The original of "Memory of the Mountain"

A farmer representative came from Fuping County to visit the industrial exhibition in Tianjin. We are long-standing friendship. We haven't seen each other for almost ten years. I accompanied him to visit the exhibition, and he was particularly interested in the weaving of China textiles and those improved new farm tools. When I leave, I must give him something. I want to buy some feet of cloth.

Why do I want to buy cloth? Because he is still wearing those light blue jeans with indigo dye. I don't know what this blue color is called, but it reminds me of many things, such as the three-year battle between Fuping and the wasteland, and many people. I call this color "Fuping Blue" or "Mountain Blue".

The color of his clothes is very prominent in Tianjin, and he also feels very rustic. But in Fuping, such a suit is not easy to weave and dye, and it feels bright and beautiful to wear. Fuping has little land, and the mountains are full of black stones. It rained heavily and violently, so some soil rushed to the central Hebei plain, which is my hometown. Farmers in Fuping have never seen large plots. All they have is a piece of land the size of a kang platform or a pot platform. In this small, irregular, sometimes sharp, sometimes semi-circular, sometimes trapezoidal land, they tried their best to operate. They were built of stone, wrapped in mud, planted jujube trees at the edges and corn in the middle.

It's cold in Fuping, and the sun can't be seen in the mountains. Cotton is not grown there. When I first got there, the old ladies were rubbing hammers in their hands. Many works use hemp instead of thread, and even the soles of socks are made of hemp.

It was because of socks that I met this family and became a long-term friendship. It was a winter, which should be the winter of 194 1 year. I fought a guerrilla war and arrived in this small village. The situation eased and the troops decided to rest for two days.

I go to the river to wash my face every day. There is ice in the river. I climbed the frozen stone, broke the ice and soaked the towel. When I wash my face, the towel will freeze. One morning, the wind was cold and there was only a faint sunshine, which fell on the hillside across the river, and it was yellow. I boarded the stone again, broke open the ice mouth, and was about to wash my face when I heard someone shouting in a nearby stream:

"Didn't you see me washing vegetables here? Wash your face and wash it below! "

The sound is too harsh, and I am very unhappy. In this cold weather, I came to smash the ice to wash my face, but it hindered people. My heart is on fire, and I also loudly say:

"It's so far away, it will stain your food!"

I stood in the spotlight, and the wind blew my anger. I heard that the vegetable washer is also tired. The man said:

"Food is the next thing! Why don't the upper class wash their faces and bottoms? "

"Why did you curse?" I stood up and turned around, but I saw a girl washing vegetables, only 16 or 17 years old. The wind flushed her face, like a frosted persimmon leaf, and the water swollen her hand, like a frozen carrot. The clothes she is wearing are very thin, that is, blue rags.

/kloc-On the beach in the winter of October, the enemy went back and forth on the edge of the village that was burned several times. In the cold wind, she was holding a basket of watered poplar leaves, which should be breakfast food.

I don't know why, but I calmed down for a while. I said:

"I was wrong. I won't wash it. Come and wash on this stone! "

She looked at me coldly, and after a while she said:

"You just washed your face on that stone and told me to stand up and wash vegetables!"

I smiled and said:

"Look at you, I am washing in the water. You said that the water is dirty. It is such a big river. Where can I wash the dirty things on your face? Now I invite you to the water, and I want to go to the water's edge, but you still say no. What should I do? "

"What should I do? I have to go up! "

As she spoke, she twisted herself by the river. Climb on a sharp stone, soak the vegetable basket in water, put your hands under your coat to keep warm, and look at me and laugh.

I cried and laughed, so I had to say:

"You are really good at hygiene!"

"We are really healthy, and you are also very healthy! You all laugh at us, saying that people in our ravines don't pay attention to hygiene, live in our house, eat our meals, brush our mouths and brush our teeth. If our vegetable rice is not clean, will it still dirty your mouths? Why don't you even brush your intestines clean! " Bend over with laughter.

I think it's funny. But I can also see that when she smiles, her neat teeth are shining with white light.

"Yes, you are sanitary, and we are not sanitary." I said.

"Is that a lie? You, a rice jar, still hold rice and vegetables, wash your face and feet, drink water and pee. Is that hygiene? " She smiled and scratched with her hands in the cold water.

"This is the material condition is not good, not health is not what we want. When we defeat Japan and occupy Beiping, we can have food, water and everything is ready. "

"When can we defeat the devils?" The girl looked at me. "Let them burn our room two or three times!" " "

"Maybe three years, maybe five years, maybe ten years and eight years. However, no matter three, five, ten or eight years, we will always fight and will not be pessimistic. " I told her this, and I felt very happy after telling her this.

"Go barefoot?" The girl turned to look at my feet, and then lowered her head to wash the vegetables.

I didn't understand what was going on at the moment, so I asked:

"What did you say?"

"Say what?" The girl also pretended not to hear, "I asked you why you don't wear socks, aren't your feet cold?" Is it also hygienic? "

"Cough!" I also smiled, "this didn't also way, what health! We have been opposed to "mopping up" since September, but our Eighth Route Army will not issue socks until the end of October. At this time of war, where can I find socks to wear? "

"I won't buy a pair, will I?" The girl whispered.

"Where can I buy it? I live in a small village, but I don't live in a shop in town. " I said.

"Don't ask people to make a pair?"

"Where is the cloth? Even if there is cloth, who will do it? "

"I'll do it for you." The girl stood up after washing the vegetables. "My family lives on that slope," she pointed. "If you don't have cloth, I have enough cloth at home to make a pair of socks."

She left with food, and I washed my face by the river. I looked at my black feet with a pair of shoes that kicked down the mountain. For a moment, I felt that I could no longer live without the mountains, water and beaches in front of me.

I washed my face, went back to the team for dinner, and then went to my girl's house. She was making a fire. When she saw me, she said:

"You are a real person. When someone asks you, you come. "

I just smiled and walked into the room because I knew her temper. The room was steaming hot. After a while, I saw an old lady and an uncle in their forties sitting around a fire on the kang. There is an old lady with snow-white hair behind her. The whole family laughed and let me sit on the kang. The girl said:

"Don't go to the river to wash your face tomorrow. Come and wash your face here. One more spoonful of water is enough! "

Uncle said:

"Our girl just laughed at you!"

The white-haired grandmother smiled and said with a flat mouth:

"She can't talk, comrade, don't be like her!"

"She is very talkative!" I said, "The important thing is that she is kind-hearted. When she saw me barefoot, she felt sorry for our Eighth Route Army! "

Aunt pulled out a rough white cloth from the corner of the kang and said:

"This is our girl spinning for half a year. She made me a pair of cotton trousers, and the rest said to make a pair of socks for her father. Now I'll do it for you first. "

I hurriedly said:

"Call uncle dai! Otherwise I will give money! "

"You are pretending again," the girl looked up at the fire. "Do you have money?"

Aunt said:

"Our family, said can't change. Then let her spin and earn socks for dad. Earlier, we couldn't spin here either, but this spring, a lesbian lived at home and taught her. He also said that he would teach her to weave when he came back! Can people in your family spin? "

"it will rotate!" I said, "We wear foreign cloth there, which is woven by machine." Aunt, when we beat Japan ... "

"If we take Peiping, we will have foreign cloth to wear and everything will be ready!" Next, the girl smiled.

Coincidentally, the situation has not changed these days, and we have not moved. Every morning, I go to the girl's house to wash my face. The next day, the socks have been cut, and the third day, she has laid the foundation, using fine linen thread. She said:

"Where is the twine used?"

"Use a thread." I felt the soles of my socks. "Where we are, the soles are not so thick!" "

"So solid." The girl said, "Can you beat Japan in three years?"

"yes." I said.

On the fifth day, I put on new socks.

I am familiar with this family, and it has become my new home. This family is both strong and interesting. The girl's mother looks stronger than her father. The girl's grandmother is 90 years old, still strong and not deaf. When we were talking, she didn't interrupt, just smiled. She said that she likes to listen to people gossip.

The girl's father is a good producer, and now there is no job in other places. He is going to sell red dates in Quyang and asked me if I could help him. The army attaches great importance to the work of the pro-democracy movement, and my superiors allow me to help my fellow villagers with transportation. Every morning, my uncle and I carry 100 kilograms of red dates, along the river beach, over mountains and mountains, and send them to Quyang. Girls get up early and stay up late to cook for us. The food is very good. One day, my uncle said:

"Comrade, do you know that I am touching your light?"

"How did you touch my lamp?"

"In previous years, I recited dates alone, and we girls wouldn't give me such good food!"

I smiled. The girl said:

"What's the matter with him? He wears our socks and should work for us! "

Say it again:

"You have been running for almost half a month. How much did you earn? "

"Look, she's coming to audit the accounts," said the uncle. "Really, we should forget it!" He opened a small bag under the base. "We call it a bagged account. We lose money, but it's all inside. "

We counted the tickets together, and a * * * earned more than 5,000 yuan. The girl said:

"That's enough."

"What's the use?" Uncle asked.

"Enough to buy me a loom! This trip, you buy me a loom in Quyang! "

No matter grandma, mom, dad and I, no one opposes the girl's just request. We went to Quyang, sold dates and bought a machine. Uncle is not afraid to spend more money. He must buy a good one and use up all the rest. We came back from cheating, sweating all over.

On this day, the family is the happiest and should be the most satisfying day for girls. This is like asking for a few acres of land and buying back a cow; Just like a wedding escort.

From then on, girls will learn a whole set of textile techniques: spinning, turning, sizing, doffing, warping, inlaying and knitting.

I set off the day she took off the first piece of cloth. Since then, I have traveled all over Shannan and Saibei, and those socks have been worn for three years without any flaws. 1945, we defeated the Japanese robbers. When I came back from Yan 'an, I jumped into the Yellow River and took a bath at the bridge. In an instant, the rushing yellow water washed away all my clothes and socks. The waves of the Yellow River aroused my memories of my life behind enemy lines for several years, and aroused my memories of that girl.

On that day in founding ceremony, my uncle and I went to the department store to buy cloth and gave him and my aunt a piece of blue silk. Besides, I gave the girl a red one. Uncle had never seen such a bright red cloth and said to me:

"Buy more feet and yellow ones!"

"For what?" I asked.

"There are new flags hanging at the door of every household here, but there is definitely no one in the ravine! You give me the appearance of a national flag, take it back together, let the girl make it, and hang it at the Chinese New Year meeting! "

He said that Niu Niu has two children, and she likes new things as much as when she was a child, and she has to learn everything she says.

1949 65438+ February

(Excerpted from Baiyangdian Chronicle, China Youth Publishing House, 1963 edition)