Text: Songs and Smiles
Pictures: From the Internet
If there is a period of time in the past that people want to recall more and more, it must be that it has given people a deep and deep impression that even time cannot erase. Otherwise, it will naturally be completely forgotten.
It was a movement in full swing. The urban educated youth across the country " went to the mountains and countryside ", going to the countryside, to the frontiers, to the places where the motherland needed it most. "Jumping in the queue of educated youth" or "sending students down to the countryside", as is now popular It’s called a “hot word”.
In January 1977, the second month after I graduated from high school and left school, I came to my hometown of Siliuwang in Sihu Xixiang (Siliuwang Village of Donghong Brigade, Linhu Commune, Huanglu District, Chao County). With some writing skills, after joining the army, they were assigned to do paperwork, mainly writing, copying and doing odd jobs. These people basically did not have any serious crimes or bloody debts. The criticism of them had no real content, and it was entirely to fit in with the political climate at that time. The critical drafts are also full of empty words and clichés.
A denunciation meeting was held in the auditorium of the commune. Several armed militiamen brought to the stage more than a dozen so-called "ghosts, ghosts and snake spirits" bad elements gathered from the entire commune. Almost all of them were old men with gray hair. Each of them had a big sign hanging on his chest. , hunched over, with blurry eyes and dull eyes, allowed the young people on the stage to speak righteously and shout slogans loudly.
The people participating in the audience were usually idlers sent from various village stalls. In the venue, the men smoked and dozed, and the women knitted and knitted their shoe soles. There was a lot of excitement on the stage, but the audience was indifferent. When I think about it, I feel very funny. ridiculous.
It was at the end of the autumn of this year that we heard the news on the radio that was about to resume the college entrance examination . We could not hide our excitement and excitement, but we were eager to try but also fearful.
Since our elementary school, middle school and high school were in turmoil for almost the entire decade, it is conceivable that we did not learn anything at all. In name, high school graduates were actually not as good as today's junior high school students. Almost all those who took the college entrance examination that year It was rushed into battle less than two months after the country decided to resume the college entrance examination.
It only took me less than two months from registration to entering the examination room. I had to review Chinese, mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, and politics throughout high school. I had no foundation and no review materials. In the examination room, I faced one after another , Advanced Algebra, , Physics, and Chemistry test papers, and I almost turned in a blank.
I seem to have answered a few questions about Chinese and politics. I remember that the title of the essay in Anhui that year was "When We Sing the East Is Red". I scraped it together and wrote a few hundred words. There was no doubt that I failed in the college entrance examination.
The day after I returned from the exam, I joined the production team to work. I would go out early and come back late every day, carrying loads of fertilizer and running around in the fields. It seemed that I was venting my anger, hating myself for being useless and incompetent. Seeing me torturing myself in this way, the members who worked with me also tried to persuade me to take it easy and be open-minded.
Just like that, under the overload of work, my physical strength gradually failed and I fell ill within a few days. At this time, an old man came into my heart. His name was Wang Yewang, who was also a so-called "cow ghost and snake god" at that time.
Before liberation, he and several young men from the same village also followed fellow villager Zhang Zhizhong. He was so smart and flexible that he was promoted from squad leader, platoon leader and finally to deputy company commander of the guard company soon after the army. Because he was a bad guy wearing a hat and was subject to surveillance, the old man was always taciturn and seldom communicated with others.
He has a son who is the same age as me, a young man who graduated from middle school and returned to his hometown. We have a good relationship on weekdays, and I often go to his house to play in my spare time. During that time, I was very depressed. The old man saw this and often came to my house to chat with me.
He taught me that getting into college does not happen in a day. As long as a person has perseverance and perseverance, the ultimate goal will be achieved.He also told me the story of Mr. Zhang Zhizhong, who abides by his mother's motto "bite ginger and drink vinegar": When he was 16 years old, Zhang Zhizhong went out on his own with 24 silver dollars that his mother had scraped together.
Before leaving, his mother asked him to "bite ginger and drink vinegar" and told him that he must be able to withstand all the bitterness and bitterness in the years to come. Only by going through hardships and not forgetting the roots can we become adults and establish careers.
From then on, whether he was being looked down upon by others, being starved of food by the "backup police", or holding a high position with great power, Zhang Zhizhong always abided by his mother's motto "bite ginger and drink vinegar", self-examined his body and mind every day, and lived a clean life. Be a human being.
During those gloomy days, it was with the patient guidance of my aunt, my whole family, and other villagers, including this old man, that I gradually got out of the trough. In March of the following year, I signed up to join the army. After passing the physical examination and political examination, I successfully received the enlistment notice. Before leaving, the old man told me about his experience as a soldier and how new recruits adapt to life in the army. night.
More than forty years have passed. When I think about my life of jumping in line, I can never forget my aunt’s family and the folks here, and their simplicity and kindness.
