Vernacular prose: The Past of Catching Grasshoppers
Text: Yang Xiaoguang
There is a saying: grasshoppers after autumn can't bounce for a few days. In the few days after the autumn peanuts, grasshoppers were "listed" in large quantities, and we seized the favorable opportunity to show our skills and concentrate on catching grasshoppers. More than 40 years ago, in the hometown of Changli County, the production team organized members to produce peanuts from the ground, and the labor scene was very spectacular and quite ritualistic. All the members of the society went out in unison, and the male laborers were in front, brandishing large iron pickaxes, and one pickaxe and one pickaxe pulled out the peanuts together with the sand, and the women members and children followed close behind, picking up the peanut horns that were missing in the field. At that time, the autumn harvest was not like now, and as soon as the rotary cultivator passed, the grain left in the field was ignored. According to the survey, the loss of mechanized grain harvesting link is very prominent, not to mention the return of granules to the warehouse, the machine harvest loss rate is about 5% to 8%, and some even as high as 10%. It's a staggering number.
Out of the peanuts to withstand the dew to the ground, the production captain stood on the ground, spit into the palm of his hand, rubbed his hands, clenched the pickaxe handle, and shouted: Ridge up! Immediately the first soldier, the pickaxe fell, first planed out the distance of two pickaxes to "make a sample", the other members followed in turn, and the team of peanuts retreated backwards at an oblique angle, like a long-distance runner standing on different tracks. At this time, the grasshoppers perched on the peanut stalks were moved to the nest without any defense, and they jumped around in horror, and some jumped directly on the peanut planers.
A bunch of our children who participated in the labor did not have the heart to pick up peanuts, put down the basket in their hands, rushed forward, began to cover, pounce, and catch, and the dew-stained grasshoppers lost most of their ability to fly, especially the big guy with the long body with the sharp head (scientific name Chinese grasshopper), the slow movement and jumping power was poor, where it was comparable to our children's large bounce, and the big grasshopper flat almost came to hand. We catch grasshoppers at the beginning who do not refuse, see what catches what. If you catch more, you will have a choice, not to catch those earthhoppers that are flexible and difficult to catch, as well as water grasshoppers and oil grasshoppers with an earthy smell, and only have a fondness for those big guys whose stomachs are bulging and full of seeds. Good flying blue head stunned, unlucky in its handsome appearance, one by one like a miniature green internal combustion engine locomotive, even if it takes a lot of effort to catch it, put it in a bottle alone, as a capital to show off among the small partners. Take it out when you're fine, squeeze the grasshopper leg with your hand, and watch it perform a "dustpan". There are words in my mouth: dustpan, dustpan, you move, I pass. Catching a good flying grasshopper requires a certain skill, to gently approach from the back, with your hand from under the front cover of the grasshopper's head, the grasshopper catches a quasi, if you pounce from behind, the grasshopper will fly as soon as it is swooped, and it will not be able to catch it at all.
Pulling a tough grass from the side of the road, the other grasshoppers caught except for the blue head were put up from the neck one by one, and soon they were dressed into a large string, which was called a grasshopper on a rope. We ran upside down enough to catch grasshoppers, and then returned to our own ridges, waved the scratching rake in our hands to pick up peanuts, and had the right to rest. At the end of the work, I carried my own grasshopper string in my hand and swung all the way home with excitement.
The grasshoppers that were caught picked up the small feeding chickens, and the large grasshoppers were thrown into the stove pit where Grandma cooked, buried in the ash pile where the embers were not gone, and added a handful of firewood to fan out the flames with a fan. Take a fire stick and pull a few over, pick it up and bounce off the ashes, peel it off and eat it with the heat, but it is fragrant. In particular, the big belly is flattened, and there is a jar of yellow-orange-orange seeds in it, which is more and more fragrant the more chewed. Hungry bystanders stared at the dried chickens.
Sometimes the big guys who were caught were flattened, and Grandma freed her hands to help pick them up. Pull the grasshopper's head, and the intestines will be brought out and thrown to the long-awaited chicken next to it. Grandma poured some oil into the bottom of the hot pot, put the washed headless ant flat into the pot, "Zi La" a sound, a puff of oil smoke straight through the nostrils. The fried grasshoppers are bright in color and oily, like freshly cooked crayfish. Because the line was cut out beforehand, it will not be palpitating when eating. Throw the whole grasshopper into your mouth and chew it up, and taste the delicacy from the field with confidence. A major pest that plagues crops in the fields and affects harvests, it has become a tonic for people to relieve their hunger. Later, I visited the market, in the food stall once bought fried grasshoppers, unfortunately did not go to the head, a line together to fry, a look at it, the stall owner has not seriously eaten grasshoppers when he was young. People can't choose not to eat, so they have to abandon it.
Nowadays, farmers use more and more pesticides to cultivate the fields, and there are fewer and fewer grasshoppers in the wild, and it is difficult to find grasshoppers in the fields and grasses after autumn. The blue head is stunned, the big guy is flat, and it is even more rare to see, so few people catch grasshoppers. Recently, I read an article on the Internet, the author described that he went to the countryside to catch a big guy Bian, thinking of the past when his mother often caught him to play, so he took the grasshopper home as a "gift" to the eighty-year-old woman. The old lady opened her toothless mouth and smiled innocently. The author lamented: "That is the ageless childlike heart, the happiness of 80 years ago." I had tears in my eyes when I read it.
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