Text/Youth Material/Zhao Chunyan
Article source: Life around the author
(Disclaimer: All my articles are original and first published works of Toutiao, and have never been published on any other platform, if plagiarism or manuscript washing is found, it must be investigated to the end.) ）
I often think back to the past many years ago, when although there was a shortage of materials, the sky was so blue, the air was so fresh, and the relationship between people was so simple and beautiful......
My name is Zhao Chunyan and I am 56 years old.
I was born in 1968, a time of poverty.
We have five brothers and sisters in our family, and I am the eldest sister.
Our village is a large village of more than 1,000 people, and the village is surnamed Zhuangzi. The surname Zhao accounts for the majority, as well as those surnamed Wang, those surnamed Li and those surnamed Chen, mainly these four surnames.
We are a hilly area here, mainly growing sweet potatoes and peanuts, and growing small amounts of corn and wheat.
In that distant era, due to the backwardness of agricultural technology, everyone in the production team worked on the weather for food, if there was a good year, the harvest was not bad, but if there was a drought or flood, everyone could only stare dryly, there was no way.
At that time, we had a wheat break and autumn break.
When we had a holiday in the autumn, we followed the adults to the fields, and if we couldn't do heavy work, the children could follow the adults to stop the sweet potatoes. (After the adults finish shaving sweet potatoes, there will be some small sweet potatoes growing in the middle of the sweet potato ditch, we call it "enclave sweet potato", and the child will take a small pout to dig out the "enclave sweet potato", which can not be handed over to the production team, take it home and cook it yourself.) ）
After the autumn harvest, there is a large pile of peanut seedlings in the cattle house of the production team, which are used to feed the cattle.
There are also some shriveled peanuts on top of the peanut seedlings, and we can take the small peanuts off and put them in our pockets and take them home as snacks.
We are most worried about the winter, every winter when the clothes are not warm, and the stomach is not full, the taste is too uncomfortable.
We wore thin cotton clothes to school, shivering from the cold, and our stomachs rumbled as we sat in the classroom.
At that time, I had to run to school after dawn, and then go home from school for breakfast after a class, but when I went home for breakfast, sometimes my parents had already carried a rake to the woods to pick up leaves (in those days, there was not enough straw in the countryside to cook on fires, so everyone would pick up leaves as fuel).
There was a black pot in the pot house, and in it was gruel that could see the figure of a person, and we went to the pickle jar to catch a piece of pickle gnocchi, drank two large bowls of gruel, and then ran to school.
In the winter night, we did not have a heating fire, so the children went to bed early to warm up, at that time, the good conditions of the family paid attention to two beds and two covers, that is, two mattresses and two quilts.
But how can a family with a large population have so many quilts and mattresses available?
At the beginning of winter, the production team will give each family a basket of wheat straw, everyone sews a big pocket with rags, and the pocket is filled with wheat straw and spread on the bed, which we call straw mattresses here.
In winter, we slept on a straw mattress, which was fluffy and soft, covered with a thin quilt, and we could make do for a while in winter.
When it was a cold day, the straw mattress didn't work, and sometimes I was really frozen, so I got under the straw mattress, which was equivalent to covering two quilts, but in the middle of the night, I had to wake up from freezing.
At that time, when cooking in the countryside, every household installed a wooden utensil similar to a blower next to the big iron pot, which was called Fengxian (to be precise, it should be called a bellows), which was to pull the wooden handle of Fengxian by hand and blow wind into the stove hall to make the stove more prosperous.
The risk of our family is handed down from the ancestors, made of jujube wood, it is particularly heavy, and it takes a lot of effort to pull it, and I have to lift my body when I pull the risk, and I can pull it hard.
I have loved reading and learning since I was a child, and when I was cooking in the pot house, I would take a book and read while lighting the fire, and I also had to take care of my younger siblings who were playing in the yard.
The difficult living conditions did not dampen my enthusiasm for learning, but promoted my positive energy.
I can earn awards every semester, and sometimes I can earn two certificates, because I have always been a member of the study committee in the class, and the teacher has to send one to the class cadres and another to the students who study well.
The wall in front of our house was plastered with my awards, and my mother said it was the brightest place in our house.
We don't even have a decent piece of furniture at home, but the neighbors who come to our house can see my award certificate when they enter the door, and they praise me for my good study.
In 1979, we had a severe drought here, and from spring to autumn there were only a few drops of rain.
The wheat planted in the autumn of the first year was in need of rain when it was jointed and headed, but due to the dry weather, the ears grew as big as the belly of a finger.
After the wheat was harvested into the wheat field, the captain gave an order that not a single grain of wheat should be lost, and everyone returned the wheat grains to the warehouse like picking up golden beans.
That year, due to too little rain, the sweet potatoes did not drag the seedlings, and when it was time to plane the sweet potatoes in the autumn, the output of the entire production team was reduced by more than half.
At the end of the year, each family only received a dozen catties of wheat and dozens of catties of sweet potatoes, but how could this grain be eaten by a large family?
At that time, there were many people in every household, and each family had more than five or six people, both old and young.
At the end of the year, thanks to the help of my aunt's family.
My aunt's family has a better life than ours, their village is close to the Yi River, the land is fertile, and the irrigation is convenient, unlike our village, which is barren and thin.
The eldest uncle's ancestors would squeeze oil, and the eldest uncle was squeezing oil in the oil mill in their village at that time.
My uncle works in the oil mill, and in addition to earning a share of the work, he can also get some oil cakes. (When we use peanuts to extract oil here, we squeeze the peanut residue into a cake, which we call fruit cake here, and it tastes fragrant.) ）
The aunt's family earns more labor, and the family can save some food.
The year 1979 was not good, but my aunt's family did not starve, and when my aunt came to our house at the end of the year, she saw that our family's grain tank was almost at the bottom, so she went home without saying a word and brought a fruit cake and a bag of flour.
My mother hurriedly steamed a pot of steamed buns with flour sent by my aunt, and also steamed reunion cakes and jujube flower steamed buns, and the atmosphere of the New Year was suddenly there.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, our family wrapped several top-top dumplings, ate a dumpling on the afternoon of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and ate another dumpling on the first day of the new year, even if it was the end of the New Year.
On the afternoon of Chinese New Year's Eve, after eating dumplings, we began to visit everywhere, and in our place, on the evening of the 30th day of the New Year, everyone went to sit at home with each other, even if it was New Year's greetings.
We first went to a few neighbors' houses that lived in the same alley as us, and every time we went to a neighbor's house, they brought out hawthorn and persimmon cakes and gave us children to eat.
In those days, although poor, but when it came to the New Year's fair, everyone had to buy some hawthorn and persimmons.
When I came out of the neighbor's house, my mother said let's go to your second aunt's house again.
This second aunt and us are not the same surname, their family name is Li, although we are not the same surname, but the relationship between the second aunt's family and our family has always been good.
That year, my father fell ill, and he spent all his family savings on catching herbs for him, and he had no money to buy something delicious for him.
Although his father's body is very weak, he also has to eat sweet potatoes and drink sweet potato porridge every day, and his father has been sour in his stomach, so he can only frown and swallow hard.
When the second aunt found out, she came home and brought ten eggs, which we call here a handful of eggs.
In those days, eggs were very expensive, and everyone took the eggs to the market to sell, and after selling the money, they could go to the supply and marketing cooperatives to exchange them for cloth stamps or food stamps, and then buy the things they needed.
The second aunt actually gave us a handful of eggs at once, and my mother was so excited that her lips trembled, and she said to the second aunt: "This is worth it, you sent us a handful of eggs, it's too rare!"
The chickens I raised at home had chicken plague, and none of them were gone, and I didn't have a single egg to eat.
The second aunt said: "Sister-in-law, you hurry up and use these eggs to supplement the nutrition of the eldest brother, look at him like that, how will he work in the field in the future!"
Thanks to the eggs of the second aunt, the mother makes an egg tea for the father every morning, and the mother uses a small basin to make egg tea for the father, so that the soup is more and the father can drink a few more sips of egg soup.
My father was reluctant to drink it all, so he had to save a few mouthfuls for us to taste.
The father said to us, "Children, you must remember that the second aunt's family has helped us a lot, and we must not forget the kindness of the second aunt." ”
Thanks to these eggs from the second aunt's family, after my father drank these eggs, he was like a seedling in a long drought encountering rain and dew, and his body was much stronger than before.
Soon my father would be able to work in the fields.
Since then, our relationship with my second aunt's family has become closer and closer, like family.
My mother said that she would lead us to my second aunt's house to pay New Year's greetings, and we were very happy to hear it, and we walked forward with a jump.
The second aunt's house fed a big yellow dog, and as soon as we entered the gate, the big yellow dog barked, and the second aunt and second uncle came out.
The second aunt hurriedly called out to the big yellow dog and let us into the house.
The second aunt's family had not finished dinner, and under the dim kerosene lamp, the family sat around a low wooden table to eat.
When we looked at the dinner table, there were no dumplings, only a basket of black nests, and we saw that this nest was made of sweet potato noodles.
When my mother saw that there was only one basket of wowotou on the table at the second aunt's house, she asked, "Why didn't your family make dumplings for the Chinese New Year? ”
The second aunt sighed and said: "Sister-in-law, our harvest here this year is not good, the few catties of wheat that our family has already eaten, and it is almost the New Year, so I will grind some sweet potato noodles, steamed wowotou, and fill my stomach. ”
The youngest daughter of the second aunt's family was only four or five years old, and when she heard my mother say that she had to eat dumplings for the New Year, she pouted and said to the second aunt: "Mother, you see that my aunt has said that she has to eat dumplings for the New Year, why don't you make dumplings for us to eat? I want to eat dumplings." ”
As she spoke, she began to cry.
The second aunt said to her daughter embarrassedly: "Good boy, be obedient, our life will be good in the future, my mother will steam big white steamed buns for you every day, and make dumplings for you to eat." ”
As she spoke, the second aunt's eyes turned red, alas, she couldn't even eat dumplings during the New Year, and the second aunt's heart was uncomfortable.
I noticed that my mother's eyes were also wet, and she turned her back and quietly wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.
At this time, my mother said to us, "You are playing at the second aunt's house, I will go home first, and I will come back immediately." ”
My mother left in a hurry, and after a while, my mother came back, and I saw my mother carrying a bag in her hand, and as soon as she entered the house, she put the burden on the dining table.
The second aunt said in surprise: "Sister-in-law, why are you here with a burden?"
The mother opened the bag, and there was a top dumpling in it, and under the top, there was a pot of flour and a large piece of fruit cake.
The mother said: "No matter how poor we are, we have to let the children eat dumplings, our family makes a lot of dumplings, I originally planned to eat them again tomorrow on the first day of the New Year, so I will bring them to the children to eat." ”
When the children of the second aunt's family saw it, they immediately cheered and jumped up, saying that they finally had dumplings to eat.
The second aunt hurriedly drank the children, and she said to her mother: "Sister-in-law, this year's harvest is not good, and the life of every family is difficult. ”
The mother said, "Don't worry, we still have flour at home, and I will make dumplings tomorrow." A few days ago, my eldest sister brought us a bag of flour, and I planned to mix it with the thickness of sweet potato noodles to eat it, and I would have to eat it for a few days. ”
"As the saying goes: a good year, a sad spring. The Chinese New Year is a short day, but the long spring is even more difficult. I'll give you this pot of flour, and I'll deal with it for a few days after the New Year." ”
The second aunt's tears flowed, and she held her mother's hand and said, "Sister-in-law, you have helped us a lot." The children were clamoring to eat dumplings this morning, but there was no flour at home, so how could we make dumplings? ”
On the way back, I didn't understand a little and said to my mother: "Mother, we don't have much flour in our family, and my aunt finally sent it, why did you give the second aunt a big pot of flour?"
The mother said: "Child, be grateful, when your father was sick, your second aunt's family gave us a handful of eggs, and I remember this every day! ”
I nodded, and I understood what my mother said, when there is a problem between neighbors, you have to help those who should help.
In the early 80s, we implemented the production responsibility system here, and since then, everyone's life is like a sesame seed blooming, and you don't have to worry about food and clothing.
The second uncle and the second aunt are very industrious, they have a lively mind, after doing the work in the field, the second uncle and the second aunt will rush to the market to sell fruits and vegetables, they have two stalls, the second uncle sells vegetables, and the second aunt sells fruits.
Their days slowly rose, and after a few years, they became the richest people in the village, and the second uncle was the first to buy a tractor in the village, and they used the tractor to pull fruits and vegetables everywhere to catch the market.
After the second uncle had money in his hands, he built five large tiled houses in the village.
My father's health has not been very good, we planted those few acres of land, and our sisters and brothers are all studying, and life has been relatively tight, although there is no problem with eating and drinking, but every time it is time to pay the tuition, my mother is so worried that she walks around the yard.
When I was in junior high school that year, my family really didn't have money to pay for tuition, so my mother went to my second uncle's house and wanted to borrow 15 yuan, but my second aunt didn't say a word, and took out 40 yuan from the back room and handed it to my mother.
The second aunt said: "Sister-in-law, you can take it and pay the child's tuition, you don't have to pay back the money, even if we help you." ”
In the early eighties, forty dollars was not a small amount, and it could buy a lot of things.
With the 40 yuan given to us by my second aunt's family, I once again realized that having a good neighbor is better than everything.
In 1985, I was admitted to a secondary school to study normal.
After graduating, I was assigned to the central primary school in our township and became a teacher.
Since I started work, I have been responsible for my younger siblings' education expenses, and our family's life has gradually improved.
Time flies, my parents are already old people, and my second uncle and aunt are also gray-haired.
Our two families have always been very close, and every time I go back to my parents' house during the New Year's holidays, I will go to my second aunt's house to sit.
The second aunt always prepared a gift for me, sometimes it was two big roosters that had been cleaned up, sometimes it was pancakes baked by the second aunt, or steamed buns with dates.
Although we are not related to my second aunt's family by any blood, and we are not even the same surname, our distant relatives are not as good as our close neighbors, and the harmonious neighborhood relationship is like a dazzling starlight, illuminating those hard days, and it is also like a flame in winter, warming people's hearts.
Today, we live peacefully and happily, we are grateful to meet the good times, and the people live and work in peace and contentment.
When I think back to the poor days, I cherish the happy life I have now.