When grandpa married grandma, he only carried a bag of flour, half a bag of rice, and gave grandma five yuan. Then he pulled a cart and married grandma back home. At that time, we were poor and had no choice. Those who stuttered could get a wife. My father was only 15 years old w

When grandpa married grandma, he only carried a bag of flour, half a bag of rice, and gave grandma five yuan, so he pulled a cart and married grandma back home.

was poor at that time and had no choice. Those who had and stuttered could get a wife.

My father was only 15 years old when my grandfather passed away, and he still had three young daughters. Grandma told my father: From now on, you have to help your mother support the family. You are the boss of the family and you have responsibilities.

At that time, food was tight, and my father had a big appetite. A pot of rice was often not enough for the family of five. Grandma ate very little. In order to ensure that the children did not starve, she often went to the field to dig sweet potatoes with her head, and the ground was already full. It has been turned over many times, and sometimes grandma is lucky enough to pick up two pieces.

All the edible wild vegetables in the field were taken into grandma's pocket. She was always busy working tirelessly to prevent the children from going hungry.

’s family has a large population, but even so, everyone still doesn’t have enough to eat. The situation in the village is also similar. Every household is short of food. At that time, it was good to have a stutter.

The father eats a lot, and there is not enough rice in the pot. The three sisters are so hungry that they cry, but the grandmother does not feel sorry for the three daughters at all. Every time she says: Let your eldest brother eat, he has to work, let’s go hungry. fine.

In order to fill their stomachs, the three daughters learned to go to the vegetable fields to steal cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, anything that could fill their stomachs.

Every time, grandma led them to the door to apologize. After all, apologies cannot be used as food. As soon as grandma entered the door, she knelt down and cried: Next time my family has food, I will give it to you. The child is young and ignorant.

A widow with three underfed daughters always makes people feel pitiful, so few people care about grandma. Everyone knows that grandma is an honest and responsible woman.

One day, three aunts happily gave grandma a ladle of white noodles to steam and eat steamed buns.

Grandma picked up the stick and beat them. The snow-white flour was scattered on the ground, and they cried. It was earned by the three aunts who went to Zhang Da's house in the village to work for a day on the weekend. The eldest aunt and the second aunt took the hoes to hoe. On an acre of land, my sister-in-law pulled grass all day long.

The hands of all three of them were worn out, especially the sister-in-law's hand, which had four or five cuts. The three children returned to the house crying and did not eat supper.

Grandma picked up the flour bit by bit from the ground. She blew it again and again, but she still couldn't get rid of the dirt in the flour.

I steamed a large pot of steamed buns with soil that night. None of the three aunts ate them, nor did my grandma. My father ate four of them alone.

The next morning, grandma secretly took out six hot eggs from her arms and placed them on the beds of her three daughters, two on each quilt.

Grandma sat on the bedside with red eyes and said: Mom is incompetent. My three girls have suffered a lot. You can’t eat well with your mother, and your mother beats you. I also want to die early like your father. , but my mother can’t bear to leave you.

Her tears fell down as she spoke, and she wiped them away quickly: "Don't be angry with your mother. Your mother has wronged you. If the three of you starve to death, your mother will not live either."

The three daughters looked at the eggs next to the pillow. They only had eggs to eat on their birthdays. Where did these eggs come from? Questions arose in their minds.

"Mom, where did the eggs come from?" the eldest daughter said.

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't my mother who stole it anyway. Remember not to tell your brother."

My three aunts devoured their two eggs. They all choked and hiccupped because they ate so fast.

The mother and daughter reconciled this morning.

Grandma never said where those six eggs came from, but according to my aunt, she probably got them from a canteen on credit. Later at the end of the year, she sold her hair to repay the money for the eggs.

At that time, most rural women had short hair.

After my grandfather passed away, my father worked in a nearby brick kiln. He was young and weak, so he was responsible for stacking bricks at the beginning. That is to say, after the baked bricks were cooled, they were stacked into piles. The money earned by stacking bricks was less. It was only a dime, and at first my father could not stack a few piles a day, but this little money was an important pillar of the family.

My father’s three younger sisters have to go to school. My grandmother usually does some farm work for a wealthy family to earn some food. She also raises some chickens and feeds two pigs. She can barely make ends meet, but her life has always been tight.

When my aunt sold her hair for the first time, she didn’t cry. Grandma couldn’t bear to take the money, so she said: Mom, let’s have a good meal!

Once sold, it will take several years for the hair to grow, but what can be done? You can't eat your hair if you keep it long, but short hair makes you look more capable.

With the money, grandma will buy some delicious food to reward the children, and the remaining money will be given to grandma.

Later, my second aunt and my second aunt also sold hair.

After a year, my father stopped palletizing the bricks in the brick kiln. He started pulling bricks. Pulling bricks was a laborious job. He used a cart to pull bricks. There was a rope in front of the cart and hung on his shoulders. He held the pole with both hands. , push your shoulders forward, and pull a cart of bricks for seventy cents.

cars are equipped with the kind of wet adobe , which is heavy enough to crush a man's waist. My father was shirtless every day, bent over, gritting his teeth and pulling hard.

Oxen are usually used to pull heavy objects on carts like this, but who can afford an ox? In rural areas, men are the cattle of the family.

The people who worked in the brick kiln were all older than my father. They taught him step by step: Do not use brute force at the beginning of pulling the bricks. Put your right leg forward, push your left leg on the ground, don't bend down, and use your shoulders and legs at the same time. , hold the round poles on both sides with your hands. You must be slow at the beginning, walk at a constant speed, and the water must flow slowly.

Every time when he finished his work, his calloused hand picked up a pen and wrote tremblingly in the notebook: I pulled 25 cars today and earned 17.5 yuan.

"Yesterday it was 23 cars, the day before yesterday was 23 cars, and the day before yesterday was 20 cars. Tomorrow we will try to pull 30 cars." The father was thinking beautifully.

My father was 16 years old that year.

with pictures

My father’s job requires a lot of shoes. He wears out three pairs of shoes a month, and the soles are all worn out. Every night, grandma would stay up late to collect the soles of my father's shoes. Grandma was clever, quick-witted, quick-sighted, and she could always keep up with the speed at which the soles of his father's shoes were worn out when she made new shoes.

My father made several wooden insoles. When the soles were about to wear out, he tied the wooden insoles to the soles with wires. In this way, the soles could last for a few days, but my feet were sore every time I came home from work at night. .

Grandma would boil water to soak his feet. When she found out that he tied the wooden insoles to the soles of his shoes, she became angry: Mom has made the shoes for you, but don’t be stupid and tie that thing again. If you twist it What should you do if you have a broken foot? Mom is not afraid that you will not be able to earn money for the family, but she feels sorry for your foot.

Later, he still didn't listen to his grandmother's words, and still occasionally used wooden mats, but he promised his grandmother that he would protect his feet.

My father was also growing at that time. People in the village said that my father could grow taller, just like my grandfather. However, things went against my wishes. My father did not follow my grandfather's will, and he stopped growing after he reached over 1.6 meters.

Grandma often said: My father was hit by a car and he never grew taller.

The brick kiln is not far from home, and my father comes home for lunch every day.

If I ask you, how long does it take to steam a pot of rice? I think everyone will tell me the answer: that is about half an hour.

Before cooking, grandma has to start the fire. There is always enough firewood at home. Grandma gets up early and carries it across the building to the fields to collect it. She washes the rice, adds water, makes a fire, and then puts the sweet potatoes that grandma picked up in the pot. A meal of rice takes about half an hour to steam. Grandma will be busy for more than an hour back and forth.

But my father only eats hard rice that has only been steamed for 15 minutes.

If the rice is only steamed for 15 minutes, then the rice will be half cooked. Why would my father like to eat half cooked hard rice?

Grandma also forgot that her father started making this strange request from that day.

My father rarely ate at the same table with his family. Every time he came home from work, he would fall asleep on his bed. Sometimes he would fall asleep as soon as he fell. Grandma would have to shout several times to wake him up. .

When grandma cooked the meal, she would first serve a large bowl to his father, and then bring the food to his bedside. After his father rested for a while and recovered, he would get up to eat.

Grandma was really biased at that time.

The daily dishes at home are Chinese cabbage and pickles. In addition to these, grandma will make another dish for my father every time, such as scrambled eggs, pickled cucumbers, and occasionally a little bit of meat.

Every time she would secretly fry it and put it in her son's room. When her daughter saw it, she would say: Mom, you are partial, give it to my brother and not to us.

"If you can pull bricks, mother will feed you." Grandma said.

Although every meal is cabbage, the family eats very delicious food every day. There is not enough cabbage every time, and there is not enough rice. Grandma is always the last one to eat. When there is no food, she will make hot porridge and eat a steamed bun , but there is no vegetable. If she eats it, eat some pickles.

She can always cope with it like this. She always says: I am not as delicate as you, and my mother likes to eat whole grains.

"I just like eating steamed buns." She always said this.

Until many years later, I would buy some steamed buns for my grandma every time I went home. Nowadays steamed buns are more expensive than steamed buns.

Grandma looked at the steamed bun and said: Are you going to give this to grandma? I can't help crying when I think of Wotou.

I didn’t understand what grandma meant. The aunt beside me turned her head and cried.

Grandma always said: Remember your work well when you work, so as to save them from counting our wages.

For this reason, the family has two work notebooks, one for my father and one for my grandmother. Every time my father gets off work, my grandmother will ask him: How many trucks did you pull today? Mom will write it down for you.

"I pulled 35 cars today, mother." said the father.

"What about yesterday? Let me see if I remember correctly." Grandma said.

Father said: It was also 35 cars yesterday, mother.

After the grandma remembered it in her mind, she went to find her daughter. The grandma never went to school and she couldn't read. She always asked her daughter to record her work.

"Remember your brother's work. It's 35 cars today, and it was 35 cars yesterday."

"Remember it, mother."

"Let's do it again, don't miss it."

html When the wages are paid at the end of March, grandma will I gave my notebook to my father and asked him to read a pair carefully. My father's handwriting was sloppy and my aunt's handwriting was delicate, but the number was never wrong.

also wants to talk about why my father likes to eat half-cooked rice! That started shortly after he pulled the bricks.

When he returned home at noon that day, the rice was not yet cooked, so he asked his grandma: Mom, please give me a bowl of rice.

"Silly boy, it will take half the time for the rice to be cooked."

"Today, one of my older brothers told me that hard rice is delicious, and I want to try it too." After he said this, grandma still didn't serve him the rice.

My father had no choice but to fill a large bowl by himself, and grandma had no choice but to let him go.

My father was eating half-cooked rice and said: Mom, it seems that they are right, hard rice is fragrant. Please remember to help me serve it in advance tomorrow.

"Don't listen to other people's nonsense, and don't get upset."

Father smiled and did not argue with grandma.

Grandma always lets her son and daughter eat first, and when they finish eating, she will eat what they have left. When the rice is gone, she eats some steamed bread and pickles, and when the porridge is gone, she drinks some water.

Every time I eat all the fried vegetables at home, grandma pours the steamed buns and porridge into the vegetable soup and eats them together.

I don’t know why my father also started to make leftovers, always leaving less than half a bowl.

Every time my grandma cooked for her father alone, he couldn't finish it. Grandma couldn't bear to eat the leftovers so she gave them to her three daughters. The daughter disliked her brother and wouldn't eat the leftovers. In the end, grandma solved it herself. She often complained: You are still hungry, but you are too young, and you still feel disgusted that we are all part of the same family.

Later, after grandma cooked the vegetables, she would leave half a bowl alone. She said to her three daughters: This is not what your brother left. Can you eat it?

From then on, the aunts no longer said that grandma was partial, but my father would still have a little leftover food. Grandma always blamed him: It’s just a little food, and you can’t survive after eating it. What’s the use of leftover food?

My father always said: I am full and I don’t want to eat.

My father’s leftover food was all eaten by my grandma. There was never any waste in this family.

said that back to the hard rice that my father loved to eat, my father reminded my grandma for three days in a row before she remembered it.

From then on, every time she steamed rice, grandma would look at the time. At fifteen minutes, she would lift the lid of the pot and fill a large bowl of rice for her son.

After that, it became a habit for my father to like to eat hard rice, and my grandma was also used to it. Every time she steamed rice, she would serve it to him in advance, and then add water to the rice. Don't add too much water before, otherwise the rice will not be hard.

My father likes to eat hard rice, and my grandma likes to eat Wo Wotou . This has become a common knowledge in our family.

Every time his father gave money, he would give it to grandma. He only kept a little money for cigarettes. He had no other expenses except smoking. Grandma always advised him to smoke less. He always said: What fun is there if you don’t smoke? I have no energy to live.

At that time, my father could earn about 500 yuan a month. This is why the family did not collapse because my father worked like an ox.

At that time, most girls in the village dropped out of elementary school, but the second aunt and sister-in-law went to junior high school. The family has to repay the money that grandpa borrowed for medical treatment every month. Grandma never dared to spend her father's salary arbitrarily. She always planned to spend it and tightened her belt to live.

Half of my father's wages are used to pay off debts, and the other half is saved by my grandmother. The money she earns from farm work plus the money she saves are used for her children's tuition and daily expenses. If it is not enough, she will take it from the money she has saved.

A few years later, the family's debt was finally paid off, and the family finally breathed a sigh of relief. My father cried, and so did my grandma.

When I feel unwell, my grandma always says: Drinking water can cure all diseases.

Every time my grandma had a cold, she would drink two large thermos bottles of water, and she was indeed cured the next day.

Before the three aunts got married, they sewed clothes for others in the village's workshop, and all the money they earned every month was given to grandma. The family's life finally became better.

At that time, the family still had two adobe rooms. Grandma and her three aunts lived in one room, and my father lived in another room. Life went by day by day, and the family had some money left.

I can have a good meal occasionally. My grandma also likes to eat white flour steamed buns. She always says that the steamed buns are delicious, but she never said they are unpalatable.

At that time, every household in the village had a better life.

After the eldest aunt and the second aunt got married, grandma gave all their bride price to their father: it was time for our house to be renovated.

My father did not pull bricks for half a year. He demolished the old house, dug the foundation, bought cement, bought bricks, etc. He did it all by himself. My aunts often came to help, and occasionally fellow villagers came to help.

At that time, many new styles of flip houses emerged in the village. I heard from the villagers that our flip house was very fashionable and one of the best in the village.

The two adobe houses at home were turned into four large red brick houses. My father lived in the big room, and my grandmother and sister-in-law lived in a small room. Because my father was already old at that time, and he would have to live in a big room when he got married.

Every brick and tile of this new house was pulled out by my father's shoulders one by one, and it was also saved bit by bit by my grandmother through her teeth.

Grandma often said: If you don’t have enough food and clothing, you will suffer poverty if you don’t calculate it well.

Everyone said that my father’s waist was a bit hunched, and they said that my father was not tall. Those were things only young people like me would say. People of my grandma’s generation and my father’s generation all understood what they had gone through.

Later, the brick kiln where my father worked closed down, and my father was not idle. He went to the factory in the town to unload goods, which was also laborious work. Unloading a truck of goods cost 10 yuan.

After getting married, my father often ate at home with his friend who had worked together before. One time, his friend’s words explained the reason why he ate hard rice.

He is more than ten years older than my father, so I call him uncle. During the meal, grandma brought a bowl of hard rice to my father. When the uncle saw this, he also said to grandma: Auntie, give me a bowl of hard rice too.

"You are different from my son. Your mother said you have a bad stomach, so don't eat hard food," grandma said.

"It's okay, Auntie, I'm used to it."

Grandma brought two large bowls of hard rice to the table.

I asked him: Uncle, why do you still eat hard rice? I have eaten my father’s hard rice and I couldn’t bite it.

He said to me sincerely: Your father and I used to pull bricks together, but he always got hungry midway. When he was hungry, he had no energy to work. If he didn't have the strength, he would pull fewer bricks and earn less money.

I said: "Can't you take a break when you are tired? You can eat when you are hungry."

"Son, you can't take a break when doing our job. Once you take a break, you will lose your energy. Your father asked me at that time why I wasn't hungry? I told him He said four words: "Eat hard rice" "But hard rice is not easy to digest!" "

"But hard rice resists hunger."

At this time, my father patted my head: You know. You just talk a lot.

I suddenly understood why my father liked to eat undercooked rice, and I also understood why my grandma liked to eat steamed buns.

If I could travel through time and space, I would really like to see my father pulling bricks when he was 16 years old, and I also want to see my grandma when she was young.

wishes to pass on love.