Text: Angel Yang
Early spring 1967. Parents were impacted, only a small amount of living expenses were paid every month, and all the expenses of the family were saved and saved, in order to resist the cold of early spring, the family still had to rely on charcoal fire for heating. When we go to the charcoal field to buy charcoal, we need money, and the living expenses are difficult to meet the needs of the "charcoal fire" during the long heating period.
My house is about two kilometers from the South Railway Station. Since then, at about six o'clock in the morning every day, the 17-year-old second brother led the 14-year-old second sister with the dry food and hemp rope prepared by her mother, and hurried in the empty and deserted streets against the cold northwest wind. I also got up early and went to the boiler room in the compound to dump the slag when the sky was bright, and started my first task of picking up "two charcoals" every day.
The scientific name of "two carbons" is coal core. It is a solid waste produced by burning coal in boilers. It's not much to see in today's city life.
In our compound, there are office buildings, auditoriums, nurseries, and guest houses built in imitation of Soviet buildings in the early days. The heating of these buildings is escorted by two boilers in the boiler room. At that time, the slag pouring in the boiler room was fixed at a fixed time every day. Once at 4 a.m. and once at 4 p.m. When the time came, I saw the masters use wheelbarrows to pour out the full slag carts, only 3 carts. The first car was slightly larger than the "two charcoals", and the second car was very finely broken. At that time, I was more than seven years old, and my task was to go to the boiler room twice a day to go through the slag dumped that day and pick up the "two charcoals" that could be burned twice. I got up early, followed my brothers and sisters to have breakfast, stopped for a while, the sky was slightly bright, and I also went out to pick up the slag dumped in the early morning. Pick it up again around 4 p.m., twice a day, step by step. In the early days, I picked up the "two charcoals" and dumped the three trucks by myself. You can pick it up slowly. At that time, I used three tools to pick up "two charcoals": one was a small iron square bucket used to hold "two charcoals"; the second was a homemade rake made of thick iron wire, which was used to rake slag and screen "two charcoals"; and the third was a pair of blue cotton labor protection gloves used to pick up "two charcoals". Repeatedly, the "two charcoals" picked up are re-burned after being re-burned, and the heating and cooking effect is very good. Of course, in my "production" cost, gloves consume the most. That's because the freshly baked coal core is still smoking and very hot, and I use my gloves to grab the "two charcoals" and put them in the barrel during the process of picking, so my gloves are full of small holes and large holes in the fingertips of my gloves. When I took off my gloves, my thumb and index finger were burned and yellowed. The second-hand thumb index finger "dustpan and 篼" is very convex. See it clearly.
Picking it up, it actually attracted competition. When everyone finds the use of "two carbons". Scramble is the norm. There are boys, girls. By time period, the most intense snatching occurred at 4 p.m. Because the wee hours of the morning are too early, everyone is sleeping, depending on getting up early. No one scrambled. Afternoons are different. At about half past three, everyone was eager to try, just waiting for the slag to be launched. As soon as the door of the boiler room opened, as soon as the uncle dumped the slag at the designated slag dumping place, the friends took the self-made rake one by one, drew the ground as a prison, scrambled to rush up, and quickly went to their own territory to dig slag and collect slag. The more the better, and when the pouring is finished, spread out and pick it up slowly. to thoroughly rummage through the slag in front of their eyes. Until there is nothing more available. Of course, after struggling to snatch it, everyone is still playing and making trouble. The face didn't care about rubbing, the "two charcoals" were put aside, and on the ice near the water room, "beating cows" and skating. Of course, tomorrow the "scramble" continues.
My hometown is located in the northwest of the motherland, the desert is lonely, the Gobi Desert is mostly saline-alkali land, and dry red willow roots and poplar roots abound in the desolate Gobi. They are all treasures for warmth. In that special period, it is an unspeakable pain for every parent to let their teenage children take on family responsibilities. My family is no exception. I heard the family in the courtyard say that they can take the train to the Gobi Desert in the suburbs to collect firewood, and the heating is very good. My mother hesitated for a long time, asked a lot of details, and explained a lot of precautions to my brother, especially to let my brother remember to pick up on both sides of the station, and after eating dry food at noon, he paid attention to the movement of the train out of the mountain pass. In the end, he agreed that his two sons and daughters would go to collect firewood with the brother next door.
This is the scene of his two children hurrying to the train to collect firewood in the early hours of the morning.
At that time, it was located near the Rakusopa Station and along the line from Sangeso Station. On both sides are wild withered and dried red willow roots and poplar roots. They are about the size of a fist, as long as a forearm, and neat.
The children took the train to get off at the station and collected firewood near the station tracks. There is a lot of firewood, and it is easy to tie it up. Carrying it home and setting it on fire burned very strongly. Then, at around 4 p.m., my mother pulled a cart to the station to pick up a pair of children and firewood to go home.
As the days passed, the firewood in my house became higher and higher. Until one day, my mother firmly told my brother and sister that from tomorrow we would never collect firewood again.
It turned out that my mother heard the thrilling thing of collecting firewood from the way to pull firewood every day. Mom was sad. Resolutely gave up for no reason, let his child take the risk.
A few years later, my mother recalled that someone took her brother and sister to collect firewood, which was something that other people often do, and it was no big problem for my children to do it. It is to get up early, work hard, and exercise is good for children's growth. Take the train at the specified time, get off at the designated station, and then everyone picks up on both sides of the line, and returns on time. Everyone walked along the railway line, and the farther and farther away from the station was finally quietly discussed, and they went to the next station, Sangezhuang Station, which was not very familiar with being far away from home. Plus, it's always hard to choose between good things. There are often shots of children running to catch up with the train when the train departure time comes. There is always a scene where you can't run fast and carry too much, throwing firewood and running desperately. Even the uncles who drove the train drivers knew that there were often a group of children who took the train to collect firewood along the railway line and take their train back to the city. The only thing they can do is keep honking their horns after exiting the pass or two kilometres before entering the station to let the kids know that the train is coming in. Watching the children chasing the train with the smaller bodies of firewood on their backs, they would occasionally wait for the children for a while, and then chase back the lost time themselves.
For young children, the temptation to collect firewood is great. The farther you go, the more you carry it, and you can't give it up. At this point, the phenomenon of the train not being able to catch the scheduled time finally happened, the children were afraid, and the parents were anxious. I had to wait a few hours at the station to get home on the train from work.
So my mother never let my second brother and sister take the train to collect firewood.
Today, my brother and sister and I always recall the scene at that time, when the snow fell, our hard work made this home linger with the steadfastness and warmth of fireworks in the world.
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