It's sycamore season again, but it's rare to see such trees and flowers in the city.
There are also plane trees in Jimo City, most of which are in the old houses of some urban villages that have not yet been renovated, or in a few old government units or factories that have been basically abandoned.
I walked from home to work every day, along the way I found a lot of plane trees, in Zhuangtou Village near the Lan'ao Road, the former Forestry Bureau, agricultural machinery bureau at the end of a row of bungalows that are about to collapse, there are still four or five large plane trees growing stubbornly, but the trees have grown taller than the wall, but they have not grown spirits, two of them seem to be half dead, just like a stroke patient with hemiplegia, the old branches of life are still blooming pink plane flowers this year, people can't help but sigh the ruthlessness of the years and the tenacity of life!
Most of the remaining plane trees in the city are now twenty or thirty years old, and when they do not bloom, they are gray-headed and dirty, and they are not very noticeable. But in such a flower season, it is very conspicuous. The flowers of the plane trees are like little pink bells, blooming in clusters, like the energetic old ladies who dance square dance with their curly white hair.
There is a substation in Jiangnan Tea Town, which is across the river from Zhuangtou Village, and there is a lonely tree growing outside the wall, but it is not like the old agricultural machinery bureau yard, it grows very vigorously, it does not look like the tree is not long, and the flowers bloom just like I remembered when I was a child.
My hometown is in Linyi, and I remember that when I was a child, every household had plane trees, and they could be seen everywhere in the untidy streets and corners. Maybe this tree grows fast, the wood is soft, and people like to use it to create some wooden boxes for their girlfriends to marry, so they are willing to plant it. I think another important factor should be the proverb "Plant the plane tree, attract the golden phoenix", people are more willing to plant this auspicious tree in front of the house and behind the house.
When I was a child, I loved the time when the sycamores were in full bloom. We will pick a small flower by hand, the root of the flower is like a small trumpet, and there will be a juice in it, sucked into the mouth, there is a special sweetness. That kind of sweetness modern child can not taste, that is a kind of people who have eaten saccharin can understand, sweet and greasy, slightly bitter.
The leaves of the plane tree are very large, in addition to picking its flowers to suck, we also like to pick off the big plane leaves and fold them into hats to wear on their heads, and girls like to make bunches of flowers into rings to wear, and the wild beauty is the beauty of nature.
The last joy that the plane tree can bring us is after autumn. The sycamore leaf will fall with a long handle with a long "hammer" at the end, and the naughty boys will use it to knock each other's small bald heads, chasing and laughing and cursing one after another; or, which naughty boy secretly hits the girl, so angry that the girl pouts and goes to the teacher to complain...
I am really old, and I am willing to recall these old childhood events. Sometimes I think about it, and now the children in the city are so pitiful, many of them may not even know what the plane tree looks like, let alone suck on the wonderful sweet juice.