Warm prose of brazier

The era of heating with braziers has long since passed, leaving me with a childlike interest that will never disappear. Every cold winter, I still think of the warm brazier, the warmth and happiness it brought me when I was a child, and the deep fatherly love, maternal love and long thoughts for my parents!

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I remember when I was a child, my mother made a new brazier every year. In late autumn, my mother would dig in the ditch. The place where we live is all black soil, the soil is very good, there is no gravel impurity, it is sticky and delicate. In order to prevent it from cracking at high temperature, my mother found some unusable hemp rope, chopped it, mixed it in mud with moderate thickness, stirred it evenly with a shovel, tossed the mud over and over with a wooden hammer for many times to make it flexible, then buckled a large earthen basin on the ground to make a model, sprinkled a layer of plant ash on the outside of the earthen basin, pasted the mud on the earthen basin, and gently patted it flat with a wooden board.

In the fifties and sixties of last century, the weather in our Central Plains seemed particularly cold. Every winter, it always snows several times. Fields and villages are covered with snow, and the thick snow will not melt all winter.

We don't have mountains there, it's far from the coal mine, and the traffic is underdeveloped. Farmers can only use local materials for heating, generally relying on weeds and crop straws.

I remember that every year my mother began to prepare firewood from long summer, and whenever she had time, she would go to Tiantou roadside to mow the grass and lay it on the roadside to dry. After the wheat harvest, mother began to stubble at dusk. In autumn, the straw of crops will not leak to the ground at all. Besides, my mother will sweep away all the fallen leaves in front of and behind the house. In order to ensure the warmth of the family, my mother takes pains to build a woodpile as big as several houses every year.

At that time, farmers lived a very poor life. There is no big kang and coal stove in winter, and there is no heating and air conditioning. Brazier is the only heating tool for farmers. Although every family lives in adobe thatched houses, there is no glass on the windows, but they are covered with thin cotton paper, but a pot of fire in the hut will be warm and harmonious.

When I was a child, I liked to lie in bed in winter. After my mother got up, she emptied the ashes in the brazier first, and then put a brazier with grass foam. After cooking, I put the red fire in the stove on the shovel, piled the grass foam on it and let the grass foam simmer slowly. My mother tried to warm my clothes while the fire was burning.

Although the firewood pile in our house is very large, my mother is still very economical. When my mother is alone at home, or spinning flowers at night, no matter how cold it is, she never leaves and bakes an open flame. Only when we go home or have guests and neighbors will my mother light a big fire.

At that time, there was no electricity or iron, and my mother was a neat person. She asked the blacksmith to make a soldering iron, a long iron handle and a thick piece of iron. While preheating, she put the soldering iron in the dark fire of the brazier to heat it, sprayed water on the finished clothes, and put the soldering iron on the sizzling sound, so that the clothes were neatly ironed.

In the cold winter, the cold wind blows outside, dripping into ice, the house is warm and cozy, and the children are greedy. Besides keeping warm by the brazier, we also try to bake something to eat in it. The food barbecued in brazier is original and much more delicious than the current barbecue. Take a soft bean bag, or steamed bread, put it on with wire, and bake it constantly. It will soon be browned and burnt.

The most interesting thing is that we caught sparrows and roasted them. There were many sparrows at that time. Every time it snows, the little sparrows can't find food, so they fall in front of the door in droves and look around for food. We put a sieve in front of the door, find a small stick tied with a rope, put the sieve aside and sprinkle corn or beans on the bottom of the sieve. We sat next to the brazier, holding the rope in our hands, staring at the sieve tightly, and found the sparrow getting in and eating it. We immediately pulled the rope and the sparrow was caught in it, so we shook the sieve back and forth vigorously until the sparrow fainted before taking it out and putting it in the brazier. After the sparrows were roasted, they were skinned and smelled delicious, and their saliva was smoked out. Although it was only a small sparrow, it was still very satisfying in that poor age. It can always eat roasted sparrows several times a winter.

Every autumn, my mother always leaves us some full-bodied corn cobs to hang on curved jujube trees, so that we can burn corn flowers in winter. After a minute or two, it will burst open, and the fragrant and whisked popcorn will burst out from the ashes of the fire. Even if it is not hot, it will gently blow off the ashes and fill it in your mouth with your hands, which is fragrant and crisp. It takes a lot of fire to fry popcorn, and it will collapse after a few fires. My mother had to make a new fire. After making a fire, she began to burn soybeans and bake vermicelli. She put a handful of thin vermicelli in the ashes of the fire, and when she heard the hissing sound, she became white and fat in an instant, tasted sweet and fragrant, and baked two small sweet potatoes. The soft and fragrant noodles are sweet, comparable to the current delicacies. It's time for dinner. A smile reveals two white teeth.

Winter is the most leisure season for farmers, and brazier has become a place for people to get together and exchange feelings. Everyone likes to visit their families and talk about things. Sometimes my aunt and uncle come to my house and everyone gathers around the brazier. Mother kept adding firewood to the brazier. Everyone put their hands in the brazier circle and baked with a cage fire. While warming up, they chatted, and the children snuggled up to the adults. Everyone around the brazier, flickering, really like a beautiful and warm picture.

There is a saying in our hometown: Roasting flowers and firewood on New Year's Eve will make you richer. Therefore, in order to get lucky, every household leaves a few cotton stalks to roast and eat during the Chinese New Year. Cotton stalks are the best firewood in our local area. They don't have too much smoke, they are difficult to bake, and they don't make the newly cleaned house too dirty.

I remember that on New Year's Eve every year, my father would light two thick red candles at both ends of the altar on the mud foundation and put five big steamed buns on each side of the ancestral tablet. There is jujube steamed buns made by my mother in the middle, and there is a large piece of cooked meat and various offerings in front of the jujube mountain. Two candles danced with flashing light, shining brightly on the red blessing on the wall. After worshipping the ancestors, the thrifty mother held flowers and firewood in her arms beside her, and the family sat around the brazier. While we were warming ourselves, we ate sunflower seeds and lollipops. My mother kept pushing cotton firewood to add to the brazier, telling the story of their childhood Chinese New Year, while my father smoked one cigarette after another.

In the early morning of the first day, firecrackers sounded everywhere in the village, and smoke filled the whole village. My father also put a big plate of firecrackers in the yard. Big Lei Zi's voice was deafening. After the firecrackers were set off, I started to light the fire with cotton firewood, baked my clothes, put on new clothes and ran with my children all morning. I picked up a bag of squibs and shivered with cold. When I got home, my mother had made jiaozi.

With the development of society, there are heating, air conditioning and various heaters now, and no one will use braziers to keep warm any more. Although the brazier has become history, every winter, I will still think of the warm brazier, the warmth and happiness it brought me when I was a child, and the deep fatherly love, maternal love and long-term yearning for my parents!