Speaking of lime pulling is still in the spring of forty years ago. I was just over 10 years old at that time, and our family still lives in three thatched houses in the west of North Street Road. Because of the disrepair, the roof will tick raindrops when it rains, so it must be covered. In the past, building houses and building houses were inevitable, so my father had to go to the county town to find someone to pull lime. So, my father had to borrow a small donkey cart from the Beiguan Village production team to take me to Mingshui to pull lime.
That was the first time I took a donkey cart to the county town. My father used to drive a livestock cart several times when he was sent to Xiaojiaying from Weifang City , so he was not unfamiliar with it. Little Donkey is also very obedient. As long as you can shout "Da'er, oh, whistle," a few command words. It turns out that "天" means shouting that the animals are driving normally, "天" means speeding up, "天" means turning, "天" means stopping, and "天" means retreating, and the animals understand it. We were also very happy to see the scenery along the way in the donkey cart.
The speed of the donkey cart is not as fast as that of a bicycle. It took two and a half hours to travel over 30 miles. It was not too early to arrive in Mingshui, and it was almost eleven o'clock. My father said to go to the cafeteria of County Hospital first, and ask my grandfather for a snack before going to the lime kiln. When I left, I tied the donkey cart to the horse-drawn stone and took out the feed and water I brought to feed the donkey. The main thing is that you have to rely on the donkey to pull the cart, so you can't treat it badly. Just like my father and classmates, they were mistakenly labeled as rightists and were sent to the production team for transformation, driving small donkey carts to pull manure every day. Later, the donkey died of illness, and he cried so hard that his nose was full of tears and said that his father had never been so sad even though he died. Because the donkey died, he was going to pull a cart as a donkey and started to suffer. Do you think he could not cry? At that time, the county hospital was still very desolate, and Taohua Mountain was full of potholes. The grandfather was responsible for making and cooking . Seeing that we were very enthusiastic, he quickly made an extra dish, and each person cooked two, so we had dinner in the cafeteria. That was the first time I had such a delicious meal. There was meat in the dish, and it was really delicious. I cooked it for a while and then went in.
After dinner, we drove the donkey cart to find the lime kiln, paid the money to issue the invoice, loaded the truck by ourselves, and then started walking back.
When I came back, I still walked to Lujia Village, all the way to Qilangyuan Village, and then to Lijiating Village, and it felt very far away. My father said that an acquaintance gave him a charcoal ticket worth 500 kilograms, so he found an car and went to the small coal mine to pull carbon with his mother. In the past, when the planned economy was planned, there was no charcoal ticket and no money, and no coal could be bought. The two of them loaded charcoal from the small coal mine next to the Langgou Coal Mine. The father drove the shaft and the mother pulled the tripod belt and headed northward. This was also the way. It tastes bad for people to use as livestock. My father is 88 years old this year. He said that he has never weighed more than 90 kilograms. Pulling a cart at a size of 1.5 meters is a pain for him. Although he didn't pull much, he was small and weak, and it was very difficult. Although my mother used to be strong and not lose weight, she was not in good health at that time. While resting in Lijiating, I met an acquaintance blacksmith Lao Yuan and his wife on the road. They pulled a thousand kilograms of coal and played. I really don’t know, I’m shocked, this is the gap.
We pulled the lime to our home, unloaded the cart, and returned the donkey cart to the production team. This time I drove a donkey cart to the county town to pull lime, which has become an unforgettable memory for me.
