Liu Xixiang: My family's sewing machine

My sewing machine

Author | Liu Xixiang

In the spring of 1975, my family bought a "worker and peasant" brand sewing machine made in Qingdao. At that time, the sewing machine was the most valuable large item in the family, a luxury in the countryside, and a symbol of family wealth.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a shortage of materials, food, clothing, shelter and transportation were extremely simple, and sometimes it was difficult to solve the problem of food and clothing. As far as wearing is concerned, there are very few finished clothes in the store, and the prices are very expensive, they are all pulling the cloth back to do it themselves, coupled with the family economic tension, the clothes worn by adults and children are patched with patches, the pants are patched with pants and knees, and the elbows of the jacket are patched up. My mother worked in the fields during the day, pushed and pounded in her free time, and did needlework under the dim kerosene lamp at night, either making new ones or sewing old ones. Father served as the secretary of the party branch of the brigade, busy with official business all day, things inside and outside the family fell on the mother, the father saw in the eyes, the pain in the heart, planning to buy a sewing machine, to free the mother from the busy sewing and repairing.

When the farmer was busy, my mother participated in the production labor in the production team, and when she was idle, she took rice to the nearby river to catch iron sand, and the money sold by my father saved, saving one hundred and thirty yuan a year, enough to buy an ordinary sewing machine. At that time, it was the era of the planned economy, and daily necessities such as eating, wearing, and using had to be purchased with tickets, especially the sewing tickets, which were called one of the "three major pieces" by the people, which was particularly tense. His father entrusted Zhang Rongfa, who was then the secretary of the commune party committee, to get a sewing ticket, but when he went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy it, he knew that this ticket was to buy a "butterfly" brand sewing machine made in Shanghai, which was a high-end brand-name machine that could sew cotton clothes, which was close to a hundred yuan more expensive than the "worker and peasant" brand sewing machine produced in Qingdao. At first glance, it was less than a hundred yuan, but in that era, a hundred yuan was not a small amount, it was the salary of the working class for more than three months, and it was the daily life consumption expenditure of ordinary people for half a year. I had to return the ticket to someone, and when I returned the ticket, I entrusted the next batch of sewing tickets to Qingdao, and in this way, I bought this sewing machine in the spring of the following year.

After the sewing machine was bought, my mother was overjoyed, and that afternoon she could not wait to invite Liu Shitian, the master of the sewing shop of the brigade, to install it, who was my distant grandfather, installed it, and placed it in the most conspicuous and brightest place in the house. This sewing machine has a dark shiny head, dark brown shelves, golden yellow plates, beautiful and generous, very beautiful. During the installation, my mother told my grandfather about getting the "Butterfly" brand sewing ticket last winter, because I couldn't afford it, and returned the ticket to others, my grandfather said: "The butterfly machine is a famous brand, and I wanted to buy it a few years ago." It has been in short supply, can't get tickets, it's more difficult to buy a butterfly machine, and now a ticket has to sell for forty or fifty yuan. The mother listened, did not regret it, but felt that she was satisfied to buy this ordinary sewing machine.

The next day, according to my grandfather's guidance, my mother began to practice pedaling, groping for pedaling skills while pedaling, and with this enthusiasm, my mother was soon able to sew on the pedal. While pedaling the pedal, she carefully pushed the cloth strip in her hand, and slowly explored the sewing tips by herself, the kung fu paid off, relying on this diligence and persistence, it took a short time to easily control this sewing machine. So, pulling the fabric, asking the grandfather of the sewing shop to cut the pants, under the guidance of the grandfather, sewed a pair of pants for himself, and since then, the mother has used this sewing machine to cover the sewing and repair of the family's clothes.

Mother cherished the sewing machine very much, and every time she ran out, she removed the linkage belt, put the head of the machine away, closed the table, covered the cloth on it, covered it tightly, and worried about going in the dust. After a while, grease each part of the sewing machine and wipe the whole body of the sewing machine.

I was very curious about the sewing machine and always wanted to pedal it, but my mother wouldn't let me move. The opportunity finally came, one day my mother took my sister to my grandmother's house, after school, I carefully took open the table, took out the sewing machine head, learned to practice pedaling like my mother, and after a while I was very skilled in kung fu, at this time, I put on the linkage belt, found the old cloth head, while pedaling, while pushing the cloth head on my hand to practice sewing. The next afternoon after school, taking advantage of the fact that my mother had not yet returned, I quietly pedaled the pedal to practice sewing, pedaling, and accidentally, the pulley of the sewing machine head suddenly reversed, only to hear a "click", the needle was broken, and the broken needle could not be removed, which frightened me to quickly put away the head of the machine, close the table, cover the cloth, and leave without doing anything. After two days, I found that there was a small book in the small drawer under the sewing machine board, and when I looked closely, it was a sewing machine instruction manual, so I took off the broken needle and replaced it with a new needle according to what was written on the instructions, fortunately, I was not found by my mother and avoided a reprimand.

For several days, I was so frightened that I did not dare to use the sewing machine again. After a few days, the crotch of my pants and pants were torn, and when others were not at home, I found a cloth head, pasted it inside my pants, pedaled it, slowly sewed it up, and after I made it up, I felt good about myself and took it to my mother to show it. My mother asked me when I learned it, and I told my mother what had happened, and since then, I have repaired my clothes when they were torn.

Later, the second brother did not know when he also learned to sew clothes with a sewing machine.

After we got married, the brothers separated the family, the sewing machine was distributed to the second brother's family, and since then, I have said goodbye to the sewing machine.

In the 1990s, the sewing machine was placed as an ornament in a prominent position in the second brother's home, and was occasionally used once. In the twenty-first century, material wealth is greatly enriched, people's lives are getting better and better, and all kinds of ready-to-wear clothes on the market are dazzling, and the styles are diverse. The sewing machine was no longer useful at home, so it was moved to a corner and became a support frame for items.

Now, this sewing machine, which has been sealed for many years, is an ordinary sewing machine in the eyes of children, without any use value, or an inconspicuous old object; but in our eyes it is our closest partner, because it not only accompanies us from naivety to maturity, but also accompanies us step by step from poverty to prosperity. It has accompanied us along the way, through the ups and downs, and we have established a deep relationship with it.

The years are long, the road ahead is long, may the motherland prosper and the people be happy and healthy!

Liu Xixiang, male, university degree, senior middle school teacher, now teaches at Daguan Junior High School.