I lived in two courtyards from childhood to adulthood, and then to joining the army and leaving home.
The first courtyard is in the middle of the village, and it is shared with other families. The second courtyard is at the south end of the village.
At that time, when I moved from the first home to the second home, I was six or seven years old.
I don’t remember the whole process of moving, but I still remember clearly that it was one morning, it was just dawn, and I was carrying a dumpling to move things to my new home. I was weak at the time and the things I was carrying were a little heavier. To the west of the main gate of the Zhao family, I rested for a while on a stone under a wall.
When we moved to our new home, there were only a few families living in the south of the village, and then there were more and more families.
This place, Xinjia, turned out to be a dish. There are only three short and old east rooms, and the two on the south side are a set, which is called the small east room. The two rooms in the small east room are separated by a house wall and divided into an inner room and an outer room. The one to the south has a ceiling. The ceiling is empty. It's dark inside and nothing can be seen. The room to the north of the small east room is independent and contains several large urns containing grain, working tools and other messy things. The grass I cut back then was dried in the sun and then tied into bundles and placed in this room.
Next to this house is a pigsty. The two pigs mentioned in the article "Pig Weeding" grew up in this pigsty. To the east of the east house are some shabby houses and corridors of another family. No one lives in it and few people go there. Especially at that time, there were a lot of weasels. They like this kind of place the most, where they can live and shelter. You can often see them. haunt.
The silt behind the north and east houses of my house is a dense passage for weasels, which often appear. So people often set up cards here to catch weasels .
Because of these factors, it gave me a gloomy feeling, which made me afraid to even go to the east room alone. Needless to say, if you go at night, even if you go during the day, you should make some noise first to build up your courage, such as coughing, knocking on the door, or consciously using a little force when opening the door to make the door make some noise. When I entered, I didn't even dare to look at the ceiling. I hurried out after finishing my errands. When you are about to go out, you have to turn around and look into the house, for fear that something may be following you. When he saw nothing, he closed the door and left.
As for the ceiling, the dialect in our hometown is called Xu Peng. Whether it is the word "Xu" cannot be determined.
I think it's probably because it's empty. Indeed, the top of the empty shed is empty, with a hole left. It is dark inside and can be used to put things, but very few things can be put there. Under normal circumstances, only the inner room is turned into a virtual shed.
Speaking of virtual sheds, it reminds me of a story. It is said that there was a man who was learning carpentry. The master taught him all the carpentry work, except the crotch part, because this part is more complicated. It was the master who taught him all the carpentry work. The master's special skills are usually not taught to his disciples, for fear that the master will lose his job.
In the old society, there was a saying that "the disciple of the church will starve to death of the master". Therefore, in the past, the masters had to save one hand. Every time they hit the crotch, the master would give it up for various reasons.
The apprentice knows the master's thoughts well. In order to learn this last skill, the apprentice came up with a plan and asked for leave to go home. The master thought to himself, silly boy, I was just hoping that you would not be here, so God helped me, so he took out the unfinished spanking and finished spanking the crotch.
The next day, the apprentice came back and said goodbye to the master, saying that he would no longer learn to be a carpenter. After hearing this, the master felt puzzled and thought to himself, what a stupid boy. He has not learned his true skills yet, so he will stop learning. Sooner or later, you will have to come back.
Actually, the apprentice climbed up to the tent early on the second day and secretly watched the master slapping the crotch, and learned all the techniques of .
Every time I think about this story, I feel like it happened in the small east room of our house, and it may have something to do with my fear of that empty shed.
Actually, my eldest brother’s family lived in Xiaodongwu, and later moved to Xishan, so the house became vacant.
In my memory, the third brother and the fourth brother slept in the small east room, but not for long. At that time, I don’t know if they were afraid or not. Anyway, I didn’t dare to live there. Even if they lent me the courage, I wouldn’t dare.
The current North House was built for us to live in. There are three rooms in total. The room at the east end, called the inner room, is separated by a house wall. There is a door in the wall of the house for easy access.
A table is installed against the east wall of the doorway of the house. This table was originally a low table, that is, a half-height table. For convenience, my father tied four pieces of wood similar to the thickness of the legs of the low table to the four legs of the low table to make it taller. A large piece became a normal table. It's a bit like a child stepping on stilts and suddenly becoming as tall as an adult.
The room is divided into two, with a corridor in the middle. To the south of the corridor is a kang, next to the south wall. There is an old-fashioned window on the south wall, with several window lattice vertically erected and two wooden bars crossing the middle. Throughout the five winters and six summers, the windows were covered with a piece of paper to keep them warm and protected from the wind. Over time, the window paper will crack due to wind and sun. If it is not glued in time, sparrows will take advantage of the gap and fly into the house.
In the middle of the north side of the kang, there is a coal stove, and a chimney leads out of the east wall at right angles. The chimney at that time was made of clay, and one section was about sixty or seventy centimeters. It takes about six or seven knots for a chimney to reach the outside of the wall. When following the chimney, make sure it is vertical if it is vertical, but not too flat if it is horizontal. It needs to be at an angle, that is, it must be greater than 90 degrees.
This is because the stove is burned with a fire, that is, a mixture formed by adding water to coal and soil in a certain proportion. It has a certain amount of water and will produce distilled water when burned. If the horizontal chimneys are parallel , the distilled water will flow out through the chimney joint. In order to solve this problem, the outside of the chimney is usually made high and the inside is low, forming a slope to allow the distilled water to flow into the furnace. During the backflow process, the distilled water will evaporate at high temperature.
Sometimes distilled water also flows out, either down the chimney or directly dripping to the ground. To prevent it from dripping into the ground, tie a string to the filling bottle and hang it from the chimney. When the bottle of distilled water is full, remove it and pour it out, then hang it up again.
The stove in the room is usually lit after the weather has cooled down. It is mainly used for heating, but also for boiling water, cooking, and warming rice. Sometimes it also makes millet or corn porridge, but it cannot be used for cooking because of fear of oil splashing. On the kang. In order to eat more sweet potatoes, and of course to make it taste better, when making corn porridge, put some small sweet potato pieces on it.
At that time, people had to go to the slopes to prepare land and work until the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. At that time, there was a jingle that said, "Work until the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, and eat the steamed buns (dumplings) before starting."
Therefore, the hands and feet are often cracked and frozen. After working during the day, and having dinner at night, I would use a washcloth, scoop out water, put it on the stove, simmer it while scalding my hands or feet, and add pig pancreas from time to time, one to remove dust and the other to heal. At that time, I heard that sparrow droppings were effective in treating bruised and cracked hands and feet, so I picked some and used them as pig pancreas. After using
, I didn't see any special effects. Because the old skin on the feet is very thick, especially on the heels, the cracks are very severe, like a child's mouth. In order to make the crack heal quickly, use the blade of scissors to scrape the old skin on the heel while the old skin is softened by the heat. After scalding your hands or feet, apply some Continental moisturizing oil to moisturize your skin.
Sometimes, white tape is still put on the crack. Despite this, the hands and feet were still cracked. Because you have to work with your hands on tools every day, and sometimes you have to lift rocks and soil, and you have to wash your hands and get water when you get home. If you don't wash them thoroughly and protect them well, your hands will become chapped, split, and cracked. And the feet have to be walked every day, and the heels are at the nerve endings, so the blood circulation is slow and they will split.In short, at that time, people worked outdoors for a long time and did not have good protection measures. It would be strange if their hands and feet did not become chapped, split, or cracked! This phenomenon gradually disappeared until spring began.
To be continued.
