Memories of my hometown ‖ Our busy holiday at that time.

I am born after 70. When I was in primary school and junior high school, every year during the wheat harvest season, the school would take a week's busy wheat vacation. The reason why the wheat was on holiday was that it was the wheat harvest season, and the family was really busy. Usually, it took more than half a month in three summers. Children can also help adults at home. Secondly, because most of the teachers in the school are substitute teachers, they also have land at home and need to go home to work.

Taking a few days off is the only holiday without homework, which is also a happy thing for children. But one thing, before the holiday, the school arranged the task of work-study program: during the holiday, we will take part in harvesting and picking up the ears of wheat, and everyone will hand in the ears of wheat when the school starts. Remember less in middle and lower grades, and remember more in senior grades. It seems to be six or seven kilograms, and it seems to be more than ten kilograms in junior high school.

The first task of Maiye is to help adults. Children send rice or boiled water to the fields. Teenagers are semi-laborers, so they begin to follow adults, wear straw hats and pick up sickles to cut wheat with them. When the wheat is ripe, you should get up early to harvest it. When the weather is cool, you will be awakened by adults, and with excitement, you will appreciate the glory of labor. Brothers and sisters compare with each other, and everyone doesn't want to be left behind. But after all, wheat cutting is manual work, hot and prickly. I look forward to stopping and having a rest. After doing farm work for a long time, my arms are tanned, my face is red, I feel a little suffocated, and my whole body is like a needle. At that time, on the road, I heard that "sorbet and rock sugar" had been handed over, and I was happy immediately. I persisted until noon and collapsed instantly, and I no longer had the strength to do it. Usually at this time, adults will buy one to cool everyone down, drive away the heat and refresh their minds. I couldn't wait to take a bite in my hand, and the heat in summer was greatly reduced. Let's have another bite, it will make my heart cold. At that time, buying an sorbet was also a luxury.

When wheat is pulled into the field, it must be covered first. Several families take turns threshing wheat in the fields. Beating wheat is the most tiring job: adults must stand in the field, and the hotter the weather, the drier it is. In early years, wheat was pushed by a cow with a stone behind it. In the late 1980s, tractors equipped with metal compactors similar to stones were used to drive wheat, and Mu Cha was used to pick wheat after driving it. In the afternoon, long wheat stalks are picked and collected together, and the wheat bran needs to be lifted out when the wind blows. Generally speaking, children can only help adults out of their pockets until the last load of wheat.

In the evening, sleeping in the wheat field, covered with mats, blowing a cool breeze, listening to the endless nonsense of adults and looking at the stars all over the sky are the best memories of children. .....

When my family is not busy, some friends go to the fields to pick up wheat ears. At that time, every household had to harvest wheat, and it was not easy to pick up wheat in the field. I can't learn much in one day. When I am tired, I go to the shade, wipe the wheat clean, and then blow it clean. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you will get more harvest when you go to the road to pick up the ears of wheat falling from the car.

School starts in the blink of an eye, and wheat is due on the first day of school. Wheat will be taken to school, and the teacher who collects wheat must check it. You don't need germinated wheat, you don't need all dead wheat, and you don't need wheat mixed with clods. Everyone's wheat should be weighed, and students who exceed the quota will be praised by the school. I remember one year when I handed in wheat, because I lost more than a catty and didn't finish it, my good partner in my class helped me finish the task.

Nowadays, with the popularization and use of large-scale combine harvesters, the wheat harvest is basically over in a day or two, so children born in rural areas after 1990 have no experience of taking wheat leave. The work scene of a generation is the brand of people's childhood after 70, which can't be traced and lingering. At that time, the work was hard and enjoyable. With a sense of accomplishment, we realize that every grain is hard, and human nature is also infected by this simple spirit everywhere, which has cultivated the spirit of hardship of our generation.

Remembering the lost youth. (Text/Zhao Huasheng)