, so repeated several times, even relieved, but also can talk about hunger.
The natural ripening of Du Li'er should be in the autumn season. When autumn comes, the leaves of the eucalyptus tree gradually wither and the fruit emerges. Du Pear also gradually changed from green to yellow, and then from yellow to black, and those blackened Du Pears were ripe and sweetest. At this time in the hometown is corn, soybeans and other field crops picking and harvesting time, the school also has an autumn vacation, we will go to the field with the adults to work, sometimes we can find one or two huge pears in the corn trees, under the bean leaves, it is said that the swallows fell, there are also said to be the house finches specially hidden, the peel is yellow, rub the floating soil on the top with your hands, fill the mouth and bite down, the sweet and sour taste will immediately be tongue-in-cheek.
The most pleasant time is in late autumn, when the leaves on the pear tree begin to fall, and only a dry and thick tree remains on the bare tree. I went to the field with my friends to cut the grass, tired of running, tired of playing, and when I saw a pear tree, I ran over with joy from afar, put down the basket, tiptoed to reach the branches with a sickle, and grabbed them with my hands and picked them one by one. Good hands "poof" three times two climb the tree, climb to the top of the tree, pick the top of the tree to eat, often more to the treetops, Du Li'er is big, thick, ripe early, we are short, and can not climb the tree, we begged the big brothers to fold down a few branches and throw down to eat, the eyes can not wait to find those ripe and windy fall down the du pears under the tree, although with a smell of grass, it is also very sweet.
Because the branches of the du pear tree are full of thorns, every time you climb the tree to pick the du pear, your hands will be pierced. To this end, we simply ate all the fully ripe pears that could be picked from the tree, took the slightly raw ones home, wrapped them in cotton and put them in the wheat straw stacks. In a few days, the pan-raw Du pear was successively cooked, the cooked one was eaten, the less cooked one was put back and then stuffy, so repeated several times, very decomposed...
In my present feeling, the pear tree may now be extinct. Snow-white pear blossoms, vigorous branches, swaying green leaves, full of trees, a tree white in spring, green in summer, a tree fragrant in autumn, and childhood joy of mowing and playing with childhood friends, all drift to the depths of memory. Nowadays, the taste of Du Li'er has become the hometown concern of a rural child walking out of the yellow land, just like a wisp of family affection that is constantly cut and chaotic, and it haunts the heart all the time.
About the author: Jiang Baobing, Zi Jian Mei, Number Sword Mei Lou Lord, Qingfeng Hall Master. He is a member of the Chinese Essay Literature Association, a member of the Whole Committee of the Dezhou Writers Association, a member of the Dezhou Calligraphers Association, a director of the Yucheng Writers Association, and an editorial board member of Yucheng Literature.
The work "Night Reading Lu Xun" won the second prize of the national "Walking with the Republic, Good Books Grow with Me" Reading essay competition, and "Looking at Social Changes from Dietary Changes" won the first prize of the National Day Essay contest for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. "The Green Plane Tree" won the third prize for outstanding literary and artistic works in practicing the core values of socialism. "Growing Up with the Great Motherland" won the first prize of the "Lucky Color Cup, I and New China" with an award for essays. "The Ancient Road of the Yellow River" won the Excellence Award in the Prose Group in the 4th China Xiajin Yuguo Poetry (Prose) Competition.
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