Jane Year 8: Talk about the fire bucket, the heating artifact of southern Anhui people, which hides our warmest memories of our hometown.

Fire bucket, round and hollow, surrounded by several curved boards, surrounded by iron rings or wooden shackles, almost as high as a stool. A brazier is usually a ceramic basin. Most of the charcoal in the basin is boiled in a large pot and buried in the ash of the stove, and then covered with an iron heat shield, the size of which is customized according to the size of the fire bucket. Put a board on it, people sit on it, spread a cloth covering their legs, and are full of enthusiasm. Eating, watching TV, playing mahjong, doing homework, etc. No matter how cold it is in winter, it is a pleasure to be warm under your feet.

This belongs to one person. I remember when I was a child, it was always dripping into ice in winter. In winter morning, most students go to school with small fireballs. At that time, the conditions were not as good as they are now, and most of them were winter shoes made of cotton cloth by mother. Comfortable but not warm, I take off my shoes in every class and put my frozen feet on them to get a warm feeling. If the charcoal is not completely burned, use a ballpoint pen with a refill as a blowing tool to discharge the ice in the gap between light and dark.

When a daughter in the mountainous area of southern Anhui gets married, the mother will prepare such a dowry. Inside the fireball, there are red eggs, peanuts and longan. I am pinning my mother's most sincere wishes to my daughter, hoping that the newlyweds will prosper in the future.

With backrest, it can be used by two or more people. At family gatherings, there are fire buckets around the square table. Even if it is snowing outside, the fire bucket is isolated from the cold of winter. It is also warm to have a meal or play mahjong for half a day.

What impresses me most is that I often do my homework alone until late at night because of the heavy schoolwork. This fire bucket is warm with me. Sometimes when the charcoal fire is warm, I will eat ready-made baked sweet potatoes or garlic cloves.

Later, I left my hometown to study in the provincial capital and work in other places. Electric fire bucket or air conditioner replaced the heating function.

But none of them can take the place of fire bucket in my mind.

In the fire bucket, my mother and I nested in the fire bucket together, helping my mother bypass the wool countless times.

I remember my mother put some soles in the fire bucket one by one to make enough cotton shoes and winter shoes for the family in the coming year.

It also accompanied me to review countless lessons.

How could I forget?

No matter how far I go, it is my deepest memory of winter in my hometown, which is long because of the temperature.