Thoughts that never forget
●Wei Dejun
After 70 years of life, I have experienced many people and things, and some of the past events have gradually faded away, but there is one person who makes me miss and move my life, and that is my eldest mother.
The eldest lady is my husband's eldest mother. She was in her sixties, tall and thin, and often wore a gray gown. The two small pointed feet are the kind that wrap the feet, and they are a little shaky when they walk.
In the seventies, I joined the queue in Inner Mongolia and later started a family in Inner Mongolia. The local customs in Inner Mongolia still pay attention to filial piety. Whenever the Chinese New Year is celebrated, I have to invite my in-laws and my aunt and uncle to dinner. The uncle was gone in his early years, and the third aunt was no longer alive, so there were only four of them left, and they must be invited for the New Year's holidays.
The eldest lady has a kind face, loves to talk and laugh, treats people warmly, and is a very kind old lady. She lives alone, her body is strong, and she can still work in the field. This is also a local custom, as long as the elderly are still in good health, they must go to work in the fields, and never drag down their children. The eldest lady is also such a hardworking person.
My contact with my eldest mother was when I gave birth to my eldest son. That winter, when the snow was heavy, I felt like I was about to give birth, but it was late at night. The mother-in-law went to the daughter's house in Donghe Village for the first three days, and the girl also gave birth to a child, the fourth child. When my mother-in-law was leaving, she told my husband to go to my aunt if there was something. Because she said that the people who serve the confinement in the local area are the old women, and the mother-in-law does not serve the daughters-in-law. And my mother is in Tianjin, less than 2,000 miles away from Inner Mongolia, and my mother is also a 60-year-old lady with small feet, so she can't come to Inner Mongolia. So I'm left unattended. At that time, it was too late to go to the commune health center, fifteen miles away, there was no transportation, and it was three watches in the middle of the night. In a hurry, the husband went to find the eldest mother.
The eldest lady came over in a hurry. She asked my husband to hurry up and find a young woman who had studied medicine, Sun Qian. She is a top student in the third year of senior high school in Heping District, Tianjin. After going to the countryside, he returned to Tianjin to study medicine, and returned to Inner Mongolia to deliver labor for the villagers after completing his studies. She is diligent and studious, with a high level of delivery skills, and has delivered several mothers. Sun Qian was woken up from sleep by my husband and rushed over immediately.
The dim kerosene lamp, the cold earthen house, the number nine cold winters, there is not even a stove in the house. Because my in-laws have never bought coal, they burn a dry pot when it's cold and roast this home. Sun Qian ordered my husband to quickly install a stove. He found a very small stove and a few three-inch chimneys, and hurriedly installed them, but there was no coal, so he had to find some corncobs and light them to bake the house. The eldest lady holds firewood to boil water. Sun Qian instructed her husband to steam a few pieces of white cloth for delivery in a pot for twenty minutes to disinfect, and the water vapor suddenly filled the entire earthen house, and even people couldn't see it clearly. Enduring the cold and labor pains, Sun Qian kept checking on me and cheering me up, and my aunt was also nervous. After nearly a night's hectic work, Sun Qian helped me deliver a son. At dawn, Sun Qian dragged her tired body back to the Zhiqing Point.
From this day on, my mother took on the responsibility of being my mother. The next day, the eldest mother looked at the child's uncovered bed, and muttered: "Away from the mother's belly, five feet of cloth, you hurry up and sew a small quilt, a small mattress, and a small jacket for the doll!" Because the child was born prematurely, I didn't prepare anything! I asked my aunt to help me pull a few feet of flower cloth, and my aunt helped me to remove and wash the green quilt when I went to the countryside, and I used this green quilt to make a buckwheat skin mattress for the child, and used this green quilt to make a small quilt and a sandwich lining, with the help of my aunt, let my heart as a first-time mother be steady and warm.
On the third day, I sewed a small saffron jacket for my child and put it on with a waist. The eldest mother hugged the child and said, "Oh, this child is still a double circle!" Double circle, that's what Tianjin people say, two spins!
When I was four days old, my eldest sister's child had passed 12 days, and my mother-in-law came back. The eldest mother shouted to her mother-in-law: "My in-laws, dig me a bowl of salted salt!" Listen, the eldest mother directly became my mother! The mother-in-law gave me a bowl of nitrate, and the eldest mother was anxious: "No, no, no! How can this salt for sheep be eaten by people in confinement? This is usually the sheep's mouth is light, and the sheep are occasionally given food. The mother-in-law hurriedly changed a bowl of salt and brought it over. "That's pretty much it!" said the eldest lady with a satisfied smile.
My aunt doesn't go home, she lives with me. The eldest lady sleeps more individually. Lying naked on the kang, but not taking off his shoes. Two small, pointed feet were exposed outside the quilt.
In the morning, my aunt boiled millet gruel for me, I couldn't drink enough, so my aunt steamed some steamed buns for me to soak. At noon, my mother rolled bean noodles for me. The eldest lady's meal is well cooked and her craftsmanship is good. From that day on, I watched the process of making bean noodles from my aunt, and I silently learned to roll bean noodles in my heart. Bean flour is made by mixing mung beans and wheat and grinding them together.
Local women are required to eat bean noodles during confinement, and bean noodles are required to run businesses in the village. In the village, bean noodles are the top quality, and running a business is to sit at anyone's wedding, funeral or birthday, and the full moon has to be seated, and dinner is generally bean noodles. Rolling bean noodles is exquisite, to pay attention to strength, but also thin and fine. In order to roll out the bean flour as thin as paper, it is necessary to put something in the dough, which is artemisia seeds. And bean noodles are also technical work. First soak the artemisia seeds in water and pour it into the noodles, because the bean noodles are more sticky, in order to get harder, pour water little by little, and the noodles are beaten into spikes and begin to knead, and they are pressed together while kneading, and finally they have to be kneaded with a small amount of water, so as to achieve three lights: pot light, hand light, and face light.
When the noodles are reconciled, it will take half an hour to start rolling the noodles. I saw the eldest lady spread a large clean plastic sheet on the kang, then put it on the board, rolled the dough agent bigger, rolled it with a rolling pin, and rolled the rolling pin with her hand. After rolling it out for a while, I sprinkled it with cornmeal paste, rolled it up and rolled it out again, which was the same as when I rolled white flour at home, but after repeating it many times, the rolling pin was not wide enough, so the lady folded the dough and rolled it out, and finally this piece of dough was thinner than paper. At this time, the eldest lady sprinkled the dough with the dough and folded it, cut it into noodles, shook off the dough, and put it on the curtain one by one.
I heard the eldest lady say that cooking bean noodles is also particular. If you are sitting on a table and eating for business, you usually make a separate pot of pork dumplings, which are made of shredded meat and tofu. When eating, put the noodles in a bowl and scoop a spoonful of noodles and pour them over the noodles, which is delicious. But the bean noodles eaten in confinement are simple. It is to put the chopped green onion in a bowl, then burn a spoonful of oil and pour it on the green onion, and then two spoons of salt noodles and mix it up. When eating, cook the noodles and put them in a bowl, pick a little scallion oil and salt with chopsticks, and scoop half a spoonful of soup. In this way, one round of chopped green onions is enough to eat for a week.
In this way, the confinement rice is fixed, every morning a bowl of half a bowl of millet porridge, eat an egg, really hungry to make a piece of steamed bread, at noon eat two bowls of bean noodles, with soup with water and a little scallion oil and salt. Because I don't have any other side food, and the bean noodles are not hungry tolerant, I still feel very hungry every day. This may also be the reason why the locals are afraid of confinement and keep food.
But there is one thing I am still very grateful to my mother, that is, when my mother cooks noodles for me, I cook a handful of noodles and take them out, and watch me cook a second handful after eating. I wondered why I didn't cook it at one time, and the aunt said: "This bean noodle is not better than white noodles, because it is thinner, so I have to eat a bowl and cook a bowl, for fear that it will not be digested after eating it in confinement." "For that, I'm also grateful.
Every day, my aunt cooks for me, and she has to cook for herself and my husband. Because there is little white noodles, generally speaking, the eldest lady makes all the noodles. The eldest lady said while doing it: "I am the best at making noodles, and I love to eat noodles the most." Because we have a special noodle in the back mountain. The noodles in the back mountains are so good! they are white, fine and delicious. "Only then did I know that the eldest lady was from the back mountain.
The eldest lady is really fast at making hand-pinched noodles, whether it is a nest of noodles or a fish with noodles, two people can eat it, and it can be completed in ten minutes. Look at her pushing, rolling, and standing, and after a while, the rows of nests are laid out in unison. Rub the fish, rub the fish with both hands at the same time. I learned this technique many times later, but it was still very slow, and I could only rub the fish with one hand, and I could only rub two at a time.
The eldest lady makes hand-kneaded noodles
My aunt is like my mother, she takes care of me in every detail. Because it is winter leisure, the eldest lady does not have to go to the field, she does not leave me an inch. I said, "Auntie, if you have something to do, you can go and get busy." The eldest lady said, "It's okay." I'll talk to you. How lonely you are when you are away from home and your parents are not with you. Auntie, I have also experienced this kind of suffering. At that time, the eldest mother's maiden home was in the back mountain, there was no transportation, and she couldn't go anywhere. For this, the eldest mother married here and never returned to her parents' house. "My eyes were moist. In this distant place where I don't see my relatives, there is such a person like my mother who understands me, considerates me, cares for me, and a warm current warms my whole body and moistens my heart.
My aunt sat with me, but her hands were not idle, she held a lock of linen in her hand, a hammer, and kept turning. I said, "What are you doing with hemp rope?" The eldest lady said, "Your second sister-in-law has a lot of dolls, and she has to use miles to make shoes!" "The eldest lady and I stayed for a month, and never said how her two daughters-in-law were, this is really a good old lady." No wonder her two daughters-in-law are so filial.
My aunt sat with me, and her hands were not idle, and she played hemp rope for her daughter-in-law
Under the careful care of my eldest mother, I have been giving birth for 29 days and my body is recovering well. On this day, the eldest mother said that her daughter was going to pick her up on the first day of the lunar month, and the eldest mother made several pieces of bean noodles and began to roll noodles for me. I said, "Auntie, no need, I can do it myself." "No, a woman has to work for forty days in confinement!" he said, rolling out the dough for me. The eldest lady rolled out a few pieces of noodles in a row, cut them, and put them on the curtain one by one. I looked at the noodles that were enough for me to eat for a week, thinking about my aunt's sore arm, and tears came out of my eyes.
My aunt has been waiting for me for 29 days, and she is leaving, and she will roll out noodles for me for another week.
The eldest lady was leaving, I said, "Auntie, I'll give you some money!" The eldest lady waved her hand: "This is not necessary, according to our rules, you pull a five-foot flower cloth for the eldest mother, and I will sew a waist!"
My aunt served me for a month, and I only pulled a few feet of cloth for my aunt. Later, I often asked my aunt to come to the house for dinner. Once there is something delicious, I can't forget the eldest mother. On two occasions when I went back to Tianjin, I bought more pastries and sent them to my aunt. The eldest lady looked at the dim sum, squinted her eyes and smiled: "Look at your dim sum in Tianjin, Hua Ma Gege, all kinds, it's really good!" After speaking, she tasted it carefully. Whenever this happens, I feel a sense of relief in my heart.
In the summer of 1975, I gave birth to my second child. This time the eldest lady is not idle in winter, she still goes to work in the fields every day. On that day, the eldest mother and mother-in-law were both working in the nursery to raise Codonopsis. Hearing that someone went to call her mother-in-law and told her that I was going to give birth, my mother-in-law was not in a hurry, but the eldest mother couldn't hold her breath. She hurriedly finished her work and ran to my house. Just like that, rushing to my house, I have already given birth.
One afternoon I waited anxiously, but my husband and mother-in-law did not come back, and the first to open the door was my mother.
When I saw my aunt, I burst into tears. The eldest lady didn't say a word, she brought firewood to boil water for me, boiled millet porridge, and made brown sugar water for me, and then heated the doctor with yellow rice flour and fried cake. I drank gruel with tears in my eyes.
In Inner Mongolia, I am far away from my mother, but I have a mother who is closer than my mother. Whenever something goes wrong for me, I go to sit in the hut where my aunt lives for a while, and my aunt talks to me, persuades me to untie and guide me, and my heart knot will dissolve. Sometimes I will also send the hanging noodles and salted hairtail fish sent by home to my aunt to taste.
In 1983, my job was transferred to the county seat, and I left Sipu and my mother. In 1986, I built a few rooms in the county seat. After building the house, I always said that I would take the eldest mother to live for a few days, and I would be filial to the eldest mother. You can even bring your eldest mother to live with you. But it's always the eldest lady who can't leave and doesn't make it.
In 1989, I returned to Tianjin in the city. I always think about my mother. Two years later, the bad news came that the 83-year-old lady suddenly passed away, and I was very sad. I couldn't make up for my mother, which is the regret of my life.