Yesterday, a young colleague who just joined the company asked me: What does double robbing mean? I stood at the east window of the aisle on the fourth floor and didn't speak for a long time. I don't know what to say. Those memories engraved in the bones have left too much sorrow for our generation. I deliberately want to forget but always think of them unconsciously.
I remember that a few days ago, among my middle school classmates, Dr. Huang from Shanghai suggested me to write double robbing, because it was almost unique to our generation: in middle school, we had just experienced double robbing after dividing fields into households in the early 1980 s! Unlike the big group double snatch, we are a family and work hard! It is also different from the later double snatch. In the 1990s, it was gradually mechanized, and threshing was carried by walking tractors, which lost the hardships of double snatch in the 1980s. Later, hybrid rice replaced early rice and late rice, and the double grab gradually disappeared in the long river of history.
Double snatch is a general term for farm work from long summer to beginning of autumn, mainly for grabbing early rice and transplanting late rice. There are many things, the weather is the hottest, and sometimes it rains heavily, which is the most difficult season for farmers, which is also called double robbing. (I personally feel that the main idea is expressed in this way, but I can't guarantee that 100% is correct. )
In the hot summer, cicadas are singing everywhere. I know that Shuangqiang is coming, and adults begin to prepare various farm tools. Then they go to their early rice fields every day to see if they can harvest, and the difference between each family may be 2 ~ 3 days in the morning and evening. My impression is that the double snatch basically officially started from July 20th to 22nd.
The first thing is to cut rice, and it is possible to finish it quickly by bending over. We children who often don't work usually have backache after working for half an hour. After all, it's a child. You can have a rest before you do it. If the child's back is sore, he will be scolded for squatting, because squatting is too slow. Of course, adults don't allow children to form this bad habit from an early age. If you can't go to college in the future, you can't squat and cut rice, can you? Writing here, I suddenly remembered a photo I had seen. A farmer sat on a stool and cut rice, which made my eyes bright and challenged our IQ. I just want to ask the photographer, are you here to be funny?
After cutting a field, if the weather is fine, simply dry the rice stalks for a day or two, and then pick them up in the rice field, so that the dried rice stalks can be picked up lightly. But when the weather is bad, you must answer it as soon as possible. It is necessary for us junior high school students to pick rice. We can choose less, but we must never choose. Because every household is very hard, our teenage children finished picking in a few days, and the skin on their shoulders was all broken, and the basic rice picking was over. When the rice stalks reach the fields, they will be threshed. At that time, there were no electric threshers, and it was even more impossible to press them with a walking tractor as in the early 1990 s. The best and most primitive thing is to pat the stalk, sometimes on the bed, and more often on the roller. Levering the handle is also a physical activity. I tried to lift it hard, and my arm was sore after half a day. However, cutting rice and picking handles are all light work, and because of the low technical content, adults generally want our children to participate.
After the rice is finished, the straw beside the field will dry and the rice in the field will dry. If the weather is fine, a few suns will be fine. What I am most afraid of at this time is stormy weather (that is, sudden heavy rain). Sometimes in the morning, I see the sky is clear, so I bask in rice. Suddenly, dark clouds gathered and it began to rain soon. Sometimes there is a gust of wind that blows the dust everywhere. At this time, the busy adults in the field found out, immediately put down their work and ran from the field to the threshing floor as quickly as possible. Sometimes they just pile up the millet, cover it with plastic film, and it clears up again. There is not a drop of rain, which makes the adults angry.
After cutting the rice, my father began to plow and rake the fields. Plowing and harrowing fields is a technical job, and it is impossible to do this farm work well without a year or two of study. This matter is usually contracted by my father. After raking the field, I was busy pulling out seedlings and transplanting them. The skill of pulling out seedlings is not strong, and children must participate. Pulling out seedlings is similar to cutting rice, which requires bending over to do homework, and children can't stand it for a long time. However, transplanting rice seedlings is a practice that practice makes perfect. Some people transplant rice quickly and well. It is said that several people in the production team often compete for transplanting rice seedlings, but in the 1980 s, when everyone was busy, there was no such thing as a competition. However, we often hear that so-and-so transplanting rice seedlings is very powerful. I can't transplant rice. I once planted rice seedlings in my memory, but was rejected and asked to do something else. Here is a tidbit. At that time, a classmate of mine who was admitted to Annong later told us at the party that at school, the professor went to the paddy field to teach them to transplant rice seedlings, but the seedlings planted by the professor were crooked and untidy, which was much worse than my classmates.
According to parents, late rice transplanting must be completed before beginning of autumn, and late rice planted in beginning of autumn may reduce production or even fail to harvest. I was puzzled about it at that time. Is there really such a big difference before and after beginning of autumn? Now that I think about it, it may be a summary of the long-term labor of the working people. So in order to catch up with the time, I often go to work in the fields before dawn at about three o'clock in the middle of the night, with a three-shadow lantern (scientific name lantern), mosquito bites, dim lights, and no one around me to cause fear. The motivation for completing farm work at an early date is the greatness of the policy of dividing fields into households. Thank Deng Gong for everything he has done for the people of China!
Our children usually get up at six o'clock to make breakfast, mostly sesame oil Baba porridge. The sesame oil Baba I posted may be oily, burnt but not burnt. Parents say sesame oil is delicious. Get up early for work and see how hot it is and whether there is a cool breeze. When the weather is too hot, I usually go home and rest around 10 in the morning. Sometimes when the weather is not too hot, I will work until around 1 1 0 in the morning. Most people don't go out to do farm work after lunch. Find a windy place to sleep and go out to work after 2 pm at the earliest, sometimes even 3 pm, but it is absolutely impossible to go home until dark. After all, time is too tight. This is the advantage of dividing fields into households, and you can freely allocate the time for doing farm work according to the situation. As a result, as a doctor, I look back now and am surprised to find that none of the dozens of families in my village suffered from heatstroke during the double robbery in the whole 1980s, which is also the benefit of dividing fields into households.
"Weeding was noon that day, and sweat dripped down the soil. Who knows that Chinese food is hard! " Every time I recall the double snatch, I can't help thinking of this poem. The feeling of being hot and tired is still terrible when I think about it. Look back at the children now, staying in an air-conditioned room, holding a book, talking about learning all day, but actually playing games. Can't help but sigh, is our child lacking a little frustration education? (Image taken from the Internet)
June, 2020 15 was written in the closed area day and night.