Homecoming (Part 1)
Text/Ning Baby
In 1990, my father finally left the Nanjing Senior Army Command College.
Although the unit at the time of his retirement belonged to the General Staff, he resolutely returned to the "small building" in the courtyard of the Yellow Temple of the General Administration.
I once asked him, why don't you go into the dry rest house? Dad said that every day he saw the "obituary" posted on the gate, and the old decays only did subtraction, and I was still early! Don't suffer that sin.
I remember that when my father returned to the General Political Compound, Yang Baibing, the big cat at that time, was not happy, thinking that he was going to move out and belong to the General Staff. Dad found Chi Haotian, chief of the general staff of the old comrade-in-arms, to accommodate, people did not buy it, fortunately, he was laid off in advance, and the later director did not care much about such a small matter.
At that time, there was a yard of more than 100 square meters in front of the house, there were originally two walnut trees, seven or eight Beijing white pear trees, after my family lived in, I built a grape rack at the door, and planted two toon trees under the window, the east side of the small building, it turned out to be a piece of reeds, because there were too many officials, and built several small buildings, lived some deputy directors of the General Political Department, my family and Deputy Director Huang Yukun did neighbors, actually Uncle Huang and my father and my mother-in-law are old comrades-in-arms, the relationship is very good. Between the two families are planted pepper trees as a partition and mezi beans (a purple-red lentil) staggered climbing.
Dad was very enthusiastic about watering the water and fertilizing, and finally raised the branches.
Pear honey sweet and sweet, let passers-by pick; walnuts fell to the ground, do not pick up; the most ridiculous is the grapes, the second brother-in-law did not know where to find the grape seedlings, known as the Taiwan variety, from the knot out of the first bunch of grapes, in the tree even if ripe to purple purple, or a sour facial deformation! So, the bunches of purple grapes full of shelves are beautiful! Not even a child who stole the pick came, and then a group of gray magpies who came out of nowhere, like the sound of locusts passing by, sounded for a while, and they were all over the place. Therefore, every year the gray magpies came to patronize, and later they also stationed down, also ate pears, also ate walnuts... The toon seedlings grew taller and taller, blocking out the neighbor's sunlight, so they sawed off some more.
The ground was full of bitter vegetables, mother-in-law, wild amaranth, the mother liked to pick and make something, and then the guard company cleaned up in the yard and shoveled it clean.
When Dad returned to Beijing, he excitedly began a large-scale production movement, planted loofahs, bitter melons, and branches to the second floor, and planted a row of grasses, which is a kind of yellow cauliflower. But the cucumbers, tomatoes, and strawberries he planted could not survive, so Dad mobilized us to eat his fruits all day.
As a result, after so many years, our sisters and brothers have absolutely not eaten loofahs, bitter melons, lentils, broccoli, pears, walnuts, grapes... I also include toon. Fortunately, the peppercorns of the peppercorn trees have never had a peppercorn flavor, so we still love to eat spicy.
It wasn't long before Dad was hooked on fishing again! There is a big pool in front of my house, the water comes from the big kiln pit on the other side of Liuyin Park, in the past there was always a chief with a car fishing in front of my house, my family has a few cats, and those who did not show up sat on the side of the chief to watch the fishing, if the old man caught a small one, he gave the cat to eat. Finally one day, the chief took the cat and the fish with him! And the people never came again, and it was said that there were no more fish. I've been angry for a long time!
Dad did not know which old man was influenced, began to equip up, and Uncle Yang Side asked for a fishing rod, went with a variety of fish drifting fishing lines, mobilized two granddaughters to go out to catch earthworms and grasshoppers for him, make dough and eggs, sesame oil and add some Moutai wine. Carefully operating, the day is not dawn on the door, the afternoon sun is seven meat and eight vegetarian back, the mother will be busy cleaning up the fish, the fish is pasted with the date, put plastic bags frozen in the refrigerator, and bought a freezer specifically for fish.
Every New Year's Festival or when we go home, he will roast the fish, but to eat the earliest, the river fish originally has a fishy smell, and it is the feed of the fish pond, and then save for a year and a half, really we are afraid. Dad cherished his achievements very much, and his neighbors were also scared by him! Every year when he and his mother went out for recuperation, his brother would dig a big pit in the yard and bury some of those "mummy" fish, so that his father would always force him to eat.
In his old age, his father's eyes were not good, he still had to go fishing, let the driver help him look at the pole, and he came to mention it! So I also persistently sent us fish, the labels on the fish are basically more than a year old, I wondered, why not eat what I just caught? Reluctant. We often sneak away.
alas! Dad just left to practice brush writing, there are looks, and the writing is also good. I still can't sit still, and I like to hang out.
Recent photo by the author