Unforgettable first day of work
text/Yang Shuming
(the fourth left in the third row in the picture is the author)
In life, anyone will have several unforgettable days. For example, your own birthday, your children and grandchildren's birthday; for example, joining the party, commemorating the 8th day of html, getting married, etc. For me, in addition to that, October 10th is also an unforgettable day for me. This is unforgettable because 1975 was the starting point for me to start work.
Previously, on July 22, I graduated from high school. According to the policy at that time, it was obviously impossible to stay in the city and wait for the distribution work. So, I followed the torrent of the times and signed up for to go to the countryside and voluntarily went to the countryside to receive re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants. I remember that during the more than two months of waiting to go to the countryside, I worked as a temporary worker at Jinan Cigarette Factory for more than two months. The job was to do odd jobs in the vacuum recovery process. It was a dirty, tiring, hot and choking job. At that time, the tobacco factory was conducting the "training" of production competitions. Due to my hard work and hard work, I was awarded the title of " first-class merit " during the event. Because the summary and commendation meeting was held after I went to the countryside, my mother helped me collect the certificate.
I remember that the salary of the temporary worker was 1.29 yuan a day at that time. For more than two months, plus the night shift, I earned a hundred yuan. At that time, my family was relatively poor, so I wanted to leave it to my mother for subsidies. Not only did my mother not want it, but she also had to give me some more money. In the end, we two compromised each other. I didn’t ask for the family’s money, and my mother also confiscated my money, so I took the money to the vast world.
When I went to the countryside, I had two choices: one was to register from my mother's work unit Jinan Cigarette Factory, and to go to Yaoqiang Commune in Licheng County, Licheng County, to settle down; the other was to register from my father's work unit Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau, and to go to Yaozhai Commune in Dong'a County, to go to work in the line to farm. Although the remote wall is closer to home, I weighed it over and over again, and finally went to Dong'a .
On the morning of October 10, my father sent me to the meeting place. My luggage is very simple: a backpack, a wooden box, a thermos, and a military shoulder bag. The backpack is a bedding, the wooden box contains books, dishes, chopsticks, changing clothes, etc., and the shoulder bag contains lunch. Because the thermos is fragile, I carry it in my hand. Perhaps it was due to my independent personality that my father and I didn’t feel that farewell to each other, nor did I say goodbye to my family like some female compatriots. When the vehicle arrived, I greeted my father, turned around and got in. Since I got in the car earlier, I chose the front seat.
From Jinan to Cailou Brigade, if you walk Qihe , the journey is less than 90 kilometers, but at that time there was no Yellow River Bridge between Jinan and Qihe. If the bus wants to cross the river, it must detour Pingyin, from there to cross the river and then to Cailou Brigade, the journey is more than 120 kilometers.
Say goodbye to our family and embark on the road to farming in the countryside. We feel a little disappointed. Although it is a vast world that has made great achievements, it is still quite confused to look forward to the future. Sitting on the westbound bus, I was not happy, but my open-minded and independent personality was not very depressed. I just had various guesses, either silently thinking about my thoughts, or enjoying the autumn scenery along the way.
There were thirty or forty educated youths in the countryside who were traveling to this trip. Most of them didn’t know each other and had just said goodbye to their families, so the atmosphere in the car seemed more dull. Seeing this, the team leader tried to liven up the atmosphere. She first directed us to sing "Handler for the Navigation of the Sea" and "Learn from Lei Feng's Good Model", and then began to mobilize educated youth to "show their own skills". With her shaking encouragement and mobilization, two female educated youth sang "On the Kings Mountain in Beijing" and "The Sun is the Redest, Chairman Mao is the Dearest", and a male educated youth played a song "Ah! Goodbye to friends”.After that, there was a little dismay. The teacher led the team mobilized again and saw no response. He lit up my name and said, "Yang Shuming, your speech that day was good and your voice was very loud. How about singing a song for everyone?" The speech she said that day was held at the Jinan Municipal Public Security Bureau. At the meeting to bid farewell to educated youth to the countryside, I made a statement on behalf of the educated youth to the countryside. Hearing her words, I stood up and said, "I can't sing." She said, "Where can't sing? Isn't sing good enough?" I hurriedly said, "I'm easy to sing out of tune, but I can't sing well." She said, "It's okay if I can't sing, and I can't sing well!" Under her aggressiveness, I had no choice but to say, "No, I'll play the flute song for you!" When she heard this, she immediately said to the whole car loudly: "Everyone welcomes Yang Shuming to play the flute for you!" At this point, I took out the picnic from my schoolbag, tried the sound, and blew the song "I'm the most familiar to "Raise the Whip and urge the Horse to transport grain". If you don’t sing, you’ll make a splash. To be honest, my flute playing skills are pretty good, and it’s natural to be popular with everyone. It is hard to refuse the kindness, so I played another song "I am a soldier". Since then, the atmosphere in the car has gradually become lively and everyone has communicated more with each other.
Before the reform and opening up, there were no expressways in China. Even if the traffic conditions in Shandong are the best in in the country, most of them are two lanes. It took more than 120 kilometers from Jinan to Dong'a, and it took more than three hours to travel from Jinan to Changqing. When the bus arrived at Tongcheng (Dong'a County), it was noon. After lunch, the car set off again and sent us to each educated youth spot.
Our group of educated youths in the countryside were assigned to the Hongbu Liu Brigade of Niujiaodian Commune, some were assigned to the Houfan Brigade of Yaozhai Commune, some were assigned to the Zhangji Brigade of Yangliu Commune, and I and three other educated youths were assigned to the Cailou Brigade. The educated youth sites of the other three brigades are newly built, and because more than ten educated youths in our brigade had already settled in the queue last year, the four of us went there, which was considered to have expanded the team.
The autumn is clear and refreshing, the white clouds are leisurely, and the sunny weather makes me feel full of indescribable hope. When we arrived at Cailou, it was already past three o'clock in the afternoon, but we saw leaves and clusters of adobe and acres. The only row of red brick houses was the educated youth site that was not long ago. The village was quiet and there was no warm welcome. There were several brigade leaders and educated youth waiting for us. Of course, those idle children were also indispensable.
At the welcome party held in the evening, accompanied by kerosene lamps, new and old educated youth introduced themselves. The team leader introduced us in detail the situation of the brigade, and made special requirements to us, emphasizing the precautions. As the end was approaching, I was "betrayed" by the educated youth who were traveling with that day. With the warm welcome from the old educated youth, I played two flute solos, and the welcome meeting came to an end.
Just after ten o'clock in the evening, I lay on the bed. Although I was a newcomer and I was not familiar with the place, it did not seem to affect my sleepiness. Soon, I fell asleep and spent the first day of working.
At the end of 1977, I recruited workers and went back to the city to go to the factory, but I did not calculate my working experience during the countryside. It was only later that amid the strong appeals of the vast number of educated youth in the countryside, the country adjusted its policies and calculated the work experience of urban young people in the countryside as their working experience. The time was around 1980, and this was the legitimate first day of "job".
Recalling the past, the glorious years are thick. Although time has passed forty-seven years, when I think of the past, I can’t help but see the fields, spring plowing, wheat harvesting, autumn planting, manure production, river digging and other labor scenes appearing in front of me.
[Author Profile] Yang Shuming, a Jinan native of Yiyuan , is a member of Chinese Writers Association , and former chairman of of Jinan Lixia District Writers Association .He has published ten collections of essays, including "The Years Without Trace", "The Past Like Wind", "The Years Like Water", "Walking at Jianzi Lane", "The Road of Heart Is Not Afar", "Time Frozen in Memory", "The Mark of Time", "Learning in the Trace of Famous Scholars", "My Father and Mother", "Lixia Time", and two review monographs, "The Words Clearly"; he was a columnist of the "Lixia Evening News"; he has edited the book and magazines such as "The Taste of Jinan", "Lixia Falling City", "Poetic Lixia Folk Story", and "Lishan". He has won the Bingxin Prose Award, , Qilu Prose Award, and Quancheng Literature Award.
Yidian Zhenyu
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