I just read an article about my ancestral house, which brought back memories of my youth. Although the ancestral house described in the article is dilapidated, it is still standing there. The old house is there, it has roots and a rustic atmosphere, which is very worthy of celebration and even cheering.
Although the old house in my hometown is still there, it has been demolished, and in a few years, the old house and the whole village will be gone. Every time I think about this, I feel bitter. I didn't want this feeling to lock me in, so I decided to go out for a walk.
A warm breeze blows in your face. It was the wind of early summer, and the warm wind seemed to be blowing from my hometown, and I smelled the smell of the south from the wind, and I firmly believed that this wind must be blowing from my hometown in the south.
The wind brought me back to the old house in my hometown.
The old house in my hometown is very old. The house is not very tall, but in the eyes of my childhood, the old house was my paradise. The old house is full of all kinds of old things. There are a few old beds older than my husband that occupy most of the old house; There is an old black cupboard in the corner; There is a large half-moon shaped water tank next to the cupboard, and other things such as tables, stools, and granaries are too old to be old. Whenever the wind blows, I seem to hear the moaning and creaking of the house, as if to tell me that it is old by this gust of wind.
I seemed to see the old grandmother moving her little feet to feed the pigs again, her eyes squinting and barely clear, her head full of gray hair, and her face full of wrinkles. The gentleman called: "Grandma, I'm home, this is Dong Li, it's my daughter-in-law......" She hurriedly washed her hands and held my hand tightly, with cloudy tears in her eyes. Those were tears of excitement. Actually, my grandmother saw me for the first time, she didn't know me, but she listened to her grandson's introduction, and after learning that I was her granddaughter-in-law, she came to me and looked at me very carefully, and said happily: "My grandson's daughter-in-law is like the person in the painting, she is really beautiful...... I was embarrassed, but she still held my hand tightly, as if she was afraid that I would run away. I knew that the wind had brought me here, and my grandmother was afraid that I would leave like the wind.
It was a few days after arriving at his house, I have forgotten, his seven comrades-in-arms met in the old house, Mr. was a hospitable man, busy with his grandmother to greet his comrades-in-arms at home to drink, chat and eat, at that time my father-in-law and mother-in-law were working in the production team, so these jobs fell on my grandmother and Mr., although I can't cook, but I can light the fire, and the meal will be ready in a while, so we drank and chatted with his comrades-in-arms, and in the end we were all drunk, it was too enjoyable......
Forty-three years have passed in the blink of an eye. Luckily, Grandma met her great-granddaughter – my daughter – in her lifetime. My daughter has been abroad for twenty years and is already a mother of three. Her roots have extended from the old house to foreign countries, and I believe that in my daughter's memory, she will always retain the shadow of the old house in her hometown.
In fact, each of us is not a bird leaving the nest? It's just that no matter how vast the sky is, it can't contain our little longing for the old house in our hometown. Because hometown is where we come from and our harbor.
I was immersed in my memories, walking alone on the tree-lined path by the Clam River, letting the wind stir my nostalgic feelings......
I met my husband in the summer of 1980, when I was just an ignorant girl, a girl who loved to dream, and loved to write some beautiful words, but in fact, I didn't know anything about feelings. My husband and I met through the introduction of his good friend Instructor Hu, but I don't know why I got his "favor". When he confessed to me, I just felt that he was very handsome and good-looking, so I nodded, and the hearts of men and women at that time were so pure. We see each other every week, and I'm just used to spending time with him, not necessarily for love. But he has a deep affection for me, he is very serious, he is confident, chic, calm, wise, intelligent and very intellectual and generous. And the most real thing is that I leaned into his heart, listened to his powerful heartbeat, and hugged him tightly...... It felt like I was going to hold the whole world.
In mid-April 1981, my husband and I returned to our hometown to get married. I remember that there was a sea of yellow flowers in front of the old house at that time, which was a blooming rape flower. For the next few years, every April, whenever I had time, I would go back to see the flowers, and the large field of rape flowers in front of the door was always in full bloom. My hometown is a typical small village in the south, and every morning when the mist is shrouded, the smell of cooking smoke over the village has been lingering in my heart, and the tempting smell of rice wafting from the stove of the old house, the smell spreads in the air, and instantly "captures" me who is lazy sleeping.
To the west of the old house, there is a small river that flows, and people wash vegetables and laundry by the river; There is also the song of the hometown, the super clear flute, the flute sounds, blowing the nostalgia, blowing the nostalgia, blowing out the nostalgia; In the middle of summer, the old ginkgo tree in front of the old house is like an open umbrella, covering the sky and the sun, and grandma tells stories under the big tree; The jujube tree in the yard was planted in the spring when Mr. was ten years old, and the jujube flowers on this infatuated jujube tree bloomed one after another, blooming so wantonly, recklessly, and seriously, as if the whole summer belonged to it, and it contrasted with the old ginkgo tree in front of the door, making the old house and those who lived in the old house feel comfortable and leisurely; At the back of the old house are five ginkgo trees planted by my grandfather in the forties and loquat trees planted by my father in the fifties, whose leaves sparkle in the sun
In the evening sunset, the afterglow of the sky adds a warmth to the village and the old house, and the curling smoke is the old house gently calling, it seems to call us: "It's late, it's time to go home for dinner."
Regrettably, the rape field is long gone, and the village is almost ruined. The old house was demolished and in ruins, with only a few old walls standing on the site. Everything is disappearing, and the blackened ruins have written its vicissitudes. How I wish the old house was still so lively, and how much I wanted to hear my sister shout again, my sister, your house is here? I want to listen to the cheerful Yangzhou tune hummed by the fat sister behind the house...... I've fantasized countless times about being reunited with them, and it will be even more joyful, more exciting, and more exciting! But they left this world in the spring and autumn of 2019.
Before I knew it, I had crossed the Clam River Bridge and came to the other side of the river. There is a small boat rippling in the sparkling waters of the calm river. What a familiar picture, it reminds me of when my husband and I were just married, rowing a boat in the small river in our hometown to catch duckweed and hunt pigweed...... What a long-term nostalgia it is, and it is also a deep longing for the bone marrow, and it is the warmest existence in the long years.
The memory of the old house is inseparable from a sad nostalgia - I always think of my sister in my early life, and her lively images are forever fixed in my heart: carrying a schoolbag, walking a small basket, the basket is full of wild vegetables, singing and walking towards me............
Ruins, ruins, ruins. Thinking about this, my heart was heavy, and my legs were like lead-filled and difficult to move forward.
Everything has passed, and now when I think back to the old house, I am already old. For me, the old house in my hometown used to be a collection of memories of my youth, and it was also a place where I wanted to go back. I can only say goodbye to my hometown and old house in my mind with infinite nostalgia.
The old house was gone, and the flat land of the ruins was fading away from my blurred vision. I suddenly realized that the old house in my hometown and I have changed, it is no longer what it used to be, and the old house only belongs to the memory of the thoughts, it will always live in the deepest part of my heart!
My nostalgia is the old ginkgo tree in front of the old house that never has annual rings, although the ginkgo tree is long gone, but in my heart it will never grow old. Although the old house in my hometown is gone, but now when I leave with deep nostalgia, I clearly feel that the old house of my hometown has turned into that thick ginkgo tree, although it is only in my heart, it is enough to warm me and make me feel at ease.
Author: Dong Li, a member of Shandong Prose Literature Association and Yantai Writers Association.