My mother is 80 years old this year. She was infected with the new crown and fell down in the past few days. I am taking care of her. Lying next to my mother, I suddenly thought that as a person who is almost 60 years old, some of the "highest moments" in my life were actually brought to me by my mother.
My mother was very beautiful when she was young, and I have always felt that she was a very refined woman of her time. When the neighbors and classmates around us regarded "eating" as their top daily priority, my brother and I were dressed up beautifully and uniquely by our mother since we were children. My mother's principle is: the food can be a bit poor, but the dress must be exquisite, because that is the appearance. Of course, my mother also loves to dress up and is good at dressing up. Looking back at her photos from those years, no matter how many people she takes photos with, her mother is always the one who stands out the most.
My mother was engaged in technical work in a company and often went on business trips to big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Every time she came back from a business trip, she would buy my brother and me a lot of novelty clothes that we had never seen in the area. What I remember most clearly now is that one summer, my mother brought back a pair of small slippers for each of us. At that time, adults rarely wore slippers, and children were even less likely to wear slippers. The slippers were originally worn at home, but I deliberately wore them out and walked around the streets arrogantly, attracting countless looks of admiration and envy.
Another time, my mother went on a business trip to Tianjin and came back with a few boxes of bubble gum, the kind that can blow big bubbles by chewing it in your mouth, similar to today's chewing gum. We also played blowing bubbles at the time, but we made our own version by washing a small piece of dough in water repeatedly until it turned into gluten. When we put it in our mouth, we could blow bubbles. It was the first time I saw such exquisitely packaged bubble gum, and I couldn’t wait to let the whole world know about it. I was showing off in the courtyard with my bubble gum, and soon I was surrounded by girls. I carefully broke off several small pieces and distributed them to them in order of closeness to me. My heart was once again filled with arrogant emotions.
It was the late 1970s when I was in junior high school. At that time, the colors and styles of clothes were very monotonous for both adults and children, and new clothes could only be worn during the Chinese New Year. That year, my mother came back from a business trip to Beijing and bought me a plaid half-coat, which looked similar to Japanese school uniforms. At that time, not to mention children, even adults had never seen anyone wearing a half-breasted coat, not to mention it was such a trendy and fashionable style. I will never forget that day when I walked into school with excitement, and it immediately became the most beautiful scenery in the whole school. I enjoyed the envious looks from classmates of different grades every day, and I couldn't be more satisfied! I remember that the popular Yugoslav movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo" was popular at the time. The protagonist Walter was mostly wearing a half-length windbreaker. Later, when my classmates saw me, they started shouting: Look, look, Walter! Even now, when our junior high school classmates get together, the way I swagger around in a Gurney half-coat is still talked about by my classmates who are over 50 years old!
When I was in high school, my mother went to Beijing on a business trip one winter. When she left, she took all the family’s savings of 300 yuan and brought back three down jackets. At that time, down jackets had just become fashionable in society, but we didn’t sell them here. These three down jackets are for each of me, my brother and my father. Mine is a duck-brand double-sided jacket style, and my brother and father’s are both blue Yili blue half-length ones. When my mother came back, the Chinese New Year was approaching. These three down jackets, as new clothes for the Chinese New Year, really made the three of us, father and son, very popular. Especially the one I have, not only is the jacket style trendy, but the colors on both sides are also good-looking, one side is light bean green and the other side is purple red. Even if I wear it now, it still looks out of style.
