This yard is located in the middle of a street called Ximin Lane. The alley is small and runs north and south. It's only three or four hundred meters long and six or seven meters wide. This alley leads to Dongsan Road in the north and Dong Er Road in the south. Although this alley is small, it is densely populated, and most of them are old residents of Xi 'an, who have lived here since liberation. There are twelve courtyards in the alley, all with gates. Entering the gate, it is a long and winding passage. The door of each house is opened in a different position, and the height of the house is also different. The doors are different in shape and the roof is high. This door is wide, the house is low and the entrance to the house is narrow. You even borrowed my wall, under a long eaves, even. If you push the door into the house, you must squat down. Everyone in the room bowed their heads and looked very small and supportive. There is often a door at the door, and one room is connected to another room, which can accommodate five or six people. The yard here is big enough to accommodate more than a dozen families, and there are five or six small ones. Every family is such a thin wall. Someone sneezes in the room, and someone next door asks: Did you catch a cold again? There are rats in one family, and the whole hospital is restless. Every family should put the leftovers in the cupboard and cover them under the basin. This family has to get up half an alley to raise chickens. When someone farts in the dead of night, laughter will come from the next room. Therefore, living here, I can rarely keep a secret. The two men were in high spirits at night, and the next day they spread all over the yard, and even the details of this matter were vivid.
Out of this alley, it is Dong Er Road, where the population is getting denser and denser. The roadside is full of cramped huts, with beds inside and streets outside. The sidewalk has become the front yard of this house. In summer, the front yard is very lively and the room is extremely stuffy. The food is cooked by the roadside, including fried noodles, rolled noodles and pancakes. It's always time for dinner. This roadside is like a night market, and the smell of rice is everywhere. Everyone moved out of the table and put on stools, and the family ate and chatted while watching the street view. After dinner, someone sprinkled water on the ground to cool down, began to support the bed, move stools and chairs, and began to enjoy the cool in the yard again. At this moment, if you walk along this road, you will laugh and laugh all the way. There are smokers, listeners on the radio, fans who hum Henan opera, and people who drink, guess fists and tell jokes. When a beautiful girl passed by, a woman looked at her and said, "Look how handsome that girl is. She must have a face and legs. If my family has such a daughter-in-law, it will burn high incense! " ""hey hey, you don't look at your son, who is five big and three thick, worthy! "Burst! This caused a burst of laughter, which was heard by the girl, her face flushed and her steps were extremely fast. This excitement is often quiet until late at night, and then it is replaced by snoring.
At dawn, the roadside scene is particularly ugly. There are people standing on the messy bed board everywhere, the quilt is tightly covered on the ground, and the head is half naked under the pillow. More importantly, they were wrapped in sheets and snored naked. You will think, one after another, they are really like a pool of human flesh, and their stomachs are still there. There was the sound of cleaners sweeping the floor, and some people got up slowly, climbed back into the house bleary-eyed and lay down again. With the sunshine in the street, people woke up completely, dressed in a hurry, washed their faces and brushed their teeth, had breakfast in a hurry and rode to work.
Most people who live here are from Henan. It is said that during the Anti-Japanese War of 1942, the Central Plains fell and Henan suffered. Refugees entered Tongguan and Xi 'an along the Longhai Railway, some settled in Daobei and some in the east of the city, occupying the area from Dongyi Road to Dongba Road. These decades have become the world of Henan people. So, if you want to listen to Henan Opera, you can come here. The streets and alleys are full of Henan dialect. From time to time, I can hear someone drinking a few words. If you really want to see Henan Opera, you can go to People's Paradise, where there is a folk music theater, and there is a Lion Roar Theater two stops away, which is the performance venue of Xi 'an Henan Opera Troupe.
At that time, the social and cultural life was monotonous, especially the cultural activities at night were almost blank, because as long as we talked about nightlife at that time, there were bourgeois consciousness and unhealthy factors in it. Therefore, office workers are busy at work during the day and busy at home buying food and cooking. When they come back in the evening, they have nothing to do but chat, smoke, drink tea and listen to cable radio. This kind of broadcast is broadcast by the commune, including important news, meeting notice, government work arrangement, etc. Occasionally, some children's radio programs that children like are broadcast, so listening to this broadcast is the most punctual for children, just a few children in primary schools, sitting under the radio on time every afternoon. It's like adults waiting for tickets at the entrance and small window of Henan Opera House. At that time, the cinema showed movies during the day and performed at night, so you had to queue up to buy tickets and go one day in advance. Otherwise, you can only adjust the tickets in front of the theater, but you often return empty-handed, which makes you think for several days. This theater will be full sooner or later. Even the wide corridors on both sides of the Lion Roar Theater are sold out. The venue was really lively, and the audience and the actors made as much effort. Actors shout above and people sing below. Applause, roar and whistle are everywhere, as if people have to vent their emotions all day these days, and their hearts and eyes are full of happiness.
In fact, in addition to the formal theater, the most attractive is the theater of the mass self-help class. It was in the open space beside the moat outside Xiaodongmen, where some old locust trees were always planted sparsely. There is a large clearing that has been flattened by people's feet. When I first wiped it, someone went with a small stool. People from the troupe arrived early, rehearsed the lanterns and pulled open the veil. People who play chessboard and huqin also sit there smoking and chatting. People who come here sit around the stage. Those who arrive early are in the front and those who arrive late are in the back. In fact, for opera fans, this seat is always fixed, because he comes early every day, and it is difficult for others to take a seat. Even if he comes late, there will be an empty seat for him.
As night fell, someone appeared on the big stage and told a joke to make the venue lively and the atmosphere became lively. This led to the appearance of an actor. As soon as he appeared, the high notes would attract applause, and the singing would be hard to stop, with applause and cheers coming and going. As long as there are people around, the venue will not break up. As long as there are singers, there will be more people in the paddock. This kind of play is still on there, but the conditions have changed. With Mike, make-up, money for clapping and money for hanging red flowers, people call this changing social status.
Living here is not afraid of power cuts, but of water cuts. At that time, there were few household appliances, so people could sleep when there was a power failure, which did not affect people's lives. However, stopping water is different. There is a water station with three faucets in several alleys around. On weekdays, people carrying water queue up. One morning, one noon, one dinner, buckets go forward one after another. I don't know if the team was rubbed or had an argument. The other party took a basin and poured water into it. Two people tore together, and the ancestors have been cursing for three generations. Someone always mediated, and everyone broke up. The two men stormed off without carrying water. Soon, the family members came and left with water. Of course, girls often carry water. They are handsome and have a high rate of turning around. Some boys please her. When they see that she wants to move the bucket, they will politely help. Obviously, when he was in front, he just pushed the girl's bucket up, filled it up and put it away, and then watched the girl wriggle around. His bucket overflowed and his eyes haven't been taken back, making people around him giggle. The young man didn't agree, so he found the time to carry water for the girl and kept it every day. As soon as there is no water supply here, the water station will be cleaned up, and each household will only supply half a bucket regularly. Add an iron shell to the faucet and lock it with a lock. People had to run through several alleys with buckets and go to other water stations to grab water to eat.
There is also the fear of going to the toilet, especially in the early hours of the morning. There are people waiting in line in the public toilets at the entrance of the lane, all of which are urgent and urgent. Some people came out, some ran in, and some couldn't hold back their diarrhea. They tooted all the way into the toilet, pulled up an acquaintance, squatted down to relax, and the pit was full of human excrement, leaving the acquaintance with pants waiting to go to the toilet. What's more, when the mother squatted in the toilet and called her daughter's name, her daughter rushed in. Others thought it was urgent and didn't want her to take over the old lady's class. Fortunately, they are neighbors, and no one cares too much.
It is in this environment that the courtyard of the building is particularly superior. People living in the yard don't worry about carrying water for dinner, going to the toilet, and can't smell the pungent ammonia water. It's hot, with the shade of the garden to enjoy the cool, and it's cold, so you can make a stove with a chimney to keep warm. At that time, quadrangles seemed to be a privilege, and the people living in them were also privileged classes. There are commune secretaries, district party committee leaders, court presidents, public security bureau directors, drama club presidents, hospital doctors, housing management bureaus, grain bureaus, newspapers and schools. Most of them are cadres and eat the state's imperial grain, so it is comfortable to live in this yard, but they can be outside. This is a gap. In that era when people have just passed through hunger, this difference between people will lead to many stories.