In 1976, I worked as a farmer in the village for several months. By the end of the year, the work points I earned were not enough for me to eat my own food. In order to survive, when I was seventeen, I was wrapped up on a rugged mountain road and came to a small mountain village where the mountains and forests were lush. My carpentry career began in this mountain village. As mentioned earlier, I learned woodworking skills with a master in my spare time in my first year of high school, but I was not good at learning skills. I suffered a lot during my year of carpentry career and was exhausted physically and mentally, but I also felt the warmth and care given to me by the simple farmer landlord. This is the experience of life. There are both bitterness and warmth. Only when life has aftertaste, is the real life.
1. The boy is useless and helpless and feels really uncomfortable
I remember when I went to the Pudiao Wood Factory, the master and a few of his friends. At the beginning, the master and his friends were there. I don’t know about the craftsmanship and I can ask the master for advice, but because of my age, I have a little difficulty in physical strength, and my work efficiency is low and my income is less. But after only a month, the master and their friends returned to the city one after another. They all had city household registrations, some arranged work, and some received carpentry work by themselves. In the end, only a few local masters and me were left in the factory. My skills were not good. I remember that the first time I made a file cabinet, the acceptance quality was not up to standard, and I almost cried. I was so helpless alone!
I remember how helpless I was when my master returned to the city. Because I had just worked in a carpenter, from an apprentice to a master, I was overly in danger, and my skills were not as good as others. I was young and had no one to take care of me, so I could only bite the bullet and find work for the factory manager. The factory manager saw that I had pity for me to do some furniture work with low technical content. Of course, the wages were also low. I remember that the most I did was the bed frame, which was the type of school bed and the single bed for the army. Later, when my skills improved, I also made some kitchen cabinets. Later, I made a lot of money, and I could earn more than 400 yuan a month. This salary was quite high in 1977. That year, my father's salary was only more than 50 yuan a month. With better skills, my interpersonal relationships were also good. When I got rich, I went to the city and bought a few kilograms of crabs to give to the factory manager. The factory manager became taller and collected the file cabinets that I had made before that were unqualified. The factory manager's attitude towards me also improved. Therefore, I became accustomed to life in the mountain village and almost became a son-in-law to the mountain people.
2. Living under the coffin was frightened. The landlord and the old man cared for me and took care of me like a grandson.
People who have never left their hometown must not be able to feel the feeling of being alone under someone else’s roof. When I first came to work in the mountain village, there was a master and his friends and a few of them. Every day, everyone worked together and talked and laughed. I didn’t feel lonely or afraid when I returned to my uncle’s house at night. But when the master and a few friends returned, the feeling of being alone was unspeakable, especially when I returned to my grandfather’s house, it was a tragic feeling that I was going upstairs alone, because people were usually living downstairs in the mountains and rural areas, and there were tablets for ancestors to light incense. This was a challenge for me, as a 17-year-old, walking past this altar every night. What’s even more terrifying is that there is a spare coffin board on the top of the room I live in. Maybe it’s the old man’s spare! When I first lived in a room, I lived in four people, and I didn’t feel afraid. When they went back, it was different for me to live alone. It was autumn at that time, and the wood was dry and rattled, and I was so scared that I couldn’t fall asleep all night. The next day I got up, maybe I got up and made a sound with the wooden orange tiles on the top of the door. The landlord downstairs heard the sound and knew that I was scared alone. When I came back tonight, the landlord grandfather would pack up an ear room at the door downstairs and let me move down. The ear room was only about 4 square meters, with a small bed and a small table. I was so grateful that I was crying. The landlord grandfather was really a life-saving benefactor!
(To be continued)
