At that time, there was no television, no television, no mobile phone, not even a book. But there is not much fun in childhood, and there is no lot of happiness!
Happiness is a strange thing, everyone thinks differently, and the feelings derived from it are different. You feel happy, and some people don't; you think you're happy, and some people think it's just a little bit happier. Happiness is a kind of psychological satisfaction, a kind of inner pleasure. Actually, happiness is simple!
The joy of childhood is at your fingertips. A few children can play a game, swim, or have a water fight to have fun.
When I was young, there were many ways to play. Catching insects is one of the ways to play.
- Catch fireflies. Fireflies are mostly found in rural fields, villages, woods and other places, and are most active in the middle of summer every year. The sun was scorching the earth like a sauna. When night falls, the earth and the river emit heat waves, blowing hot on the body. There are no air conditioners, fans and other electrical appliances in the house, and the family sits cross-legged on a "bed" set up with a door panel, eating, chatting, and even sleeping. Knowing the endless noise, the fireflies flashed green light, more and less, high and low, fast and slow, wandering aimlessly. A few of Zhuang Shang's friends had already prepared white transparent glass bottles and banana fans, gathered together, followed the direction of fireflies' activities, brandished fans, fanned the fireflies to the ground, and then caught them one by one into the glass bottles. After a while, the fireflies filled half a bottle. The fireflies glowed together, reflecting the sweaty but childish faces of their friends, and also wrote the excitement and happiness on their faces.
- Catching turtles. Ground turtle insects are important medicinal insects that live in dark, warm, moist, humus-rich soft mud burrows and cavities. Nowadays, houses are made of masonry and concrete, and such insects are no longer common. At that time, most of the houses were civil structures, and ground turtles were almost common in every home, especially under the earth stove. For some time, the commune supply and marketing cooperatives also opened a purchase point to buy small animals such as turtles and other small animals that can be used for medicine, and rural freighters have also collected them. I heard that this thing can be exchanged for money, and the children can come to God, and from time to time in places where there are holes and loose soil, they use small wires and small wooden sticks to rummage. Ground turtles prefer to be active at night and sting in burrows or soil during the day. Fiddling for one or two times a day, there will always be a lot of gains. Especially when the old soil stove is removed, the harvest will be more. The captured live land turtles are temporarily kept in a vessel and placed some rice bran, loose soil and the like for their food and life. After accumulating a certain amount, blanch, wash, drain with boiling water, and expose to strong sunlight until there is no water, you can go to the purchase point to change change.
- Catching dragonflies. Dragonflies are also the most common insects in the height of summer. There are many types of dragonflies, with different forms and colors. Whenever the air pressure is low and the rainstorm is coming, thousands of dragonflies gather together, hovering and swirling at a low altitude, and the black pressure is constantly changing the shape, suddenly fast, suddenly slow, magnificent. More often, dragonflies rest independently on branches and flowers, with slender tails, and especially stand on top of lotus flowers, which is very beautiful. The interest of children in catching dragonflies is very simple, purely for fun, for fun. If you mention the slightly larger dragonflies, they are also deliberately placed in the tent, saying that dragonflies can eat mosquitoes. Most of the children have played like this, but they have never seen a dragonfly eat mosquitoes.
In addition to catching these insects, many children also catch grasshoppers, iron bulls, zhiyi, clams and other insects when they are young, just for the sake of childlike heart and childlike fun. Kids today don't have these games we did when we were kids. And I think that these games are not only the joy of our generation, but also the imprint of life that is close to nature and integrated into nature.