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Text丨Ukiyo Qinghuan
Editor丨Ukiyo Qinghuan
The times are developing, society is progressing, and nightlife has quietly risen, which is an important driving force for urban development, but in that era when resources are extremely scarce and even electric lights are not popular, how do people live their nightlife?
This is not nonsense, it is the truth, what did the rural people in the 70s do at night, and I am afraid that everyone who has experienced it is 50 years old.
So what did people do in the 70s at night, and what do they still do today?
Listen to the story
In that era of extreme scarcity of materials, not to mention television, there was no electricity in the village, and only kerosene lamps were used for lighting, but despite this, most families would still turn the brightness to the lowest, and only when the children were doing their homework were willing to turn up the lights to the maximum. Those nights without bright lights are really lonely.
The 70s was an important period for the country's development and construction, and many people in the rural areas went to support the country's construction, such as building railways and reservoirs. At the end of the day, everyone usually gathers together to listen to the stories told by the elders of the migrant workers, and those who have the ability to tell stories are mostly knowledgeable and talkative.
Most of the stories told are ancient heroic deeds or some of the four famous works, and some migrant workers may have heard it several times, but they are still willing to listen to it again with the big guys, and each time there is a different harvest. Usually the storytelling time is relatively long, sometimes for two or three hours without stopping.
The migrant workers are also very grateful to the elderly, who should bring water and water, and sometimes pool money together to buy cigarettes for the elderly. Wait until the dead of night and everyone is tired, and then they will disperse and go back to their respective sheds to sleep.
Not only adults, but also children are willing to listen to stories. When night falls, the elders of the village will sit outside the door and chat with the neighbors, and the children know who can tell stories, so they gather around the old people in groups, begging the old people to tell them stories.
At that time, science was not very developed, and many people still believed in ghost theory, especially with the blessing of "ghost fire" in the woods by the river, after listening to the ghost story, the children's hearts can be said to be both excited and scared, and they would also imagine and fantasize about that scene.
The way home is also in groups, never dare to go home alone, at that time there were many children in the family, maybe several brothers and sisters went out together, if not so, I am afraid that the children would not dare to go home. Fathers and children love to listen to stories, and mothers are rarely interested in them, and their favorite thing is to gather around the door and gossip.
In the seventies, the most tired person in a family must be the mother, who not only had to work with her husband during the day, but also had to cook and wash when she came home at night, and after eating, she had to be busy with the work of the family, planting vegetables, peeling corn, feeding pigs, etc., and if someone in the family had rotten clothes, she had to use a kerosene lamp to mend clothes.
When all this is done, it is not early, many people choose to go to bed directly, but in some more leisure days, the mother will also sit at the door of the house at night, chatting with the neighbors, at that time people have limited knowledge, most of them talk about the east and the west, simple and unpretentious.
It is precisely because of the simplicity of the people of that era that they add a touch of fun to the poor life, so that everyone can actively participate in the construction of the country and look forward. Thousands of high-rise buildings rise from the ground, and we can now have such a life, all of which is inseparable from the selfless dedication and hard work of the ancestors of that era.
Hide and seek, watch movies
I don't know if it's a psychological effect or what the reason is, the moonlight in that era was extremely bright, even brighter than the sky at dusk, and the children would run out of the house to find their friends to play after dinner, and often dozens of children were gathered in the village brigade.
Many children will be divided into several groups, play together, the most popular at that time is hide and seek, some slightly older children will also gather together to "fight", similar to wrestling, the process is inevitably injured, but also some small injuries that break the skin, children are immersed in happiness and can't extricate themselves, don't care about these at all.
Girls gather to dance bands and throw handkerchiefs, but compared to boys, most girls stay at home, stay with their mothers, listen to their mothers' stories, or help their mothers with their work. Although there is a rich material life now, that innocence can no longer be seen.
Nowadays, whether it is rural or urban, children are at home with a mobile phone to play games, parents are not at ease to let their children go out to play alone, and prefer to let their children stay at home, but in contrast, it may be better to let children play with their peers, which is more suitable for children's growth.
At that time, there was no television, but there would be some open-air screen movies periodically, which was also people's favorite, and it was also the most exciting entertainment, as long as the village wanted to play movies, then after dinner, whether it was men, women or children, would move a small bench and go to the venue in advance to find a good place to wait.
On days when there is no electricity, it is almost difficult for the people in the village to understand the outside world, and watching movies is not only an entertainment project, but also an important way for the villagers to enrich their knowledge. Many children are either watching movies or trying to be angry, and will run around on the set to play and feel the simple rural people.
Generally, it is very rare to show movies in the village, maybe only once in a few months, so everyone cherishes it, and when they meet neighboring villages, as long as they get the exact news, even if they run more than ten miles away, they have to catch up to watch movies.
It was even more lively than some of the concerts now, and when the movie ended, people scattered and walked along the field paths, hurrying home to sleep for the next day's farm work. At that time, the stars in the sky were very bright, and there were fireflies in some areas, so even if there were no street lights, it was possible to clear the way home.
Listen to the radio, Xi literacy
At that time, centralized management was implemented, in order to more effectively inform every villager, the village would set up a radio station, and a broadcaster would be specially arranged to inform the whole village of events, as well as major events at home and abroad, which was one of the few channels for villagers to learn about the outside world.
Generally, the radio station also broadcasts at night, so that the villagers can learn about the recent development of major events while sitting at home, and in their leisure time, or at the end of the event broadcast, some songs will be played on the radio, most of which are red songs, which are used to inspire and inspire the villagers and add a different kind of color to the lives of the villagers.
Just a few years ago, when WeChat was not so popular, most villages still relied on radio to inform the villagers of recent major events in the village and some national policies.
Nowadays, what we call illiterate may be people who have not graduated from high school, but in fact, they all have a certain level of education, at least they can write commonly used Chinese characters, and the illiterate people referred to in that era have no culture at all, and they don't know a few real big characters.
The country's development needs talents the most, and it is in a difficult period of development, and intellectuals are needed even more, in order to improve people's cultural level as a whole, the village will carry out a literacy campaign, when people still have to work during the day, many illiteracy Xi classes are opened at night, night Xi has become the memory of many people in the same year.
Literacy Xi here is mainly aimed at young people, just when they are young and they need more cultural baptism, while Xi learning, they can also make wider friends of the same age and opposite sex, so the literacy Xi school in the village has also become one of the important "blind date venues", and many young people have found the other half of their lives here.
epilogue
Although the countryside in the 70s was not yet electrified, people's nightlife was abundant, or listening to stories, or watching movies, or children playing together, which became the deepest memories in many people's hearts.
Nowadays, the material conditions have been very abundant, people's spiritual world is a little poor, it seems to be more nostalgic for the old days, it is undeniable that the days were very poor, but the warmth and simplicity between people, the friendship is very deep, maybe people recall only the original innocence and happiness.
【Disclaimer】The process and pictures described in the article are all from the Internet, and this article aims to advocate positive social energy and no vulgar and other bad guidance. If it involves copyright or character infringement issues, please contact us in time, and we will delete the content as soon as possible!
Information sources:
2. Modern History, The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China
3. Memorabilia of the Republic: 1977, China.com