Nostalgic Prose: Childhood Summer without Fireworks

Photo: Yang Xiaoguang.

I have been looking forward to summer since I was a child, because summer can be willful, can run wild, can play wild, can eat wild vegetables and fruits, can save food and clothing, shoes and socks. Life in summer is simple. Get up from the heatable adobe sleeping platform in the morning, simply wash your face, put on your shoes, and even go to work barefoot. Take a bath at night, without burning a lamp to boil oil. You will fall asleep quickly when it is cool. At that time, the rural areas were short of food and clothing, and summer was just suitable for rural families who were worried about food and clothing.

Summer solstice, summer solstice, no fireworks. In my hometown, Shajiatuo, Changli County, Hebei Province, every family starts to cook only one meal every morning as soon as the summer solstice arrives. Make a fire to cook in the morning, cook a day's meal, mix cakes with stick noodles and sweet potato noodles, and fish red sorghum rice with water. Pickles are fished in water, and when you are hungry, you have bones and muscles. You can mow the grass in the field like a steamer, and you can survive in the dark. The advantages of not moving fireworks for a day are obviously saving food and firewood, saving time and trouble; It's not hot to enter the house at night, so I lie on the kang and save steaming and baking, and turn the pancakes over.

Grandma bought barnyard grass for mules and horses at a very cheap price, boiled it in shells, threshed it, dried it in the sun, and made a living with really cheap and good boiled barnyard grass rice. Barnyard grass grows in Gudizi, which is not a material and is unpopular. "Barnyard grass in the field is like being bitten by a poisonous snake." It shows that the existence of barnyard grass is very harmful to crop growth. In order not to affect the grain harvest, barnyard grass must be uprooted. Few people know that rice ground by barnyard grass is good for getting angry, relieving summer heat, delicious and hungry. Although barnyard grass is not allowed at the gourmet table, it is a rare "chewy and expensive" in my teenage memory. Grandma sliced the pickles, beat an egg and fried it in the pot. Scrambled eggs with pickles and rice, I can eat two bowls at a time.

I like summer for another reason. When the weather is hot, Da Die will move to the east wing opposite our window to cool off. The east wing opposite our window is Da Die's storage room. Don't cook all year round. In summer, Da Die can sleep on the cool kang. Usually, only my grandmother and I live in the west wing, so we can have a good sleep during the day, especially at night. The sounds of mice climbing the ceiling, cats barking, rabbits arching their nests and the wind blowing are infinitely amplified after the dead of night.

Da Die moved to the East Wing and lived with us through the window. In the evening, when I saw Da Die lighting an oil lamp, I saw a man with a lantern in front of me. That kindness and joy came from the heart, and my courage suddenly increased greatly. Even if Da Die blows out the oil lamp, Mars, which is obviously extinguished when smoking, will give me a wonderful feeling of watching shadow play. With the satisfaction in comfort, I will have no dreams all night.

My house has an earthen roof. In summer, the poisonous sun shines directly on the roof, and the hot air leaks in like a sieve. The window sash is wide open and the room is like a steamer. At dawn, grandma crept up and cooked with a big stove all day. The dawn in memory always seems to be welcomed by the tinkling bells of the production team. I rubbed my sleepy eyes, wet my knees with dew, earned work points with the members, and went to the farmland to do what I could-catch caterpillars. At that time, the collective production fund of the production team had few dollars and could not afford pesticides. In order to prevent crop diseases and insect pests, members must be mobilized to carry out a campaign to catch pests and nip them in the bud. This is also the green agricultural production that had to be done in those years. As long as there are holes in the leaves of crops, there are bound to be caterpillars biting the stems and leaves. Our operating procedure is simple. We quickly pinched the caterpillar from the back of the leaf, and our hands were covered with sticky pest liquid. We didn't go home for breakfast until the sun was sweating.

When I entered the room, I just glanced at a pot of fragrant barnyard grass porridge and hung it on the stove. I scooped a spoonful of cold water from the water tank near the stove, drank a few mouthfuls to quench my thirst, then filled the bowl with rice, shoveled rice, ate eggs and pickles and wiped my mouth. Have a rest by the stove, pick up the hoe and go out again. Go to the playground of the village primary school and gather the whole team. Under the leadership of the teacher, the friends lined up to sing songs, "open the door to run a school" to learn agriculture and support agriculture, and went into the closed field to cut crops. At school, I have little time to sit in the classroom and study, let alone learn any cultural knowledge, except to participate in agricultural production and labor endlessly.

I especially miss that tired childhood at all costs. After weeding in the field, I ate two bowls of rice all over the floor and didn't rest at noon. I put on a tennis racket made of straw and went to the village to stick cicadas before and after. At that time, I didn't know that this little stunner was a high-protein food, which could be burned, roasted and fried to make a brown and crispy taste, which not only solved the thirst, but also supplemented the nutrition. All I know is to feed the cicadas I caught to chickens and ducks. It's a pity to think about it now.

In the countryside in summer, cloudy and rainy days are all pleasant times to "worship God". The rain splashed on the dry land and the dry river bed, causing a white fog, and the rich earthy smell came to the nose, and the long-lost summer heat suddenly vanished. Cultivators who can't do farm work in the fields can rest with peace of mind and enjoy "cloudy days". Crowds of people gathered on the shady peasant heatable adobe sleeping platform to play poker, chess and chat. Children gathered to read picture books and play bone games. The rain outside the window and the laughter in the house enjoyed a relaxed and happy time. In a rainy summer, Da Die's temporary residence in the East Wing seems to be an island full of laughter and noise.

However, in rainy days, especially in the case of continuous rain, my situation with my grandmother is not so wonderful. There is an earthen roof in the west wing where we live. The next shower will be fine, and it will be fine after the rain. As soon as it rains endlessly underground, the roof begins to leak more and more. It's raining outside, but it's raining inside. It can't stop outside and it's still dripping inside. The room is full of pots and pans to catch the rain, and there is no place to lie down and sleep. This is a complete mess. In order to let me have a normal rest, one night my grandmother repeatedly emptied the rain from the full pots and pans, and I could hardly sleep all night.

After dinner on a sunny day, every household will go out. The old man sat cross-legged on the stone outside the door, and the women had futons under their arms. Children scramble for benches, and people go out to enjoy the cool. In windless and sultry weather, people simply climb the ladder to the roof and lie shirtless on the roof, just like lying on a warm kang, looking up at the twinkling stars and the curved crescent moon with their neighbors to enjoy the cool, listening to the barking of dogs in the village and the cooing of old hens. After a hard day, we talked about some parents' stories, sesame and mung beans, and slept like a dream until midnight when they were soaked. Then they helped the ladder down the roof, went back to their respective houses, and slept for a long time. I lay comfortably on the mat of my own heatable adobe sleeping platform, and fell asleep unconsciously, experiencing physical and mental growth. In my sleep, cicadas are still climbing up and down the branches, singing far and near, singing high and singing low, and never stopping. Sing till dawn.