Sometimes I dream that I am still sleeping in the east room, and the moonlight shines into half the room through the window. Sometimes I dream that my parents are frying meatballs in the kitchen and my sister and I are playing with each other in the yard. Sometimes I dream of a sunny summer day. My mother hangs all the quilts and cotton-padded clothes in the cupboard in the yard. I shuttled between quilts in a yard, and my nose was filled with the warm smell of sunshine. ......
I know, these things are clearly left in my memory, even though our family has already moved out of the old house and moved to that building in town. There is no dust flying upstairs that my mother hates most, and there is no smoking fire that I hate most. We slept in a big bed two meters wide and used a gas stove. My sister and I no longer have to squeeze into a one-meter-five small bed, and the stool is blocked by the bed for fear of falling out of bed; You don't have to cook every time, and you cry because of the smoke; You don't have to face the dust that you can't sweep away every day.
However, the old house will still appear in my dream again and again, and it is still the same in my dream. Three halls, a kitchen, a yard and a guard room.
This is an old house, but it is not old. The old house is the same age as me, and the wooden top beam is clearly engraved with "1990", but it is only 3 1 year. That year, my mother and I moved out of my grandmother's house together. At first, there was no courtyard wall in my hometown, only three halls and one kitchen, and there was no electricity. Later, after my mother gave birth to me, I sold the eggs sent by my relatives, so that I could afford to install electricity. Then slowly save money to cover the courtyard wall and gatehouse, and the whole home will be complete.
As far as I can remember, there is white powdery alkali on the red bricks on the exterior walls of halls and kitchens all the year round. When I was a child, I scraped it off with a knife and piled it in a small pile. When I use a match, it makes a "zi zi" sound, which is very interesting. Interior walls are generally mottled white walls, full of traces of years.
The facade of the hall faces south, and the wooden door is painted with green paint, with faded missing corner New Year pictures on it. In order to prevent flies and mosquitoes in summer, a pair of screen doors with springs will be installed. When the screen doors are opened, they will be caught by the spring and then close automatically. There is a small rectangular skylight above the door for lighting.
After pushing the door open, the first thing you see is a purple square table with a 17 inch "big ass" color TV. This trampled land has undergone several changes from cement to tile. Behind the "square table" is a bar almost as wide as the hall. On the right side of the bar is a clock with a pendulum (figure 1), two bottles of worn-out fake flowers and some messy things. The clock ticks loudly, giving people a sense of urgency that time passes quickly. It also tells the time or half-time. On the left is an old radio that can play tapes from the 1980s (Figure 2). It can play and record. When I was a child, I would play some songs or operas. There are lockers on the left and right sides of the bar. There are some old brochures and books in the small cupboard in the east, and all the pesticides needed in the farmland are in the small cupboard in the west. Parents warned us not to touch cabinets with pesticides since childhood, which led to the shadow that we still don't want to touch them even if pesticides are no longer stored. Well, the poor cupboard must envy the "brother" cupboard on the other side.
On the wall behind the swap is a waterfall landscape painting. The right side of the landscape painting is covered with awards from my sister and me. The hall is separated from the East Room by a wall. There are many newspapers on the east wall, and there is a photo frame with glass. There are parents' registered photos, family photos taken by the whole family more than 20 years ago and some scattered photos in the photo frame.
There are two single person sofa with bordeaux skin near the east wall. The central part of the sofa cushion and backrest has peeled off, and the armrest part is also stained. There is a purplish red coffee table between the two sofas. In front of the sofa is a square table made of jujube, which is used for eating. Just above the square table, there is a fan hanging on the beam, which is used to blow in summer. When the square table is idle, it is stuffed under the square table, and there is a large aluminum steamer under the square table. Eggs are kept in a steamer all the year round (I don't know why they are not kept in the kitchen).
There is just room for a sewing machine behind the door on the right side of the hall (Figure 3). When I was very young, my father was still working in the "family planning office" and my mother had no job. She took care of me and used this sewing machine to sew for the villagers to earn some extra money. But once, I put my hand into the wheel of the sewing machine. Although it was nothing serious, the frightened mother never took over the job again, and the sewing machine was covered with a piece of cloth all the year round.
Next to the sewing machine is the door of the east room, with a New Year picture on the door painted with green paint. On the wall above the door hangs a rectangular wall clock about the width of the door, which is inlaid with shells. It's beautiful, but its hand hasn't moved since I can remember.
There is a small bed facing south in the southeast corner of the entrance. In order to be clean, a circle of cloth was tied to the wall behind the bed. The floor of the East Room has always been concrete. In summer, lying on it with a newspaper will feel cold. There is a table next to the south bedside, and there is an edge sewing machine (Figure 4) in the gap behind the west door of the table, which is used to sew the edges of some fabrics that love spinning.
Behind the table is the front window, the window frame is made of wood, and the outside is inlaid with strip-shaped steel bars. There are two floors inside. There are three square fixed glasses below, a fixed rectangular glass in the middle, and two windows that can be opened inward on the left and right sides. In summer, to prevent flies and mosquitoes, a screen window will be nailed outside. In winter, it will be replaced by transparent plastic sheets to resist the cold. The whole window is very big, and the moonlight outside the window can sprinkle half of the bed. There are several pots of luxuriant chlorophytum on the windowsill (Figure 5), because my father likes playing with flowers and plants very much.
On the north wall, there is a portrait of the god of wealth. Above the portrait, there is a small square rear window. There is a big gray "water" jar under the portrait, and there is a censer on the lid of the jar. There are important documents and some bankbooks in the water tank. Mom said to let the god of wealth handle this matter.
When I was a child, we didn't live in the East Room, but lived in the Westinghouse with our parents, because bags of beaten wheat were stored in the East Room, mixed with an old smell, and rats rustled all the year round. Sometimes my parents put some rat poison, and then I have a big white cat. This big white cat has given birth to several kittens. What I remember deeply is that it once gave birth to a little white cat with blue eyes. It has long hair and two rolls of white hair on the tip of its ear, which is very cute. When I was a child, my cat kept him free, and he would go home automatically every time he ate. In winter, when it is cold, it will climb under my bed to sleep. When I accidentally kick it, it will "ha" and "woo" me angrily. Sometimes it will climb into the bottom of the stove, and its white hair will be dyed carbon. White cats are particularly fierce. One night, my mother touched something sticky and cold in her sleep. She turned on the light and saw that it was the cat that brought a snake to the bed to eat, which scared her mother to throw the cat and snake out of the door and shut the window, so that she would never let the cat in casually again.
Later, the cat did not know where to eat the rat poison. I saw it lying on the ground in the yard, twitching all over, foaming at the mouth, stiff body and eyes full of pain. When I looked at it, I felt helpless for the first time, and my face was full of tears ... My mother went to the village clinic for advice, and the white cat died after all ... I was very sad at that time. But compared with the cats in the countryside, this cat can be regarded as "longevity".
Behind the door on the left side of the hall, there is a red jujube table facing west in Zhang Chaodong. When we were young, we often did our homework on the desk. There are three drawers at the bottom of the desk near the desktop, and one cabinet on the left and right near the legs. There are some "ruler powder" (Figure 6), rulers and chalk in the drawer. "Ruler powder" was used to make marks and sample cloth when my mother was a tailor, and "chalk" was used to draw pictures for us on the wall when my mother was a teacher. There are some tools such as "fruit scissors" used by my father to take care of the branches of fruit trees in the cupboard. My father's cutting and grafting skills are so good that people in Fiona Fang, several kilometers away, ask him for help in grafting.
Next to the desk is a desk, and to the south of the desk is the window of Westinghouse. The windows of Westinghouse are the same as those of the East Room, except that about one meter outside the window is the north wall of the kitchen, which blocks a lot of sunshine and moonlight. There are shoes under the table at any time.
The southwest corner next to the table is my parents' bed, which is made of wood and placed in the north-south direction. The bottom layer is covered with something called "foil" woven with sorghum stalks (Figure 7), and the middle layer is covered with mats woven with sorghum stalks (Figure 8), which are covered with cotton mattresses and sheets. The part of the bed attached to the wall is surrounded by a one-meter wide woven mat. My sketches and gouache paintings are posted on the wall, and there is a small round wall clock.
There is no wall between Westinghouse and the hall. Mother separated the hall from Westinghouse with a 2-meter-wide purple wardrobe and cabinets. The side of the wardrobe faces the back wall, leaving a gap one person wide in the middle, which was often hidden in it when I was a child. The front of the wardrobe faces the hall, with double doors, a mirror in the middle and two phoenixes painted at the bottom of the mirror. The kitchen is divided into upper, middle and lower floors. Double doors with green screens on the top floor usually contain steamed buns, steamed buns and vegetable rolls. There are two drawers in the middle and a cupboard at the bottom. Usually my mother puts some winter cotton-padded jackets and trousers, and sometimes we always hide in them when we play hide-and-seek.
There is only one or two meters between the cabinet and the writing desk, which is the gate of Westinghouse. In the west room, there is not only a big bed in the southwest corner, but also a small bed in the northwest corner. When we were young, we sometimes slept in a big bed with our mother and a small bed with our father. There are several stacked wooden cabinets between the end of the big bed and the side of the small bed. In the cupboard, there are some new sheets and some new embroidered shoes of different sizes. When our feet grow up, we will change a pair. On the top of the cupboard, there is an old-fashioned dowry box.
There is a cupboard behind the cupboard, which is full of textbooks for our primary, middle and high schools. It is heavy. The cupboard is full of clothes for changing seasons.
When I was a child, in the summer vacation, we especially liked to play in the big bed of Westinghouse, dig out clothes and sheets, and put them on our bodies to play the roles of White Snake and the Monkey King ... We also liked to play the games of "knocking on the bottle caps" and "scattering ice cream sticks" on the lime floor of Westinghouse ... At that time, a simple and boring game could be played for half a day.
From the main hall to the yard, you usually have to go down a step first. This step was built to avoid running into the house in rainy days, but sometimes it rains heavily and urgently in summer, and it still sneaks into the house through the door. Ah, it's always rainy when I think of it. Our family is keen on sweeping water with a broom. It really hurts!
Out of the steps is a small slope about two meters long, paved with square cement bricks with patterns. In summer, we often spread a mat on this land, lie down to enjoy the cool, shake the cattail leaf fan, watch the stars blink and talk about this land. This is the happiest moment in my memory.
Two hibiscus trees are planted on the land on both sides of the main entrance (Figure 9). Maybe it's common since childhood. I never thought this flower was beautiful. In my opinion, its powder is an old and faded powder, not as bright as a rose, but when it withers, it looks like a "frosted eggplant". It is dejected and despondent, and it still feels soft. Now, in fact, this flower has its unique beauty. Now I especially like the word "hibiscus", which is probably the so-called treasure after loss.
Southwest of Furong is our kitchen. The kitchen door faces east, pulling open the gauze curtain covered with soot and pushing the door in. What you see is the lime wall and the stove in the southwest corner, which is blackened by smoke. A large aluminum pot cover stands on the stove. The mouth of the stove where firewood is added faces east, and the south of the stove near the south wall is a "bellows" (figure 10), which is used to supply gas for firewood and make the fire more prosperous. On the north side of the stove, bricks are piled up on the platform flush with the stove, and there is a large ceramic basin for kneading dough on it. Usually there is half a basin of water in the basin, which is convenient for washing dishes and pots.
The northwest corner of the kitchen is a brick platform, and the top layer is cement. There are a series of kitchen supplies such as salt cans, oil tanks and kettles on it. There is a small water tank and two buckets beside the counter. When I was a child, I drank well water, and every household had a pressure well (Figure 1 1). The pressure well needs to draw water first, put half a spoonful of water in it, and then press the lever quickly, and the water will come up slowly. Usually we take a bucket to the kitchen, pour it into the water tank and store it until the water tank is full, and then fill two buckets. Later, tap water was connected to the village, and water came out when the tap was turned on, which was much more convenient. But in winter, we should wrap the part of tap water that leaks outside with thick clothes, otherwise the water inside will freeze.
There are some farm tools behind the door in the northeast corner of the kitchen. Next to the farm tools, there is a thick big jar. In a noodle jar, a noodle bag usually contains half a jar of white flour and half a bag of corn flour, and then there is a rolling pin and a spoon made of half a gourd for scooping noodles. There is a rolling table between the vat and the table. Mother usually conjures steamed bread, steamed buns and noodles, which are wide or thin or long or short.
The place near the south wall and the stove is full of corn stalks, wheat stalks, corn cobs, sticks, dry branches and other fuels used to burn the fire. When the pile is high, the sense of security is full.
The light bulbs in the kitchen are generally smoked to half black, giving off a faint yellow light, and the wires hanging on the light bulbs are covered with black flocs. The kitchen window is even older, and it can't be closed all the year round. The bolt is hung on it for decoration, and the green screen window has turned black. Every summer, the kitchen is always full of flies and the walls are full of black spots.
The chimney is behind the kitchen. When playing with friends, whenever I see the smoke curling up from the chimney, I know it's time to go home for dinner.
Looking back now, the kitchen is really dirty and messy, but when I was a child, the kitchen was a place where I could make delicious food, where my parents made a fire and cooked happily, and where there were still calm fireworks no matter how the seasons changed. In fact, my mother said that when I was a child, my family was very poor, even so poor that I couldn't eat a bite of oil for a month. But now, the days are getting better every day. My sister and I have been working outside for many years, and my parents retired upstairs for the elderly. The fireworks in my hometown have all been moved upstairs, but the time for our reunion is getting less and less.
Speaking of our yard, it can be said that a hundred flowers are blooming.
The courtyard is paved with bricks to form a winding sidewalk with a width of about two meters from the main hall to the gate, and the two sides of the road are bricked into a "garden fence" as high as the calf. The starting point of the "fence" on the west side is the outer corner of the kitchen, and the end point is the west wall of the courtyard near the gate, forming an arc. The "fence" on the east side is more complicated, from the outer wall of the hall, through the "hydraulic well" to the outer edge of the "pigsty".
Later, there were no pigs in the pigsty, so my father filled it up and dug a cellar to put those flowers and plants that were not frost-resistant in winter. To the south of the "pigsty" is a "cesspit". There is not only dung in the cesspit, but also watermelon skin in summer and soup in winter ... any garbage can be discarded in it. Further south of the cesspit is a road leading to the toilet, which is in the southeast corner of the yard. This is my childhood nightmare. In the dark night, the distance from the main room to the toilet seems to have crossed a galaxy, and there are endless ghosts hidden in the darkness, waiting to scare me. At the entrance of the hall, I will take a minute to cheer myself up, summon up courage to rush to the toilet, and then rush into the room at a speed of 100 meters.
On the west side of the garden, near the kitchen door, there is a large rose-red cordate telosma, which blooms in the summer evening and exudes a strong fragrance. It is said that it can repel mosquitoes. I haven't smelled cordate telosma for many years, and I have forgotten its taste. Until one day, when I was trying the fragrance, I found that Diplyque's perfume named "Dushan tuberose" was very delicious, so I began to dress up. Later, my sister smelled it and said, isn't this the smell of cordate telosma in my hometown? I was shocked. Yes, tuberose is too similar to tuberose.
A few Chinese roses were planted in the "fence" on the west side, and the growth was gratifying. There are all kinds of pink, red and champagne colors, and Chinese rose flowers can be seen from the wall during the flower season. There are roses, tulips and banana trees. Besides flowers, vegetables such as onions and pumpkins are sometimes planted.
There is a Robinia pseudoacacia planted behind the west gate (figure 12) with pink Sophora japonica flowers. Climb the tree and you can step on the wall to the guard room. According to my father, there used to be two different kinds of apricot trees in the West Yard. A tree bears many fruits, but it is very small. On the contrary, apricots are very big, but there are only a few. Mom said that she used that little apricot tree to change a lot of exercise books for me. But because I was too young, my memory was not deep.
There are more kinds of plants in the garden on the east side of the fence. My favorite are pomegranate trees, fig trees and grapevines (alas, you can eat them all).
There are two different varieties of pomegranate trees (figure 13), one of which is better. Bloom's is very small, with only one layer, but it will bear many big pomegranates. On September 9th every year, pomegranate will ripen and crack, grinning. However, pomegranate trees are not easy to take care of and are prone to insects. And if there is rotten fruit, it is easy to infect good fruit. Because I spend more time at school, every time I go home, my parents will pick pomegranates that look like they are about to crack for me to eat. Another pomegranate tree belongs to the "flower viewing" pomegranate, which is layered when flowering, but the pomegranate is usually very small.
The fig tree has a very high position in my heart. The fig really blooms, but its flowers are hidden in the receptacle. The white juice of fig tree can treat hemorrhoids and has certain anti-cancer effect. There is a saying in our country that "the fig tree in Fiona Fang is not cancerous for a hundred miles", which is of course an exaggeration. Figs are so popular with birds that they are pecked off every time they are not ripe. Later, my father put on a transparent plastic bag to prevent birds when he was almost cooked. Mature figs (fig. 14) are dark purple in color, soft and waxy when pinched, and the skin will fall off when touched lightly. They are very delicious and taste different from other fruits. It's a pity that I haven't eaten such delicious figs since I came to the south. The figs sold here are expensive, but the taste is too bad.
Because the legend of cowherd and weaver girl has been circulating under the grape trellis, I have a preference for vines. But my vines are ugly. In my memory, it only has a dry and twisted branch, which makes me think it is dead. My vines are few and small, so I can't form a big grape trellis and have few fruits, but it doesn't prevent me from remembering them clearly.
Besides these fruits, a series of edible fruits or vegetables will be planted, such as melon, tomato, eggplant, beans, cucumber, Chinese toon and jujube.
In fact, there are not only these delicious fruits in my east yard, but also Celosia cristata (figure 15), colored pepper (figure 16), Impatiens balsamina, sisal (figure 19), honeysuckle, zinnia (figure 17) and dahlia. Among them, honeysuckle, called "Erhua" in our dialect, has two colors: gold and silver. Generally picked and preserved in the sun, it can be soaked in water for drinking, which has the effects of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat and improving immunity. Father likes to soak the harvested medlar in water or wine.
When I was a child, I often dyed my nails with impatiens. Before going to bed, I mashed the flowers, put some alum and stirred them evenly. Then I dug a small lump and put it on my nails. I wrapped the first half of my finger with elastic leaves or plastic paper and wrapped it with thread. Sleep for one night and get up the next day to get rid of it. At this time, the nails turn red, bright in color and not easy to fade.
With so many flowers and plants planted, my yard looks empty in winter, full of dead branches. However, from the beginning of the flowering of winter jasmine, the next three seasons will basically be full of colorful flowers. Every summer after the rain, the yard is full of vitality. The air is full of earthy flowers and plants. I always take an umbrella in the rain to smell the flowers, touch the branches and vines. The whole world has become fresh and pure in my eyes, and the vibrant yard has added irreplaceable color to my world. When I was a child, my companions always envied my yard and asked me for some flowers to grow. Every time adults go to my house, the first thing they admire is my yard, praising my parents for raising flowers so well. In addition, there are some flowers that are suitable for indoor use in flowerpots, such as Bidens bipinnata, aloe, chlorophytum, reed, Eupatorium adenophorum and so on.
My father is a gentle man, and he especially likes raising flowers and birds. When I was a child, my father also raised two thrush birds, which were hung in cages in trees. It sounded very nice. At one time, my father would wholesale some flowers to sell.
When my mother first moved into the old house, the courtyard wall had not been built. Something happened at home. At that time, my father went to work and my mother was pregnant. A madman came into my house and frightened my mother. Later, the villagers used tractors to send the madman away. I didn't expect the madman to know the way and touch it back. Later, the villagers sent the madman to a farther place. This also led to the urgency of building a courtyard wall in my home.
Later, I paid someone to build the courtyard wall and gatehouse. At that time, I felt that the gatehouse was still very imposing and tall. The door under the guard room is made of iron. It was painted with purple paint at first. Later, after years of exposure and rain, the lower part of the door began to rust and even gradually fell off, so it was repaired and painted with green paint. A few years later, the courtyard wall also fell down several times, which was built by mom and dad themselves. So now, in fact, one side of my courtyard wall is uneven. Whenever the corn harvest season comes, the pressure on the courtyard wall comes instantly. The courtyard wall is always covered with corn to dry, and then thresh it when it is dry.
The gate (Figure 2 1) also faces south. I don't know what to call the building parts connected with the courtyard wall on both sides. This part is made of stone, a pair of couplets, a pair of lions and a pair of dragons and phoenixes are put together with tiles. On the right, it says "Happiness is like flowing water in the East China Sea", on the left, it says "Longevity is better than Nanshan", and the tiles on the door say "All the best", dotted with several red lanterns. When we were young, we often climbed the wall from the locust tree behind the door, and then stood on the door "overlooking all beings". In a few years, my family has two dogs, one of which is a dark German shepherd dog, who likes to climb up to the door and bark when he sees people far away.
There are two locust trees outside the gate, which are shaped like umbrellas and have drooping branches. Now they are still standing at the door, guarding our home like two door gods.
This is everything in our old house. These things are full of our life, and also carry the moment of growth. My little sister and I grew up slowly in these houses, and my parents grew old quickly in these houses.
Thirty-one years later, things have changed, and the old house has left many traces of time. In fact, I am not a nostalgic person, because people always have to move forward. But the old house is really something that supports the background color in my heart, and there are too many laughter and laughter in it.
After leaving my hometown, I seldom have time to see a blooming flower, and I no longer pay attention to the departure of a bird. Those ordinary and pure pleasures have long been replaced by the pressure of life. We speak against our will in the city, do things that don't know what's the point, waste our lives in the square with cement walls, and exchange our lives for the right to stand in this city. I seem to have forgotten the way back and the most precious thing in my life. It is a dream that brings me back to my hometown again and again.
So I went to see it in March this year, only to find that it was not as high as I remembered. The door is full of chicken and duck excrement raised by neighbors, the yard is full of weeds, and the house is dilapidated because no one lives in it, and the room is empty. ...
But it doesn't matter, it will live in my memory forever and shine in my dream.