In the early morning of the 27th of The 27th of The Month, the Erjian Vegetable Market on Sanma Road was already crowded. All kinds of electric horns are circulating to sell all kinds of goods, many stalls are lined up in long lines, they are surrounded by water, the streets are bustling, the crowds are rubbing shoulders, and it is quite difficult to even try to get through. As for me, according to my wife's instructions, I planned to buy some meat products for the New Year, and I squeezed several times without squeezing into the meat stall.
To tell the truth, after growing up, after working for many years, especially after settling in Weinan, my life has been relatively full, and I rarely go to the streets on weekdays, unless I have to be assigned by myself or my wife, so the above street scenes have not been encountered for many years.
In my impression, when I was a child, I especially fell in love with the street, in my hometown dialect, that is, I fell in love with the meeting. At that time, my parents thought that I was young and could not run far, because there was no transportation to take, and I was afraid that I would go to the street to spend money indiscriminately, and I was afraid that there were too many people on the street, and I was lost in the hectics, and always refused to take me to the meeting for various reasons. The more my parents refused, the more I clamored to go, and several times, I secretly followed my parents for a few miles, or even more than ten miles, as far as Chongning and Gaotang, and as close as Fengyuan and Chishui. My parents thought that the consequences would be even more terrible, and they were forced to have no choice but to cry and laugh and lead me to the big gathering.
In the 1970s, the family was relatively poor, and it was not common to attend meetings. Unless before or before the summer or autumn harvest, parents need to buy farm tools or New Year goods before they are willing to attend the meeting. The twenty-seventh day of the waxing moon is the last meeting before chishui street in Huazhou. My family lives on the western edge of the Weihua Boundary, just a few miles from Chishui Street. In addition, the scale of the Chishui Association is also large, what material exchange meetings are often held, the New Year goods are relatively complete, the quality is good and the price is cheap, so this meeting, parents almost every year, I, but also every year will chase.
In the past, going to the meeting with my parents was also very different from the current meeting. Now in the meeting, we mainly buy various commodities, while in the past, nine times out of ten in the meeting, we sold first and bought later. Before the 27th of each lunar month, the parents packed up in advance the various agricultural and sideline products that the family planned to sell. The eggs were taken out of the jar early, and the remaining grain was filled with a few pockets; either the green onions produced at home, or the red amaranth that had been stored in the cellar for a winter. In short, early in the morning, install the shelf car, and strive to sell early and buy early.
There are two roads from my hometown to Chishui Street, one is Cai Guopo and the other is Fanjiapo, but both are dirt roads and slopes. Along the way, my father always carried the rut in front of me, and my mother stepped on the tail of the car and carefully released the frame car towards the bottom of the road, riding the fog like a cloud, down the ramp. As for me, when I am younger, I sit on the shelf car or follow the car and laugh dangerously; when I am older, I replace my mother and firmly step on the tail of the shelf car, so that the shelf car does not run wildly and lose control in the ramp, so as not to cause the danger of falling into the slopes and ditches on both sides.
After the next block, the parents also dare not stop, do not dare to rest, it is estimated that the things on the car can be sold at a good price early. Pulling the heavy rack car straight toward the street, although the previous winter was much colder than the current winter, the parents' heads were still sweating and steaming. We had a hard time crossing sand beams (i.e., river embankments), crossing the Chishui Bridge (at that time, people had not yet discovered that chishui bridge was a bridge on the bridge), and walking the back streets, usually my mother rushed to the egg market alone, and I followed my father to the grain market more often.
The mother is more sharp, buys eggs early, and always tells her father about the sales process, and then happily pays the bill. After all, my father is a cultural person, who seems to be more wooden, not very good at grain or selling vegetables, never called to buy, and did not randomly pull customers. The arrival of my mother suddenly accelerated the progress of my father and my side. She was more spicy, a burst of shouting, the strength of the grain, the dry noodles of dryland red amaranth and the clean, pest-free scallions were all known, and the things were sold early, and often sold for more than planned prices.
Every time at this time, I was already "hungry", so I urged my parents to go to the meeting quickly, and muttered that the meeting would be adjourned after a while, and there was nothing. Because I didn't eat my mother's "drinking drip bun" (that is, early) in the morning, I was bent on waiting for the meeting to "change the intestines". At this time, my mother would always smile at my father and say loudly: "Pack up the stalls, walk around, leave the car at Uncle Liu's house at the intersection, and quickly take my baby down to the restaurant!" "In fact, parents usually carry bun bags, dangling dangling around the rim of the frame. They don't go to restaurants at all, and they never patronize various food stalls. However, I am the pillar of the future, and everything is an exception.
When I came to the main street, it was as if people from dozens of miles around had arrived, and the narrow street was stuffed with people coming and going. All kinds of agricultural products are on both sides of the street, and the stalls are full of people. Parents always squeeze and walk, watch and ask, and always see more, ask more, but sell very little. Mother will especially bargain, a moment to say that people's goods this shortcoming, that is not good, a moment to say things so expensive, how cheap other stalls are, but once the merchants have the price, but will always be happy to buy some, handed over to my father and me to hold. As for me, I always clung to my father's hand and followed it in a vague way, for fear of being pulled away by bad people.
But whenever I reached the intersection in the middle of the street, I would make a fuss and say that I couldn't walk. Because there's a century-old shop mashed mess here. At this time, my mother would take an egg out of her pocket (it must have been specially left for me when selling eggs), give it to the boss, let me beat it in the mash, and soak a red water twist flower. Usually, parents only buy one serving, and I eat them to see. When I'm happy, my mother will taste a bite or two too. Seriously, this egg mash bubble twist flower is so delicious, slightly sour and sweet, and the aftertaste is endless. In the previous paragraph, I went to Chishui several times to play, and I regretted that I had gone by car, so I could only buy it and bring it back to eat.
What makes me hungry is the red water noodles on the east end of the street. If you do not eat egg mash in the middle of the street for some reason, then you must rush to the east of the street, and the red water noodles are destined to be an inevitable choice for the next meeting. Chishui noodles, also old-fashioned signboards, have a long history. To eat red water noodles, it must be a large bowl, meat cheeks, plus a ghee baked cake, until you are full until you burp. Only when you are full, you will not make a fuss and say that you can't move, and you will obediently follow your parents to buy New Year goods.
The New Year goods I am most worried about should be regarded as a cannon battle. I know that parents can't afford to buy a thousand-word head, but a hundred-word head always has to buy a string of two strings. There are also double rings and thunderbolts, and you must also buy a few. When the thing was in hand, I planned how to put the cannons Chinese New Year's Eve, and at the same time calculated the chain guns that could be stripped of my chains as medicine.
Eating and playing reached my satisfaction, and I no longer lingered on the day's meeting, so I urged my parents to hurry up, and muttered that otherwise it would be dark. I think that the truth in the middle, parents understand, readers will certainly understand. At the end, I held my new year goods tightly in my arms, sat contentedly on the shelf car, or cheered all the way, or fell asleep, and went home to the sound of my parents' hooting and pulling the car.
On the twenty-seventh day of the waxing moon, joy on the assembly. Take advantage of today's winter sun to warm up, in the afternoon, that is, this afternoon, come to a revisit of the hometown, go up the bridge, eat red water and pull noodles, and bring some twist flowers and mash back.
【Author's Profile】Zhu Hongli, pen name only Qingfeng, Shaanxi Weinan people. He is a member of Weinan Writers Association, a member of Weinan Poetry Society, and a member of Linwei District Writers Association. Many literary works have won provincial, municipal and district awards or been published. Special author of "Weinan Literary Circle".