The prose of that pond and that locust tree

There is a pond in front of the old house in my hometown. The pond is round and surrounded by cement railings. There is only an opening. Opposite the opening is a downward step with sixteen steps. , and then there is a large platform. Of course, when the water is full, the steps and platforms will be submerged. To the north of the pond is a row of locust trees, and to the north of the locust trees is my old home.

I don’t know if you have guessed the purpose of this pond. It is not like some ponds in the south that are full of lotus leaves. You can enjoy flowers in summer and pick lotus roots in winter. It is not a pond for people to play in. To be precise, it is a reservoir. It is used to supply domestic and production water to the whole village. My house is the one closest to the pond.

Every day, no matter morning or evening, there are always people coming to fetch water one after another. Every household has a large water tank, which can always hold ten or eight loads of water. The water fetched from the pond, Pour it into a jar and you can eat it for two or three days. Each of the eight or nine-year-old children in the village has a small hook and two small plastic buckets. When the adults go to fetch water, the children will follow the adults, and the adults generally won't let them. The child went down the steps, used a big bucket to carry a bucket of water and poured it into the child's small bucket, and the child carried it away with a small hook. Walking through the streets of the village, when it's time to eat, more and more people come to the pond to squat or move a small bench from home to sit and eat. Pointing at the child carrying water, they will say that this child is really useful. , you see that he has already picked up the water, you see this child is so skillful in carrying water... The child is very happy in his heart.

When the spring comes, the row of locust trees is covered with white locust flowers. There are big and big ones. The children climb up the trees, pluck the locust flowers and put them directly into their mouths to eat. , the sweet taste is still fresh in my memory to this day. The adults used hooks to hook small branches from the trees, plucked the sophora flowers from the top and put them into baskets or basins; they went to the pond to fetch a bucket of water, washed the sophora flowers cleanly, and then mixed them again. Serve some corn flour and white noodles steamed in a cage, and you can have Sophora Flower Gelao at noon. I heard from my mother that the row of old locust trees was planted by my grandfather when he was young, just to provide food when there was a famine in the spring.

There is a large open space between the northwest side of the pond and the row of locust trees. Every summer evening when eating, a large number of people gather there, either standing, squatting, or coming from home. Bring a small bench to sit on; one hand is holding a bowl with porridge in it, and the other hand is holding sweet potatoes, yellow noodle steamed buns, or black noodle steamed buns. Occasionally if a young man holds a white-flour steamed bun, everyone will say that he is a prodigal. He eats white-flour buns regardless of his age. He really doesn't know how to live a happy life. Everyone talks together about whether there are seedlings in the crop fields, whether there is manure on the field, whose son has a daughter-in-law, whose daughter has given birth to a fat boy... Such topics will continue until about ten o'clock in the evening. Children would play hide-and-seek and run around the whole village. At that time, the moon shone on the pond like daylight, and the row of locust trees rustled in the breeze, and leaves fell from time to time. The shadows of the trees are whirling, the breeze is blowing, and people are reluctant to go back for a long time...

In autumn, every household is busy harvesting corn. After the corn is harvested, wheat is sown, and then sweet potatoes, cotton, and peanuts are planted. At this time There was joy again at the pond. Every day from before dawn, there are people carrying water, and some people use small carts to put two large homemade tin rectangular buckets. One cart can hold five or six loads of water, but this requires one person to push the cart and another to pull it to the fields. Someone there used a hoe to dig out small holes, and poured a ladle of water into each hole. After the water seeped into the soil, the seeds were planted, and the seeds were buried in the soil and waited for them to sprout. This kind of work will last for several days, and the pond will be busy for several days. Sometimes the pond dries up quickly because of the rapid use of water for farming. At this time, water is released from a Hongqi Canal branch from another village in the south of the village. The water flows along the small canal built in the village and flows all the way to the village pond. At this time, the water in the pond is yellow and turbid, so we can only carry water to the fields to plant crops. After three or two days, the soil in the water sank to the bottom of the pond, and there was clear water on top. At this time, everyone carried water and poured it into their own tanks.

At this time, the work in the fields is finished. Whenever the weather is fine, the eldest daughter and the younger daughter-in-law will carry the washing basin one by one to the open space by the pond to wash clothes, and the whole family will spend the autumn in the fields. The dirty clothes that have been worn and the dirty bedding and sheets on the kang are all taken out and washed. There are ropes tied to the locust trees, and the washed clothes and sheets are hung on the ropes, like flags, fluttering in the wind.

The children also followed their aunt and uncle to the pond, helping to move a bench, carry a bucket, and get a soap. The adults were washing clothes, and the children were playing. They didn't go back until it was time to eat at noon. The family brought a bowl of rice and ate it by the pond and continued to wash. One person did not leave even after washing. He carried water from the pond for everyone, helped those who had not finished washing, and chatted about household chores. All family troubles are spread from here.

After spring plowing and autumn harvest, the cold winter comes, and the pond is quiet only in winter for a year. The water was frozen. When someone was carrying water, he broke a small hole in the ice, allowing a bucket to be carried down. The adults did not allow children to carry water. The steps were covered with ice for fear of slipping down. . The adults also carefully lifted buckets of water to the ground before carrying them away. After the snowfall, the pond was covered with snow, and it was so white and so holy and quiet. The row of locust trees stood quietly aside like loyal guards. The pond, which has been noisy for a year, should take a rest...

When I reached school age, my father sent me to the county town to study. I left the pond in front of my door and drank tap water from the county town. Later, my father led people in the village to drill wells. The water pumped out of the wells was clear and sweet, and we no longer had to drink the sediment-laden water from the Hongqi Canal. Later, when I returned home, I found that every household in the village had tap water. , no matter spring, summer, autumn or winter, the pond is not so lively anymore. People in the village watch TV at home and eat around the dining table at night. The pond had no water at this time. I don’t know who started dumping garbage into it first, but it was already filled with garbage.

The pond, which carried so much joy in my childhood, has completed its historical mission and withdrawn from the stage of history. Only the row of old locust trees still stood loyally beside it, guarding it quietly.

When I returned to my hometown for the Chinese New Year last year, my mother said that the old house had collapsed due to the heavy rain last summer. I said go and have a look, all my childhood memories remain there. I went to the old house with my mother. The pond in front of the door had disappeared. It was replaced by a new two-story building built by someone. Only the row of old locust trees still stood there, with their bare branches seeming to tell a story. Everything in the past...