Distant memories

The Yellow River is said to have nine bends and eighteen bends. When zoomed in the textbook, it evolved into the Chinese character "ji". In the crooked and hooked corner of the word "ji", there is a fertile impact plain. That is my hometown, the oldest rattan in the cradle of five thousand years of civilization, and the "city of salt transportation" where Luan Feng lives. "——Yuncheng.

I have lived by the Saltpeter Lake since I was a child, but I have never climbed the Yingying Tower or the Stork Tower, nor have I worshiped the Pujiu Temple or the Guandi Temple. Even the replica of the one in the next village that was smashed by Sima Guang I've never seen a broken mouth. Maybe it was because Yuncheng opened up too late, or I was too slow, but until I left her far away, I was still ignorant and had no idea of ??all the heritage and beauty of my hometown.

The unprecedented urbanization process has wiped away almost all the remnants of the childhood memories of those born in the 1970s. The year before last, at a high school class reunion, I returned to the place where I lived and grew up when I was young, and almost lost my way. The streets and courtyards where you chase and play are gone, the crooked old trees for climbing and digging have been cut down, the classroom playground for listening to classes and playing football has been demolished, and most of the playmates who accompanied you through your student days are scattered in the vastness. It’s a rare sight among cities.

The treasured memories are fading away, leaving only fragments that occasionally flash in my mind and a few souvenirs that seem familiar.

(1) Childhood in Dongjie

When I was young, my parents had not settled in the county town for a long time. They had no fixed place and were very homeless. They often moved around to rent a house. The last time I lived was in a "rented house", which is a private property managed and subleased by the government, I stayed in the area near the East Street near the clock tower in the core of the county for almost two or three years. My earliest memories begin there.

The owner of the house is "Yang Datou". Although the government no longer distributed the rent collected to him in the 1970s, he is still the richest owner in the area. The status of "Yang Datou" is not very good. He is a young man from a landlord's family. He rides a tricycle every day to repair people's shoes. He also has a front door and does some daily miscellaneous work to make a living. He is considered a self-reliant worker. Children who grow up under the red flag grow very fast. When I was seven years old, I was already as tall as him. It’s not that I’m different from ordinary people, but it’s that he doesn’t grow very much, except for his head, which looks like in “A Song of Ice and Fire.” "The "Hand of the King" in the American TV series "Game of Thrones" - the dwarf Tyrion.

Everyone can decide their own destiny, but they cannot choose their parents or the genes carried in their mother's womb. Although the body is short and the proportions are not coordinated, "Big Head" has a big brain and is very smart. He has been able to keep pace with the times very early, is at the forefront of the market, and is good at doing business. Because I rented a house and was a kid, I didn't have any contact with him, and I didn't know his real name. I just remembered that he was very diligent, but had a big temper and was very angry, especially when he heard others call him "Big Head" time.

Children in the 1970s had little fun, and there were no kindergartens or early education classes to attend. Preschool children are basically kept free-range, and adults don't spend much time with them. It's up to you to play with them as you wish, as long as they don't cause trouble. I grew up as an outsider, and was ostracized by the "local" kids. I rarely joined the gangs. I always had fun by myself, lighting cannons, kicking some dirt, bouncing glass balls, and so on. The most thrilling "game" is to throw stones at the jeep driving by the door, then hide and peek at the angry adults. I was finally caught once and almost got beaten, but then I stopped being reckless.

Before I went to school, I briefly owned a serious toy. It was a shell gun that I got in exchange for a morning of rolling around on the shopping mall floor at the instigation of the older kid next door. Sadly, I was fooled that afternoon and I still haven’t figured out what happened. I am so paranoid about hard-won toys. I originally planned to show off the toys in front of the children with high price. I drank a bowl of rice soup at the neighbor's house next door and never left my hand with the gun. On the way out to look for other children, I suddenly found that both hands were empty...

At that time, every family had Wealthy, I never opened my mouth to beg my parents to buy toys again.

Not being beaten is already a blessing. Even though I was still young at the time, I still had a sense of dignity and could not shamelessly repeat the same tricks.

In addition to the pistols on state-owned shelves, there is also a chain gun that I particularly like that does not cost money. Seven or eight rickshaw chain buckles were put together, and the lower row of buttonholes was threaded and fixed with wire to make the shape of a gun. The other row of buttonholes was stuffed with spoke nuts to make rifling, and the match heads were filled in, so that the firing pin could be inserted. It fires upon impact, and the sound is similar to a firecracker, which is very fashionable. So for a long time, I began to pay attention to my father's bicycles. Unfortunately, his "classic bicycle" was a high-end product given by my grandfather when he got married. It was a permanent brand and very sturdy. It lasted more than 20 years when I was in junior high school. They all graduated, and the chain has never been scrapped.

The closest I came to success was when I was six years old. On the way home from get off work, my father heard sad music playing from the loudspeaker in the factory, so he stopped in the car to find out what happened. As a result, the sky fell and Chairman Mao passed away! The shocked father forgot that I was still sitting on the back frame, so the truck and I fell to the ground in grief in an instant, which perfectly heightened the national mourning atmosphere. The rear wheel of the fallen car was still spinning, but the chain was not only intact, it didn't even come out of the gear, and my arm was dislocated. I realized then that the "permanent" chain link had no chance of turning into a match gun.

Parents are concerned about every child. It is too unsafe to leave a naughty and mischievous child at home, and they have to be taken with them to work. It is best to wait until the age is appropriate before letting the school play the role of a nursery. Safe. Children born in the twelfth lunar month will go to school half a year later than their peers with birthdays in the first half of the year. It was midsummer when the college entrance examination was resumed in 1977. In order to synchronize the admission to higher schools, the school's enrollment and upgrading were changed from the original early spring to the end of summer the next year, and were extended for another half a year. Therefore, when I was almost eight years old, after a full year and a half of drawing pinyin on the small slate that came with me in the first half of the grade, I officially obtained my student status and became the first batch of primary school students to enroll after the reform and opening up.

During this period, my parents completed a major event: they obtained a three-thirds-sized homestead in the nearby West Street brigade and built two small houses with homemade adobe. I heard that it was the comrades of the great grandfather (or perhaps grandpa) who had some connections and sent a few packets of Fu Tong Hui’s snacks and it became a success. My parents both came from revolutionary families who experienced bloody battlefields. They had strong roots and were in line with the policy. In addition, the land they were granted was just a large low-lying peach orchard that had been abandoned in the early years. It was not considered good land, so they didn't have too much trouble. .

The life of renting houses ended like this. To this day, I can still clearly remember the move. It was sunny that day, and my father pushed the "Forever" bicycle loaded with bedding in front. My aunt, who came all the way from Xiangfen, dragged a four-wheeled car carrying my brother and me. My mother carried a net bag and cut it off, completing the migration in one go. (There are really not many things at home). The new home is outside the west gate of Yuncheng, less than two miles away from the "rental housing" on East Street, and the elementary school where I will study is right next to the Dongfeng Shopping Mall under the Bell Tower. That mall is still there, but it has gone bankrupt and has been used for other purposes. But I was deeply impressed by the wooden floors and "shell guns" there.

In a few years, the "rental houses" were demolished because they blocked the newly planned Jiefang Road. As the landlord, the young master "Yang Datou" should be compensated for implementing the policy. It's a pity that the government doesn't allow him to get married, let alone have a child, so the huge family property may only be inherited by his half-brother. "Big Tou"'s brother is quite tall and well-mannered. I used to see him repairing leather shoes next to the state-run car repair shop in Bell Tower. He was not restricted by the childbirth ban.

(2) Successors on the anti-imperialist road

There is an alley behind the Bell Tower, leading directly to the countryside outside the west gate. It was originally a street of shops, and the entrance is adjacent to the most prosperous commercial district of the Bell Tower. The two-story attic is a brothel in old Yuncheng. After liberation, the persecuted kiln sisters were educated and became reformed workers. Private stores that symbolized free trade were also banned and transformed into courtyards for the working people and socialist compounds for the people at the bottom. They were covered with slogans of "Down with the demons and monsters". , named Anti-Imperial Road (later renamed West Street).

After the reform and opening up, the ultra-leftist line has been somewhat relaxed. Diagonally opposite the side of Guangfang Anti-Imperial Road, there have been five or six private coffin shops and shroud shops that are inconvenient for state units to operate. Complete sets of wreaths for sale. Every noon, frustrated customers will always hear loud and energetic singing: "We are the successors of communism and inherit the glorious tradition of our revolutionary ancestors...". Groups of lively and lovely young pioneers filed out of the school gate surrounded by wreaths, laughing and sweeping away the gloom that weighed on their hearts.

This is my first school - Anti-imperialist Road Primary School (later renamed West Street Primary School)

At that time, the main task of the primary school was to take care of the children. It is to cultivate labor consciousness, and learning is largely incidental. As long as you are more serious, you will easily achieve outstanding results, tie up the red flag of revolution early, and become the inheritor of the unfinished business of your ancestors.

To this day, I don’t have a deep impression of the scenes of studying and studying, but I do remember the hard work of extracurricular activities. In the summer, the school organizes two- or three-day field "picking" activities. That was not today's leisure entertainment, but squatting in the freshly cut wheat field to pick up leaks under the scorching sun, while reciting "Hoeing Day at Noon", collecting scattered wheat grains, and receiving revolutionary re-education. Or it’s to get rid of the four pests. During the holidays, the homework of catching rats is assigned. The ration for each person is not much. Five will count as passing. A post-mortem examination is required at the beginning of school. Those without tails will not be counted (because some schools only count rat tails). One year, it was particularly outrageous. The counselor asked the field mice that were causing harm to the bankers to promote revolutionary production! My father said that this was not an assignment that a primary school student could complete. It was clearly a task set for parents.

As one of the first red scarves in the class, school homework was sacred. I could get a few mice from the quota allocation from my father’s work unit, but there was no way to get a field mouse.

In the early 1980s, most suburban households raised chickens. Those raised in captivity were usually fed bran bran mixed with rotten vegetable leaves. On days when they are not in school, the children outside Ximen often go to the wasteland slope of the brigade to dig purslane. There, I have seen the seniors' ability to catch voles. They understood the habit of the rat's nest with two holes, so they divided their troops into two groups. They brought enough water to pour from one hole, and guarded the other hole. They captured them alive and put them in cages and handed them over to the school officials. The process of hunting is very dangerous. You may get bitten through your fingers by the sharp teeth of the vole. Even though those who dare to catch are all experienced, it is inevitable that there will be blood. At that time, I thought that it would be more convenient for the government to give children such dangerous homework and raise a few more owls.

Most of the teachers in the school are female, all of whom have experience in farming. When giving lectures, they always like to share some knowledge about making syrup and drying fruit peels. For better practice, my neighbor and I went to a sugar factory a few miles away in the western suburbs and stole beet lumps from the delivery truck. Living in the urban-rural fringe area, sneaking into a certain brigade and picking up fruits and vegetables was no big deal. Occasionally, they would be captured alive, and usually they would be fine after being given a beating. When you are lucky, you will always be in the majority.

Throughout primary school, the only primary school teacher I remember clearly was Teacher Chen, who was our class teacher for three or four years. There was also an extracurricular counselor wearing a red scarf who was very impressive. I don’t remember his last name. He often appeared among the students after class and organized various extracurricular activities, including large-scale group games on Children’s Day. They are kind and patient, rarely spank or punish children, and are tolerant of mischief during class. They are deeply respected and loved by us. Teacher Chen got angry several times because the children in the class bullied the lower grade students. He refused to change his bad habits and often pulled off other people's pants to watch jokes in public. He was also punished by corporal punishment. He was just invited to the podium, reprimanded and shown to the public. Just one class.

I have always been honest, obedient and positive. I am considered a good boy in the class and a positive role model. There was only one time when he was bullied by a powerful "bully". He became anxious and had evil intentions. Together with the classmates in the front row who had also been persecuted, they threw bricks at the cesspit where he was squatting. As a result, he counted the bricks in the wrong direction, which triggered the other side. Several girls screamed and cursed. If it weren't for a few repeat offenders who happened to go to the toilet after the incident, they would have been listed as suspects by the counselor.

At that time, students did not have parents to take them to and from school.

In order to ensure safety, each class is required to line up and sing "We Are the Successors of Communism" all the way home. Only those who have reached home can go out. Even if there are two or three people left, they cannot break the school's rules. What is a "successor"? The standard at that time was a poor and lower-middle peasant who was both red and professional. Therefore, when the class teacher asked everyone to talk about their ideals and aspirations one by one, every one of them was either a soldier or a worker, or working at the counter, becoming a high official, or inheriting his father's business. Substitute for parents' classes. Fortunately, no one is willing to farm in the vast world of great potential. Otherwise, this group of successors, let alone communism, may not even be able to drink the soup of the "four modernizations".

My ideal is simple and down-to-earth, and I am determined to be a glorious vegetable seller in my father’s vegetable sales department when I grow up. Unfortunately, when I was in junior high school, my ideal of taking over was shattered. The vegetable sales department disappeared without a trace, leaving no trace. Nowadays, it takes a lot of effort to explain grandpa's workplace to children.

(3) Self-sufficient life

In the era of cutting off the tail of capitalism, the vegetable store shouldered the vegetable basket of the urban non-agricultural population and became a household name. Due to the shortage of various materials at that time, it is said that hundreds of daily necessities were rationed, so there were many supply tickets. The vegetable sales department usually controls the quota of tofu and eggs. The purchase of cabbage, potatoes and the like is restricted only during holidays. People born in the 1970s are unlikely to remember non-mainstream supply tickets, and I only have some impressions of the two that were abolished relatively late. One is cloth stamps, and the other is food stamps.

I heard that meat coupons cost 70 cents per pound. Poor and lower-middle peasants couldn’t afford meat, so they could at most buy some pig fat to make oil, so that they could see more grease when cooking. Even my mother didn’t remember it. What does it look like. Three taels of sanitary oil (cottonseed oil) per person should be saved every month and used sparingly, so that during the Spring Festival, we can fry some twists and tofu. On the evening of the 30th, lying on the edge of the kang with my brother, watching the oil foam rising from the fried meatballs and potatoes, was the happiest time of the year.

Cloth tickets have been around for a long time, but I know its purpose because when I was in elementary school, there were suddenly a few days when the old women in the streets were clamoring about whether to pull out a few pieces of cloth before it became invalid. Two pieces of clothing. It was summer, and there was a fashionable and sexy new thing called "Chen Liang". You could buy it with cloth coupons in the market, but the budget-conscious people couldn't figure out whether it was a trap and didn't dare to spend it all at once! As for food stamps, they are probably the oldest supply stamps in history. They are issued by the local grain bureau based on demand. Once you receive them, they will be deducted from your grain purchase quota, which is equivalent to a mobile grain purchase book.

When wages are about to be paid every month, it is the time when people are most in need. Frustrated families will always leave the embarrassing task of buying food for 50 to 60 cents to their children, probably because of the small children. We don’t need to save face, right? It’s not a problem if you take the opportunity to propose cutting off a few cents to buy popcorn eggs. Food stamps can always be used as money behind the scenes, and can be exchanged directly for things at vendors. It was different in the late 1980s. If you buy one pound of fried dough sticks and two pounds of food stamps, you can buy one pound and eight taels. It’s like you’re getting a huge bargain, because at that time, food was no longer available. Shortage.

The food stamps became invalid very suddenly. The hundreds of kilograms of grain supplies that my family had accumulated did not have time to be liquidated, and a large amount of wealth was lost. After all, compared with the 181 kilograms of cheap grain, the market price is negotiable. White noodles cost twice as much.

My parents came to the county town empty-handed, with a meager income and a difficult life. When grandma lived with us, food rations were tight for a while, but she was never hungry. My father could always get food from nearby rural areas. When I was in primary school, I didn’t eat much meat at home, but the vegetables on the table never suffered. In the social environment at that time, most families were about the same, and their lives were very tight. Compared with those children in the class who couldn't afford tuition, I was doing relatively well. The people living outside the west gate are mainly villagers from the West Street Brigade. In that area, we belong to an upper-middle-income family.

As the only commercial grain base in Shanxi, the people of Yuncheng are undoubtedly lucky. Of the 28 pounds of grain ration for adults, 60% is white flour, which is unique in the province.

There are only three women in the neighbor's house, but they are very tough. Every time they buy water, they drag two five-foot-long eyebrow sticks in line to facilitate cooperation. The men with poles who were trying to block the way were so frightened by this that they hid all the way away. Their weapons were out of reach, but the order was still in order.

Boiled tap water is better than well water, but it is also salty and bitter, and it tastes very unpleasant to drink. Lao Yuncheng is accustomed to serving guests with sugar water or strong tea, probably to suppress the taste. The administrative office has jurisdiction over thirteen counties. As long as the person has a mouth full of gold teeth, there is no need to ask. The designated family name is from Yuncheng County. Why? The fluoride salt content in groundwater is too high. Drinking it every day is not enough without revealing your wealth.

There is a winery near the water house. It is semi-open. When you go to school, you can take a shortcut of 30 to 50 meters from there. The roadside is full of wine grains. None of the locals drank the brewed wine, and the brand changed four or five times. For the longest time, it was called "Guan Gong Liquor." Apparently Guan Gong didn't bless it very much, and it still couldn't sell much, so the winery had to rely on selling vinegar to survive. How can we make good wine if the water quality is not good? In Yuncheng, even the power plants that require cooling water for cooling are located in Yongji. Government officials are not smart enough to reflect, so they blindly expanded a new factory to the west of my house. As a result, it has been abandoned and not used. It has basically become a paradise for children on West Street to roll hoops and play hide-and-seek.

In the late 1980s, with the improvement of economic strength and the advancement of people's livelihood projects, water from the Yellow River diversion flowed into residents' water tanks, and the salt water turned into mud in one fell swoop. After a morning of settling, the earthy smell will be much lighter, and the bleaching powder will no longer be noticeable. Although it is not sweet, it can at least save some money on sugar and tea. It is much more economical than salt lake water. Every half a month, empty the bottom of the tank. The fertile soil in the alluvial plain can also be dug out and mixed with coal cake. Compared with the previous sandy soil, the stickiness is greatly enhanced. It can be said that you get two things with one water. After entering the new century, I heard that serious water sources from the Four Corners were brought from Xia County and supplied to different regions for a limited time. The fierce conflict between the increasingly strong demand and the shortage of water sources has directly promoted the vigorous development of the local stainless steel automatic water tank industry, which has gradually affected the climate and continued to radiate to surrounding provinces.

Yuncheng has been the salt area of ??the country since ancient times. The inexhaustible saltpeter lake gave birth to salt channels extending in all directions, supporting the prosperity of the ancient city for thousands of years. When I haven't seen the sea, I sneak to the lake outside Nancheng where the sky and the earth are connected, step on a piece of saltpeter, close my eyes and listen to the "swishing" sound of the lake water coming in. It feels like returning to Liaodong and facing the Jieshi in the east.

Granular salt is like Popeye’s spinach, containing the mysterious power of muscle growth. The 72-pound Qinglong Yanyue Knife cannot be wielded without salt. As a result, after the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, more and more salt trucks came and went on the official roads, and the ancient town producing "spinach" became more and more popular, and the "City of Salt Transportation" became famous far and wide. Most of the time, Yan Daosi did not know how to write and write, so he changed his name to a tacky name - "Yuncheng" and passed it down.

Today, pool salt is no longer allowed to be eaten and has been replaced by healthier sea salt. The inexhaustible nitrate salt from Saltpeter Lake is widely used in military and chemical industries, and some of it has been turned into shampoo and washing powder series. The "Dead Sea of ??the Country" has also become famous, attracting millions of tourists. Before the birth of soap powder, I only used "Qiqiang" for washing powder. It was produced by the Yuncheng Detergent Factory in front of my home, and was later called Nanfeng Chemical. When I was a child, I climbed over the wall to steal the "sweeping powder" from the workshop. I also worked there for a week as a teenager. I also drank the free tap water in the factory area in 1978. I think it is a reward for the kindness.

(5) Achievements that were unlucky for Sunshan

Because I had been studying in the first grade for one and a half years and had a solid foundation in pinyin and arithmetic, my grades were very outstanding in the first grade. I almost got double hundred points at the end of the first semester. If the Chinese question hadn't gone beyond the scope and used a polyphonic character I had never seen before ("都" in the capital), I would have received the "Three Good Student" certificates that my parents had longed for. Although he didn't get the first place in his studies as he hoped, he wore the red scarf relatively early and was among the first batch, which was considered a blessing to his parents. In the second grade, I got a stripe for wearing a belt, and I was dismissed from my position as squad leader after one year. The reason was that the whole class agreed that my behavior was proud and could not be tolerated.

This was indeed the case at the time. I still clearly remember pacing back and forth in the classroom with my hands in my trouser pockets and my head held high.

The squad leader is too arrogant. If he sees anyone causing trouble, he will immediately report it to the teacher. He basically ignores the poor students and always prides himself on being the personal follower of the class teacher. I started causing trouble during morning reading, laughing at the lazy ones who just crammed in the previous day's homework before class, and loudly imitated the stumbling tone of a stuttering classmate. I was so angry that the two female captains who were maintaining order dragged me out of the classroom. As my academic performance deteriorated, I was gradually removed from the class cadre position by my teacher. However, the only double hundred in his student career came at the most inopportune moment.

During that final exam, for the first time, my family bought a piece of mahua with two eggs (a lucky number, meaning 100), and promised to reward me with two yuan for perfect scores in the next subject. I especially wanted to repay my parents’ expectations, but at that time I didn’t live up to expectations, and the glory of the past was long gone. As a last resort, during the exam, if I couldn't do it or couldn't get it right, I would secretly refer to the answers given by my classmates and copy them almost over and over. Who would have thought, a miracle was born. In the end, the peeper got two hundred in a daze, while his deskmate, the copyright owner, didn't get a single hundred. Because of this, her name is still fresh in my memory, even though I haven’t seen her since I graduated from elementary school in more than 30 years.

I really have no memory of what I learned in the following years and how I did in the exams. I only remember that when I was promoted from primary school to junior high school, the school organized a visual inspection. Both eyes were 1.2, and I ranked first in the class in the promotion exam. Eleven or twelve, they were not admitted to key junior high schools.

Our elementary school at that time was similar to today’s elementary school in terms of curriculum and education methods. The only difference was that many movies were booked every semester. The movies are basically revolutionary educational films on the small screen. Generally, it only costs five cents (original price is fifteen cents), and if you buy a series of movies every week, it will cost you three cents. At that time, the big-screen movies that interested me the most were wide-screen movies, and the worst ones were matte screens. The ticket price was more than 20 cents, and schools generally did not book the movie. We wanted to see movies like "Prisoner", "Zorro", and "Manhunt" but were reluctant to buy tickets. It was difficult to get in because the venue was always full and the ticket inspectors were very tight and often took tickets in the middle. Check seats with flashlight. Open-air cinemas are much better, and they are mostly played in open spaces surrounded by brick walls in government agencies and factories. Those who brought their own benches must have bought tickets, but those lying on the trees and squatting on the ground were suspicious. None of the children spend money. The smaller ones usually follow the adults and pretend to be children to get in. Someone like me who is super tall and difficult to get along with needs to take some risks of climbing trees and climbing walls, or watch the video ten minutes into the movie. Relax before slipping in.

Once I was watching "From Slave to General" at the overhaul shop on South Street. A dozen children who went together in the alley were stared at by two guys at the gate and couldn't get in. I played once. Tune the tiger away from the mountain. It was just two righteous buddies who climbed the wall naked under the eyes of the gatekeeper to cover the large troops sneaking in during the chaos. After the movie started, we quietly went around to the back of the screen, picked up the hero who had climbed up the tree outside the back wall, and then lowered him down on top of the wall.

Before I graduated from elementary school, there were only two movie theaters in Yuncheng, and only one movie would be shown on a loop every half month. TV was much better. "Astro Boy" is updated with two episodes every Saturday. The children gather together in a place with a TV to watch and communicate. "Into the Woods" is also particularly popular among the students in the class. However, the most talked about in the school are not these Japanese cartoons, but Liu Lanfang's "The Legend of Yue Fei" and Grandpa Sun Jingxiu's "Journey to the West" on the radio. Many people feel uneasy in class and just wait for school to end at noon and hurry home. Listen to the radio.

In my five years of primary school (six and a half years to be exact, with one and a half years left), I have never suffered much, never done heavy work, and never learned anything. After graduating from West Street Primary School, I was inexplicably assigned to another "elementary school", where I muddled around for another three years and received a junior high school diploma.

On South Street, 500 meters southeast of my home, there was a junior high school that was the worst in the city at the time. The percentage of students who passed the high school entrance examination was always less than double digits, and even went bald in two years. The Education Bureau couldn't bear it, and after a few years it stopped enrolling students and downgraded it to a primary school. This school is the school where I went to junior high school - Nanjie Primary School.