Photo: Say goodbye to the old days
Photos cannot replace memory, but they can preserve everyone's memory, yes, every moment of life is worth cherishing...
In July 1975, we left the campus, in the 48 years that we have separated, time is like a fish-killing knife, ruthlessly scraping away the scales of memory, and now looking at the old photos of that year, I find that there are really few old classmates who can remember their names.
For some reason, a lot of the originally clear content at that time gradually became blurred, and some people had no impression, as if they had never had any intersection with me.
At that time, each of our classmates worked very hard, and many of us got up early at three or four o'clock every day, lit kerosene lamps to do review problems in the classroom, and some went back to the dormitory in the middle of the night. At that time, our children who grew up in rural areas knew that only by crossing the "one-wood bridge" of the college entrance examination could we change our destiny.
Unfortunately, a movement shattered all of our dreams, and most of us went home to become farmers. I, too, worked at home for more than a year in the farm, and in December of the following year, I put on my uniform and became a soldier.
In the first days, I looked at the graduation photo from high school, and I could clearly remember the name of every classmate in the class, who was the one close to the blackboard, who was closest to which window, who had been "educated" by the teacher, who had a crush on which female classmate, who was at the same table with whom, who was in a group with whom.
But now looking at the graduation photo again, I looked at it N times one by one, but found that there were only seven or eight people left who could call out the names of my classmates.
At the beginning of July, that is, the 48th anniversary of high school graduation, our class president at the time worked hard to organize a large-scale class reunion, and it was also in everyone's notice that I learned that 17 of the 63 students in the class had passed away!
After understanding, I learned that the county seat of my hometown is one of the places with the highest risk of cancer around.
My hometown is my hometown county, is a large agricultural county, the population is still relatively dense, in recent years the county framework has been very large, but the industrial economy still can not support the local pattern, many young people go out to work, although these years to attract investment is quite successful, driving many people to employment, but also brought serious environmental problems.
I remember once, when I took a taxi home from the county seat, I chatted with the taxi driver, and the taxi driver said that in recent years, many enterprises have opened in the county, and indeed many people have become rich, but some enterprises do not comply with the laws and regulations to produce, and discharge wastewater in violation of regulations, causing the water in the river to be black and smelly, and even more, hundreds of meters deep wells were drilled, and high-pressure pumps were used to discharge sewage into the ground, seriously polluting groundwater, and in the long run, more and more people suffering from cancer.
Among the 17 classmates who passed away, two died in car accidents, one fell from the scaffolding on the construction site and died, one died by suicide, one was killed by the fan blade of the wheat machine when he was busy in the farm, one was electrocuted while stealing electricity, and the rest all died of various cancers.
In fact, our class is all 50s, the oldest is 71 years old, the youngest is 67 years old, according to the average life expectancy of the current Chinese, it is also the age of nurturing the elderly, I believe many people will feel that the word "death" is a little far away from us, but when one by one misfortune comes to the people around them, I know: in this world, there is a cruelty, called "goodbye forever".
But this rate of deaths is estimated to be the highest of any class.
Whether my old classmates left the world or are still alive, they are a precious part of my life.
Tonight, I am writing these words to commemorate our clearest and most unrestrained years!