I like cattails and reeds.

Half of my childhood was spent at my grandmother's house. I remember when I was a child, every time I went to my grandmother's house, I always liked to stop and stand beside the official road (highway), gesture with a telescope, look out of the village for a while, and then jump into my grandmother's village like a grasshopper. In my memory, grandma's village is like a green island. The whole area is surrounded by tall trees and Haizi (a river around the village). Once I was instructed to shout menstruation's name in public, and menstruation caught me red-handed and gave me a good spanking, so I cried and sobbed and fled to my grandmother's house. It was the first time I went to my grandmother's house alone, without the company and escort of adults. I didn't expect to get lost in the dark and couldn't find grandma's door. I sat in the deep reeds outside Haizi in the east of the village and cried very late. Finally, I was found by passers-by and told my aunt. My aunt quickly lit a lantern and came to carry me home.

From then on, I grew up slowly, went to school and became sensible. I never get lost when I go to my grandmother's house alone. Every time I came to my grandmother's house, I stayed for ten and a half months and didn't want to leave at all. This is not only because my grandparents and aunts love me as flesh and blood, but also because I love Haizi in Grandma's village and the fact that it is full of cattails and reeds inside and outside. At that time, I had a deep attachment to these aquatic plants.

Now, although my temples are gray and wrinkled, I have really entered the age of 60, but I still have a childlike innocence and often reproduce my childhood scenes in my sleep. Especially after retirement, I moved to Jiangnan water town. Whenever I go out for sightseeing, I see the lotus ponds, gullies, rivers and lakes in the south, which are exactly the same as Haizi, the grandmother village in the north, and I can't help but like it more.

They gave me the warmth of childhood winter, the coolness of spring, the joy of autumn and the dream of childhood. At that time, on the eve of winter, my grandparents prepared a few pairs of cat's nest shoes (made by Eiko Luhua) for me to wear in winter to prevent frostbite. Every year, my old pillow core was replaced with a new female inflorescence of cattail. In spring, my aunt often takes me outside Haizi to mow the grass for the cattle and sheep of the production team to earn work points. When the grass has been cut into the laundry list, we will dig a basket of wild vegetables, catch butterflies for a while, and then happily go to the yard where the production team raises cattle and sheep with the laundry list.

In summer, I like to jump into the lotus pond in front of my grandma's house, which is closely connected with Haizi, and take a bath. The lotus pond is full of bright lotus flowers. When the lotus is in full bloom, grandma often reminds me not to hurt the lotus by bathing in the water! I remember my grandmother's words, and I went down to the shallow water of the lotus pond carefully every time, and slowly learned breaststroke under the care of my grandfather.

At that time I learned to be good at water. Every time I take a shower, my grandma always takes out my grandpa's new futon mat and puts it in the shade of an old pagoda tree by the door, so that I can lie on it and enjoy the cool, but I prefer to follow my grandpa under the reed shed in the collective vegetable field of the production team he manages and cares for, because grandpa always picks a melon and gives me something to eat.

As far as I can remember, the rainy season in the north is not too long, and the wind blowing is slightly milder than that in the southern coastal areas. In this season, Pucao reed in Grandma Village grows with the wind. First, remove blood vessels like swords. When the cattail grows to four or five leaves, the cattail stick is pulled out. Its surface is hairy and elastic, dark brown, about half a foot long, as thick as the index finger, green, and the stem is green, which is very good. Pubang can be eaten raw when it is tender. In autumn in Huangshi, every family in the village fills their pillows with cattail. Build a house with cattail and reeds. Almost every household in the village is engaged in the processing of cattail woven goods. Those who have difficulties make a living from this, and those who have better conditions do some sideline work to increase their income in case of emergency. I remember that people were busy weaving cattails and reeds in every corner outside the village. The open space in front of and behind the house has become a place for sleeping mats. There are piles of tall cattails and reeds everywhere, and the whole village is cattails. In addition to our children of the same age running around the village, jumping up and down from time to time to catch Mao Mao floating in the air, we rarely see adults going out for a walk. ...

In the long winter, reed cattail was woven into cat's nest shoes by ingenious people, woven into cattail and reed mats, and sold for two yuan to buy salt and foreign oil at the temple fair. In the autumn when I left my hometown at the age of eight, my grandparents saved more than 20 yuan from the money they usually earned by weaving cattails and reeds and stuffed them into my pocket as travel expenses. From that day on, I embarked on the road of dreams. Looking back now, I want to thank not only my grandparents for their kindness, but also the water-like life of Pucao reed, which can shelter the whole village from the wind and rain, and also give the whole village a little life guarantee to tide over the difficulties.