My uncle
Text/Song Gen
It's been twenty-seven years since my uncle left us, and his voice and smile have never left half a step. I've always wanted to write something to commemorate him, the tenth day of February is the birthday of the elderly, and the close-up rough text reminisces about the past, and sends sorrow!
Uncle, in our rural areas in northwest Hebei, it is actually called "uncle (industry)". He was 17 years older than my father and was born in 1922. Grandpa died early, the eldest brother is like a father, it is the uncle who works as a long-term worker for the landlord, and the grandmother has a pair of small feet to mill rice and push the batter laundry quilt for the owner, pulling the father day after day. At that time, my aunt also grew from a "child daughter-in-law" to a mother, so how good a family can my daughter find! In those years, it was more important to pay attention to the right door.
The uncle is tall, one meter and eight miles away, his appearance is tough and unsmiling, but he is kind and kind in his gestures, and his bronzed skin interprets the unique stubbornness and fortitude of northern men.
I heard my grandmother say: "He also had two marriages, and his uncle gave up because he wanted to raise his younger brother", and finally died alone. The children of the poor are in charge of the family at an early age, and when they become a family, they must have the responsibility to protect their families, regardless of themselves.
After liberation, the countryside entered the people's commune, and the production brigade was subordinate to the production team. In that era of being in full swing, my uncle was young and strong, and because of his steadfastness and selflessness, he was deeply liked by the members, and was elected as the captain of the production team many times, leading everyone to cultivate the collective land, and his life naturally changed.
At this time, my father was slowly growing into a young man. The uncle has quietly been anxious about his younger brother's marriage, and often asks people with various relationships to find a partner for his younger brother. Eventually, I met my mother through a friend of his. My mother's maiden name is Duan, and there are 30 miles of road from my village, all of which are sheep intestine roads in hilly areas.
The winter in Zhangyuan Zhuolu is exceptionally long. I heard that it was a spring season, so my uncle led my father to get up early in the morning and went to pick up my relatives with the gifts that my grandmother had prepared in advance. There was a pound of bad cakes, a jacket of coarse cloth with a broken flower orchid, and the trousers were clay jar ash dyed with white cloth themselves, and a bag of dried fruits, so later my father often teased my mother, you are what I exchanged for dried fruits. The specialty fruits of my village include betel fruits, sand fruits, and fragrant fruits, but my grandmother's house does not have them. They arrived at their mother's house in Xiaoxieyang Village at about 11 o'clock in the morning, and when the neighbors learned that this was the brother who had come to marry their daughter-in-law, their faces were full of question marks with surprise, and only they knew what they were thinking.
I heard that when my father saw his mother, he blushed and snorted, and he forgot all the words that his uncle taught him along the way, which is actually normal, who has seen this kind of battle in a young man of seventeen or eighteen! At this time, I saw my uncle say to my grandfather with a sincere face: "Uncle in-law, although our family is poor, it is a serious family, after the child arrives at our house, I promise to treat her like a sister, please rest assured." As it turned out, my uncle's promises were all fulfilled. At that time, my mother was only 14 years old, and my grandmother died early, and she was malnourished and in poor health, so she was extremely thin. After the brothers had a simple meal (in fact, there was no sumptuous meal), at two o'clock in the afternoon, the mother changed into new clothes, and the two of them embarked on the way home. The mother was born to walk such a long and difficult road, and several times she couldn't walk, but her uncle carried her on her back, and the father felt that her daughter-in-law couldn't get close easily, as if she deliberately hid far away. At six o'clock in the afternoon, the two returned to our house and went to the well......
Later, because of his father's marriage, the captain of his uncle's fifth production team was dismissed, because the people were liberated and embarked on a new society, and the feudal bad habits of "child brides" must not be repeated, and the toiling masses must not be allowed to suffer from the second recommendation and the second sin. Fortunately, there was a distant relative who served in the production team department at that time, and the matter was finally closed, otherwise the success or failure of my father's marriage was really hard to say. So if someone asks? My brother has grown up, so why doesn't my uncle start a family of his own? What I want to say is: for the sake of his younger brother, he has given up the idea of starting a family, and has already handed over the task of inheriting the family to his younger brother, and he is only responsible for working to earn more work and make the family live a better life.
Every day is still the same as before, the only difference is that grandma has a little tail when she walks there, and she follows her day and night. Time flies, and on the 18th day of the 11th lunar month in 1964, on this cold morning, I cried and walked into the family, my father was at a loss, and the "old lady" loudly reported my gender to my uncle outside the window. The uncle was so surprised and delighted that he didn't even bother to knock off the ashes from his pipe, so he stuffed it into his purse. simply ran into his house and took money for the "old lady". Since I have me, there is more warmth and laughter in the family, and even my father, who is lazy on weekdays, has become much more diligent, in addition to doing the work of the production team every day, I also have to carry water and cut firewood, busy like a spinning top. My uncle couldn't wait to give me the name "Song Gen", which means that there are successors to the Song family who can take root and inherit the lineage.
Although he became a parent, after all, he was only in his early twenties, and his (her) noisy noise, his uncle only turned a blind eye and was silent, but his cold face was already full of reprimands and persuasions. He knows very well that there is no pot and bowl in a family's life. In such a family atmosphere full of fireworks and joys, sorrows and sorrows, the mother gave birth to one every three years, and gave birth to five children in a row. At that time, people did not know about family planning, and there were many children in every family.
After that, the uncle was no longer alone, and when he came out and went in, he either hugged one or led one, and refused to let go as if he had picked up a treasure. At this time, there were already eight people in the family, grandmother, uncle, parents and four of our brothers. The increase in population, and then the burden naturally increases, fortunately, the cost of training the children is not high, not to talk about eating and eating, not to wear no flesh is good, that must also be carefully calculated in all aspects, at this time the uncle showed his extraordinary ability to run the house, the family is well organized, under the conditions at that time, among the children of the same age, our four brothers had a relatively happy childhood.
By the middle of 1982, the rural peasants had completed the trial model of the "contract responsibility system for joint production." My family was divided into 40 acres of slope beam dry land, a big white mule, and other small production farm tools, and my uncle once humorously said: "My family is also a landlord now." At that time, I had just graduated from high school, and I was naturally a good farmer when I came home, which was enough to help my family solve problems, otherwise why would I want my children to grow up. Under the leadership of my uncle and father, my second brother and I are already the backbone of the force that cannot be underestimated, spring sowing and summer hoeing and autumn harvest, the first year of grain will get an unprecedented bumper harvest, more than 6,000 catties of potatoes, more than 4,000 catties of millet, and millet and corn, the family with a lot of grain can not put down, even the night to build a granary, potatoes can not be eaten to sell, millet can not be eaten on the cake, the second year, we built five large tile houses, the third year to order a daughter-in-law for me from the village.
Seeing that the days are getting better and better, unfortunately: in the joy of just solving the problem of food and clothing, grandma has left us forever. She left the home where she had lived for more than 60 years and died at the age of eighty-five. When the grandmother's funeral has just been done, according to local customs, after the old people have passed away, the buddies should divide the family, the land should be divided, even if nothing is divided, the current problems in the family, as well as what may happen in the future, should be put on the table to make it clear while the clerk was present at that time, so as to prevent future troubles. This time, the father, who was not good at talking, said with a serious face: "Brother, you and I have been tired for most of our lives, and we have not enjoyed a day of happiness, and in the future, the children will study, build a house, and marry a daughter-in-law, you will work harder, it is better to take advantage of your strength now, let's separate!" Even if you don't go to the fields, you will have enough food to eat, and all our family's money will belong to you, so that you can enjoy a few days of happiness." When the uncle heard this, his eyes turned red, his tense face turned from pale to purple, and he said angrily, "If it were for my own happiness, would I have spent so many years with you?" If it's for the sake of leisure, why should I ask for hardship! Why do I understand you, children will understand more in the future"! My father choked up, his eyes moistened, and my tears wet my shirt like beads with broken threads.
Later, my uncle's body was much worse than before, he was much older, his hunchback beard and sideburns were gray, and only a pair of deep eyes were still bright. Let him be idle at home, he will not listen to persuasion at all, he will not be able to do tiring work, and he will follow him to the field if he does light work. Like a soldier who was unwilling to put down his gun, a veteran who refused to leave the battlefield, after another two years, my family built four more brick houses, and I became a father, and my uncle and father also became a grandfather. Within a few years, my uncle left this world in his sleep without warning in the season of mountain flowers, leaving us he cared about, leaving his favorite family, and returning to the land he loved...... It was July 1, 1997. My uncle died at the age of seventy-five.
About the Author:
Song Gen, Shangjinggou Village, Luanzhuang Township, Zhuolu County, Hebei Province, is a free choice of employment. Longsheng Jiachen is fifty-five, lives in Shangjinggou in Sangnan, and is a young student who wants to study in Zhuo No. 1 Middle School. Wake up from a dream and wake up in the autumn of destiny. Song Gen, Shangjinggou Village, Luanzhuang Township, Zhuolu County, Hebei Province, is a free choice of employment.