1977, that snowy winter, I left my hometown and spent most of my childhood there. That land, those things and the impressions of those people have been with me all my life. Whenever I read news about my hometown from newspapers, magazines or other media, my eyes will be automatically attracted by it; When I hear a stranger with a hometown accent in the streets, I will listen carefully and tell if he is a fellow villager. Because there are many dialects in his hometown, he is ten miles rich, and sometimes he can tell from the subtle accent difference that the other person is from that village. Nostalgia may be the common feeling of many vagrants.
(1) transportation
Hometown, located in the hilly plain of central Hunan, is a very small village on the map. Through the contiguous paddy fields in the village, across a winding river, there is a railway more than ten meters higher than the paddy fields on the northwest side one kilometer away from the village. You can get on the train from the county railway station to the provincial capital and merge into the Beijing-Guangzhou line. Several trains pass by every day. Freight trains come and go irregularly, but passenger trains are on time. Mother knows what time it is according to the sound of the train every day. When the roar of the penultimate train comes at night, she will put down her needlework, add coal and pile it up, urging us to go to bed.
On the southeast side of the village is a yellow sand cotton road, which can go directly to the county seat, about ten kilometers. In the 1970s, there were few vehicles that could run on the road and few vehicles that could be seen every day. If you can hear the whistle of cars on the road, or see the dust flying on the road, the villagers will stop and look out, a little inexplicably excited. The road is a flat two-lane highway, which is the main channel connecting with the outside world.
The only car I saw when I was a child was an army green jeep. If one comes, everyone will look around and feel very strange, guessing that there may be a big official sitting inside. Tractors are the most common and can be simply divided into large tractors and walking tractors. The former plows the land with a pair of iron wheels in busy farming hours and transports goods in leisure time. Because of the slow speed, many friends like to climb behind the trunk and follow it for a distance. I have climbed many times, and sometimes I will play far away from the village. When you come back, hang it at the back of the car for a distance. If you feel that your hands are not enough, come down and walk. What impressed me most was that the driver found me while climbing the tractor. He was afraid that I was in danger, so he stopped and told me to sit in the cab with a smile. In fact, there is no place to sit. There is only one coordinate of the driver in the whole cab, and most of the space is occupied by the wheel arches on both sides, so he can only stand in the middle. He knows me, but I don't know him. He knows where my home is. Let me off when I get home.
Uncle Zeng in the village, we think he is a big shot and is very good to children. He eats state grain in big cities and is the official driver of the frozen meat joint factory. Drive a Jiefang truck. Sometimes driving home, he dotes on his three sons. He parked his car by the side of the road and let his three sons play with it. Sometimes the car can slide down the slope for a while. It won't catch fire when it is started in the morning. You have to barbecue the fuel tank with a straw, and then start it quickly with a crank, sometimes it takes many times to start it. Uncle Zeng's eldest son later became a professional driver and contracted a bus to and from the county seat.
At that time, there were several carriages on the road all the year round, and several carriage drivers were from nearby villages. Everyone knows them. Call them Bash. One of them is Gongping Artistry, who is one year older than me. I don't remember my last name. I am 1.78 meters tall. After graduating from primary school, I followed my father to run a carriage to support my family all the year round.
No one in our village has the above means of transportation, only a wooden unicycle, and it can only be used when delivering public grain to the commune, with a load of about 200 Jin. All the goods are in and out by hand. Male and female villagers don't know how many things to choose. In daily life, I will fetch water, cook and wash clothes in the pond. Intermittently, it is necessary to pick the rations distributed by the production team-millet to the rice mill for rice milling; Usually go to the coal mine five kilometers away to pick coal as fuel; It is necessary to choose green manure or water for the plot. When the production team goes out to work every day, they have to pick autumn, grain, grass, pig manure, cow dung and chemical fertilizer in abel tamata. We also send public grain to the grain depot every year. Shoulder poles, ropes and reeds are the main tools for picking and transporting, and villagers can play various tricks in their hands. If there was no good future in the countryside at that time, it was basically a waste. The villagers, both men and women, are picking it every day. There is a folk song in Hunan called "Carrying Tea to Beijing", which is also very picky. A pair of shoulders bear the bitterness of farmers in China for thousands of years.
I learned what a porter is from the old population in my hometown. There is a shortage of salt in my hometown, and the salt for daily use is picked up from far away places. During the Republic of China, porters came back from Guangxi, Guangdong and Sichuan to buy salt, with a journey of more than 1000 kilometers. During the slack season, several farmers travel in groups, camping against the wind with shoulder poles, ropes and dry food, and sleeping in the mountains day and night. They often meet tigers, leopards, poisonous snakes and wolves. When you are unlucky, you will meet a tired robber and sit on the rock to rest. Hold a handful of mountain spring water when you are thirsty, and eat some dry food and pickles when you are hungry. Old sandals, thick calluses on the shoulders. The only hope in their hearts is to live, for themselves and for their families. The most painful porters are the able-bodied men captured by the army. They are struggling to pick their luck in the rain of bullets, and today they don't know whether they will live or die tomorrow.
to be continued