The Taste of Childhood (2): Old Popsicle

? In the northern rural areas of the 1980s, there was an extreme shortage of materials, and the commissary in the west of the village was full of the beautiful yearning for greedy children. The canteen is a spacious tile house. Walking into the door, beside the outside of the wide cement counter, there are two enamel brown vats. One big barrel is soy sauce mixed with water, and the other is coarse salt. The greedy child bypassed the two vats and went straight to the counter. He jumped up and lay on the counter with his feet off the ground, looking at the colorful packaging paper bags, peach cakes, calcium milk biscuits and sugar chess pieces. I am a really greedy cat. Every time I watch my mother visit relatives, I will wait patiently for her to come back and wait for her relatives to return a bag or two of gifts and have a good meal. If one day I take a dime from an adult and can't buy cookies, I can only buy sorghum molasses, 20 cents each, peel off the yellow and red sugar paper, and carefully put a thin layer of crispy white sugar coating in my mouth with beige sugar. Soft and sweet, the taste of happiness is soft and long. This matter has stayed in my memory for more than 30 years and still cannot be erased. What I remember most is my old popsicle.

? The old popsicles of that era were cold and sweet, small and clever, and you could buy two for a dime. Every time I watch a vendor carefully open a white wooden box, I will carefully open a small old quilt and take out two quilts and hand them to me. Suddenly, I was filled with joy. I took a small stick and tore open a wet white paper with a red or green pattern printed on it. Cold and sweet, refreshing.

I remember once, I followed my mother to the market. As soon as I arrived at the village entrance, I saw the white wooden box. As usual, I couldn't walk, so my mother bought me two. I held one in my right hand and left hand, thinking that my sister was at home. I said, Mom, I'll send one to my sister. Say that finish, I hurried back. I'm worried about melting in the hot sun, but I'm holding a stick and I'm worried about throwing the popsicle to the ground. I had a brainwave. I had a "brilliant idea": I took one in each hand and ran home like a fly. As soon as you enter the door, shout, sister, I brought you an popsicle. My sister was washing clothes in the yard, and she smiled at me. I handed the popsicle excitedly. The middle part is very thin, like a plump woman, but it gives birth to a very thin waist. My sister wiped her sweat and smiled, and took a bite of the old popsicle, which was cold and sweet.

? At that time, our wheat field had moved to the side of the road, so it was very convenient to buy popsicles. My mother gives me a dime from time to time. I picked up a dime and sat patiently in the shade of the roadside. Seeing a bicycle with a wooden box in the back seat, I rushed to buy it. In those summers, buying two old popsicles became the happiest thing every day.

? Of course, there are times when plans fail. Once, the poisonous sun scorched the earth and I was sweating. I sat on the side of the road waiting for the white wooden box to pass by. It must have been extremely hot that day. I waited for a long time, but it got hotter and hotter. My sister also advised me not to wait any longer, but I don't want to wait. In the long-awaited, the sun moved quietly, and the shade of the roadside also moved to the slope of the roadside. I don't believe it. I want to cry. He stopped, opened the box, let me have a look, and told me that it was too hot today and all the popsicles were sold out. I had to go back in a rage.

? Later, there were more and more kinds of white wooden boxes, not only popsicles, but also ice cream with blue patterns. Wrapped in paper, it has become a generous piece, which is expensive and costs 20 cents each. Once I went out with my father and wanted to eat popsicles. He said, buy an ice cream this time. I peeled off the ice cream and smiled at my father. He hesitated for a moment and said, bring it here and let me have a taste. I watched him take it and gently took a bite, the size of a peanut, without saying anything. I got my ice cream back and I can't wait to eat it. It was soft and sweet, like cream, so I took a bite and it was delicious.

? Gradually, that kind of white old popsicle is rare, plus white wooden cases, it is also rare to replace it with a low freezer, push open the glass door of the freezer, red and green ice cubes, all kinds of ice cream, colorful, colorful. I often don't know which to buy.

? A few days ago, I took my son to eat a "luxury" ice cream with a cup of tens of dollars. Looking at my happy son, my thoughts drifted back to 30 years ago, back to the era of two old popsicles with a dime. I vaguely remember that those old popsicles were neatly arranged in boxes, unpretentious, but also extraordinarily sweet.