After the "resurrection" of the old well, it became a nostalgic landscape. Picture provided by the author
I travel around the world all year round and return to my hometown less and less often. However, as I grow older, I miss my hometown more and more. When I chat with old friends and have a drink, the topic is always about the plants and trees of my childhood. In my sweet dreams late at night, I always see scenes that I have never paid attention to before, which remind me of memories from time to time. Especially the old well at the door of the old house that I don’t know was dug in what era. I don’t know how many childhood memories it carries.
In 1982, I just started to remember. In my memory, my grandparents always quarreled over the cost of food and clothing at home. One time, they had a particularly fierce quarrel. Grandma shouted, "I can't live anymore." Then she ran to the old well at the door and followed the windlass rope down into the well. There is a lot of space inside the old well. After going down the windlass rope, there is a small platform facing the water where people can sit. But I didn’t know it at the time. I cried and begged my father to go down and get grandma. Grandpa also panicked and kicked my father: “Why are you still standing there!” Dad and grandpa hurried out and after a while, they were still crying. The lying grandmother was helped into the house. Later, my grandma told me that she was trying to scare my grandpa. However, since then, grandpa ordered us children never to go near the well again.
In the first year after the land was divided, our family had steamed buns to eat. My two brothers and I stole a few steamed buns from the basket hanging on the beam in the hall while the adults were not at home. We also each got an empty wine bottle, tied the mouth of the bottle with a string, and hoisted it up from the old well. With a bottle of water, a mouthful of steamed buns and a sip of water, he straddles a wooden chair and shouts "drive", pretending to be a hero who eats meat, drinks a lot, and rides a horse to the end of the world. When the adults came back from working in the fields, my two brothers "suffered". Grandma was beating her brother with a broom, and she was noisy as she chased her: "The white buns are for the adults to work for. You boys eat them secretly every day, and you will all go to work in the fields tomorrow!" What else was going on? , I can’t remember clearly, but it probably means that there is not enough food to eat, and it must be left to the people who work first.
After a few years, the water in the old well became a little muddy and yellow, with a fishy smell. The same situation happened in other wells in the village. The stinking water discharged from the slaughterhouse in the west of the village flows through the small ditch in the south of the village. It not only pollutes the water, but also attracts mosquitoes and flies. One day, the strong laborers in the village blocked the sewer of the slaughterhouse. Later, every household could receive mosquito killers and disinfectants distributed by the slaughterhouse. However, the smelly water was still flowing, and the water in the old well was still muddy and yellow... Looking back on that era now, it was really an explosion of private small businesses. In the 1970s, the village was more than ten kilometers in radius and was dotted with various small businesses and workshops such as slaughterhouses, paper mills, chemical plants, and non-staple food processing plants. In this way, the villagers could only drink the muddy yellow well water. Although they no longer had the trouble of lack of food and clothing, they also lost the joy of living a prosperous life.
Later, perhaps due to drought or over-exploitation of groundwater by surrounding factories, the old wells dried up from time to time. Neighbors jointly invested money to drill a small hole at the bottom of the well, installed a water press (a simple human-powered water pump ), twisted the windlass at the wellhead to one side, and installed a second layer of water press, called a "double-cylinder water press." Water Pressure Machine". In this way, the villagers can get water again. Although the water quality is not good, it is better than no water at all.
Fortunately, within a few years, the village implemented a safe drinking water project, and towerless water dispensers delivered sweet deep well water to every household. The old well also completed its historical mission and was sealed up by the village.
Later, the party and the government paid more and more attention to environmental protection, and small paper mills and small chemical plants in the surrounding areas that polluted relatively were closed down one by one. Although I don’t know if this will make the water in the old well clear again, it can be regarded as a consolation to the old well.
In the past two years, the village has been promoting the improvement of rural living environment. My father said that there was a lot of noise and asked me to go home and take a look. I couldn't wait to run back to my old house, and unexpectedly, I saw the old windmill again. Could it be that Laojing was "resurrected"? When I took a closer look, I realized that it was just a shallow pit dug at the original well, and the well rope was installed to create a nostalgic landscape. Even the big millstone was returned to its original place and turned into a landscape. I don’t know who was the caring person in the village who collected these old things until now.The ruins near the old house disappeared and were replaced by beautiful gardens. I excitedly said to my dad, "How about we renovate the old house and use it as a villa?" My dad smiled and said, "Why don't you raise money quickly?"
This old well has witnessed the development and changes of my hometown. , on the road to common prosperity, I want to say to the "resurrected" old well: "Your old man came to see you again!" I didn't know that the old man left at the bottom of the well was still stained with the scum of my mouth. Is the wine bottle audible. (Zhu Xiaolei)
