(1) Watch open-air movies
A friend sent me a WeChat message asking me to set a time to watch a 3D movie together. "One stone stirs up a thousand waves", I can't help but recall the scenes of watching open-air movies when I was a child.
In the sixties and seventies of the last century, many rural people were still worried about firewood, rice, oil and salt for three meals a day, and their spiritual life could be called poor and white, and people were repeating the life of "working, sleeping, working and sleeping again" all year round.
Fortunately, at that time, each commune (now called "township" or "town") had a temporary screening team, which went to the village and went to the hospital to show the people who were tired of watching the films that the city people had long been tired of watching. Being able to watch three or five open-air movies a year was a spiritual feast that rural people enjoyed at that time.
The news of the movie often spread a few days in advance, and when the communication was extremely backward at that time, we little children naturally became important disseminators of the good news of the screening.
Usually in the afternoon, far away, the movie box with the projector and the film is swaying over. The children who were watching at the entrance of the village ran away, running through the streets and alleys, shouting loudly: "Play a movie!" With the sound of hurried footsteps, the sound of joy and joy spread from the cobblestone street to the old courtyard house, to the newly built brick house, the young lady who washed the vegetables put down the vegetable basket, the big aunt who did needlework put down the soles of her shoes, and the old uncle who carried the dung also smiled.
Every corner and alley of the village will leave us running, and the sharp and immature sound will pass through the ridges of the fields, climb over the small mountain beams, and I hope that people from all over the world will come to share this rare joy. I still remember that Hua Yatuo next door once spent an afternoon, walking back and forth for more than 40 miles, and called a team of cousins and cousins from my grandmother's house to watch the movie.
On this day, the adults were also as excited as a festival after hearing the news, and they worked much harder than usual. After finishing work early in the afternoon, I was busy with dinner, no matter how tired and hard the day was, there was a movie waiting, and all the tiredness would disappear in this beautiful wait.
To watch a long-awaited movie, location matters. Occupy an ideal position, that's the preserve of children. After the screening team entered the village, from the three or five-year-old children to the fifteen or sixteen-year-old children, they began to scramble and intensify the "battle for position," and the "main weapons" such as small benches, small bamboo chairs, square benches, and benches would all come in handy. The place next to the projector is a "golden treasure" for everyone, because sitting here can clearly see the projectionist's operation process and the details of changing films, which is enough to satisfy that little curiosity. In order to prevent the "position" from being attacked by surprise, many "masters" with high vigilance sometimes brought an early dinner by their family members or companions to solve the problem in a hurry on the "position."
Once we had our seats, we jumped around and around, either lining up the stools, sitting on one or the other, or playing games in the stool array. Of course, it is inevitable that some older children will occasionally have a "war of aggression" in order to occupy the territory that the younger children have already occupied.
As night fell, the snow-white curtain hung up, the projector lights came on, and crowds of people crowded the vantage space of the large flat into close proximity. More and more people gathered, and the peripheral ones had to stand, unable to stand, and some climbed to the small trees on the big flat and stood on a small pile of scattered red bricks. Everyone called friends, and it was more lively than the New Year's holiday.
Eventually, an image appeared on the screen, and the noise gradually subsided. However, the voices of people who knock melon seeds and peanuts, those who eat sweet potato fries, adults coaxing children, grandchildren translating for grandma, and parents who are late to find a place are still endless. When the slice was changed, the noisy sound sounded again, like popcorn frying the pan. The child stands on a stool, as if trying to watch the projectionist's movements and the crowd around him, in fact, to attract people's attention, hoping that everyone will see him high above. But unfortunately, people don't pay special attention to any one person, only the young lads pay attention to the beautiful girls, and form a small circle around them. And the men and women who have already met each other will also take advantage of this excellent opportunity to whisper and make small movements, and some of the fleshy words that they usually dare not say and the intimate actions that they dare not do are often realized in this environment. Indeed, many good marriages at that time began on the movie scene.
After the film was screened, we reluctantly returned home, and our mood was difficult to calm down for a long time. Lying in bed, my mind is still methodically reproducing the images of the film.
When I arrived at school the next day, the content of the movie was the subject of our imitation and debate, who was good and who was bad...... If you watch a martial arts movie, every time you talk about the highlights, you will dance with your hands and feet, which will attract the eyes of those students who have not watched it to shine with envy, and the pure vanity will be satisfied to the greatest extent at this moment...... With the development of the times and the popularization of television, open-air movies have gradually stepped out of the public's field of vision. Our generation has to seal these old things in the cellar of memory, and under the action of the two catalytic enzymes of time and emotion, they are fermented into a strong and mellow "Cascade Garden Chinese Restaurant". Even if it is opened inadvertently, the fragrant fragrance emitted can make people intoxicated.
(2) Walking on stilts
Reading Su Shi's lyrics "Fixing the Storm" at night, one of the sentences "Bamboo canes and mango shoes are lighter than horses", I suddenly thought of stilts. Walking on stilts was a common form of entertainment in childhood, and I still feel endless fun when I remember it.
In the countryside, bamboo and wood resources are abundant, and stilts can be made from local materials. We cut the bamboo from the back mountain (of course, the branches of miscellaneous trees can also be, but not more straight than the bamboo, and it is more troublesome to make, not commonly used), the bamboo should not be too thick, the hand can hold it well, and then go to the head and tail to remove the branches and leaves, and cut the middle section, about four or five feet long. Two or three knots away from the stilt, two forked short branches must be left, and then wrapped with dense thick straw, which is the foot pad, which is comfortable and soft to step on.
Our head is nicknamed "five naughty" (fifth in the family, the ghost is naughty, because of this name), the technology of making stilts is well-known, he makes stilts not only durable, but also beautiful and generous, to the interest, but also on the stilt on the pattern or pattern, is very chic, everyone scrambles to grab it.
It is not difficult to say that it is difficult to step on stilts, but it is not easy to say. When I was a beginner, it was difficult to maintain my balance on stilts, and if I was not careful, it was inevitable to sprain my legs and feet. The timid often retreat after several tosses, but when they see others stepping on stilts and walking high, they are envious. Walking on stilts requires courage and guts. The three fierce men in the backyard are short but have a brute strength, and when they take other people's stilts, they step on them, step on them, fall down, fall down, and step on them again...... In less than a morning, the stilts were stepped on with great eyes, which made everyone admire this self-taught person so much.
After learning to step on stilts, we often use stilts instead. A group of people went to the left village and the right courtyard in groups for a ride, wandered in the alleys, and walked through the small roads in Qianmo, which were vast and magnificent, and the villages and villages left our majestic and heroic figures.
In order to improve our skills, we also consciously stepped on stilts to climb the slope and cross the river. Stepping on stilts is always running around, which is too monotonous. So, everyone changed their ways to play tricks, such as golden rooster independence, obstacle races, and backward walking...... And the most exciting and exciting thing is the kicking game.
Sunguping is a commonly used place for competition, and there are various ways of competition: individual soldiers go to the meeting, with a battle of the people, two armies against each other...... "individual soldiers go to the meeting" is a comparison of strength and technology, the disparity in strength, three or five rounds will be known; If you are equal, you attack me, defend me, advance and you retreat, and it is difficult to distinguish between the superior and the inferior for a while. "Fighting the crowd" is to pay attention to strategy and tactics, the side with a large number of people is often a combination of frontal attack, side pinching and backside sneak attack, causing the opponent to be attacked on all sides; A lone fighter is not an idle person, he does not panic in the face of danger, he does not panic in his position, seizes the opportunity to attack his weakness and rushes out of the encirclement, and then lures the "enemy" to chase after him, and then turns around by surprise, and with one foot in the air, sweeps away his "horse" and falls on all fours. At every exciting place, the onlookers let out bursts of cheers, shouts and cheers, which was very lively. At the end of the game, the winner was complacent, and the loser was obsessed, thinking about the next "revenge".
If it rains, the country roads are full of potholes and mud, and it is inconvenient to go to school and return home, then stilts can come in handy. We are stepping on the scenery all the way, and we are refreshing and loose stepping back, which can not only make the shoes and pants not sticky, but also attract the envy of the girls, especially the tacit permission of the adults, we are more and more happy to do it.
Although today's children are no longer unfamiliar with stilt walking, and are immersed in cartoons and computer games, our nostalgia will always linger in our hearts, because after all, it accompanied us through a wonderful childhood.
(3) Pumping the top
Every day after dinner, I would go for a walk in the county seat of Zijiang. Walking up along Linjiang Road, there is a wharf, which is not large in size, and all of it is paved with marble. Usually the boat is rarely unloaded, and some middle-aged and elderly people have developed it into a fitness place to specialize in pumping spinning tops one by one. There is no need to get close at all, and the sound of "crack, crack, crack, crack" can be heard from more than half a mile away, and the sound is crisp and rhythmic. Every time I pass by, hear its voice, and watch its deeds, it will bring back my memories of playing with spinning tops in my childhood.
At that time, spinning top was the most common and favorite entertainment activity for our rural children, for two reasons: first, not to break the bank, all made by themselves; Second, the safety factor is high and there is no danger, which is deeply recognized by adults.
As the name suggests, the equipment for pumping the spinning top is inseparable from the whip and the spinning top, and these raw materials are inexhaustible in the countryside.
At that time, palm trees were planted in front of and behind the house, and a palm leaf was torn from the tree, torn into many thin strips, and then tied into a finger-thick handful, tied to the end of a small wooden stick, which became a whip (those who had aesthetic pursuits would also tie a small piece of red silk on the wooden stick to attract people's attention).
Making a spinning top shouldn't be so casual. First, the selection of materials should be cautious, and the stem or branch of miscellaneous wood (the material has a high hard density, and the rotation is stable and does not flutter), with a diameter of 7-10 cm is better, and a length of 15-20 cm is more suitable. The second is to make fine, if you want to have a handy spinning top, it does take a lot of effort, and you need to have a certain amount of effort. The upper half of the top must be a regular cylindrical shape, and the lower part of the small part must be a standard conical shape, and the tip of the cone that lands on the ground and the center of the circle of the upper end of the circle surface must be on the same vertical horizontal line, so that the made gyro can "stand like a loose bell when it turns". Especially when making that cone, a knife and a file should be particularly careful, and the slightest deviation will be unsightly, and the rotation will not be correct. If you file a knife in your hand, you must be extra cautious, because if you don't do it well, your fingers will be colored and red. Those who strive for perfection will also engrave patterns or patterns around the top and add color, so that the colorful arcs and charm of the top as it rotates are enough to make people admire.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning" is a true portrayal of learning to draw a spinning top, and the most difficult and critical step in pumping a spinning top is to make the top spin up first. There are two ways to do this: one is to tighten the top with both hands and stick to the ground, rotate it with force, and then see the right time to sweep the first whip, and if it is pumped well, the top will "live", and if it is not pumped in place, the top will lose control and fall to the ground and have to start again; The other is to use a palm leaf whip to tightly wrap the spinning top, and shake it vigorously at a certain height from the ground, and the spinning top will start to rotate under the action of inertia, and then lose no time in swinging the whip to hit it "alive". These "starting" actions don't seem difficult, but it's not easy to do, and it also scares off some people.
After this practice is done, turning the spinning top is a matter of "seeing a big thing". The speed of the spinning top is controlled by the frequency of the whip, but the competition between the masters is not faster than the spinning top, and only when the spinning top slowly rotates to the east and west, or even almost stop and fall to the ground, immediately come to a big sweep whip, the top immediately "comes back to life", Fang shows the stunt of "turning the tide in the fall", which can establish its status as the "rudder (top) master" in everyone's minds. If a person can spin several spinning tops at the same time, and can play many new tricks, it will definitely make people admire and admire, and regard them as "big heroes" who stand up to the sky.
The selection of the top should be flat and smooth, and the cement floor in the village is undoubtedly a good place for us to release our childlike fun. A large group of children often gathers here, forming a formation and getting carried away. Watching the spinning top, listening to the crisp sound of the whip, accompanied by the shouts of the participants and the cheers of the onlookers, it has become a noisy country entertainment park. If there were three or two beautiful little girls to join the team, then everyone would be more energetic and interested, and that hazy consciousness and innocent display were innately undisguised.
Pumping the spinning top is actually hard work, we were playing without restraint at that time, often a pump is most of the day, after stopping, back and leg pain and hand cramps, but do not dare to "complain" to the adults, for fear of incurring a number of falls. But the next day, as long as you see everyone free and easy, your heart will itch, and you will join in like a ghost, it's really "good scars forget the pain", this may be an alternative interpretation of "childlike innocence", everyone smokes spinning tops together, and sometimes there is some trouble. If some ghost wild children see that others are swishing and swishing and stealing their own limelight, they will deliberately sweep or step on it, causing others to spin the top in the "dead ground". The spinning top is "dead", and strife is born, first with mouths, and then with kicks and fists. Fortunately, the child has a poor memory and a big temperament, never has an overnight "hatred", today he fights to feed and scream, and tomorrow he plays and laughs like water, and time flies. The children of that year have now gradually entered the ranks of middle-aged and elderly people, and it is rare to find a relay person who is interested in the folk entertainment of "pumping a spinning top". Every time I think of this, I can't help but have a few hidden worries in my heart: when we enter the twilight of our life, where do we go to find the crisp and pleasant sound of whipping the spinning top (4) swinging
Reading the Song Ci, I found that the ancestors liked to associate the "swing" with the beauty, such as Su Dongpo's "swing in the wall, the road outside the wall, the pedestrian outside the wall, and the beauty in the wall laughing", and the anonymous "young in the field, the beauty on the swing frame"...... After reading it several times, I couldn't help but wonder in my heart: Could it be that swinging thousands of years ago was just the "patent" of pretty women, and why did the "gender discrimination" of this entertainment activity be abolished later
Of course, this is just conjecture, and it should not be true. But in any case, the good childhood of my generation is often spent dangling on the simple and agile swing.
When we were children, we didn't have the treatment of "entertainment consumption", so we had to find our own ways to fill the time outside of study and labor. Swinging is easy, and you can rely on your own hands to solve the activity equipment, which is undoubtedly a favorite entertainment for everyone.
The materials used to make a swing are simple, and the process is not complicated. We usually take one or two bundles from the haystack on the upper floor of the pigpen and take them to the hall or the front lawn of the house, and start to do it like a girl weaving braids. At first, one person "took the lead", and when the weaving reached about one meter, another person (in order to speed up the weaving speed) was added to weave with his back to him. Most of the time this weaving is done by girls, because they have a talent for it. Braiding straw rope seems easy, but in fact, it is also a technical job, and the braided rope should be tight, symmetrical, and smooth, so as to effectively ensure the safety when swinging. The length of the straw rope depends on the height of the hanging place, which is no more than the beam on the old yard trough door or on the straighter, thicker branches of the big tree.
"A good horse with a good saddle", and the seat cushion of the swing we are not very particular, generally after the straw rope is hung up, the bottom part of the thick straw (to prevent strangulation of the little buttocks) on the line, "luxurious" a little bit with a small plank instead, we will also make up a "grandiose" reason for this practice: the village lion village dance.
Swinging is a little tricky, but it's more about guts and courage. Some novices (especially girls) who "try the knife for the first time" sit on the swing, and they can only swing up by inertia after being pushed by others one or two, and they (they) are often unstable due to timidity and fear, and they are so scared that they shout and even cry with a discolored face, until they are hastily "dismounted" with the help of others. In the process of swinging back and forth, or deliberately shouting loudly, or pretending to make exaggerated grimaces, or shaking their heads and kicking their legs from time to time, or suddenly a short time in the air...... In short, he "does everything", constantly changing his actions to show off his "coquettishness", trying to attract the attention of onlookers.
The swing is mostly a one-man singing "one-man show", but the bold and skilled sometimes come to a "duo combination", and the situation is still vivid: I see a person sitting upright on the swing and a person standing, or both people are standing facing each other, and the force is balanced in the tacit cooperation. The two of them sometimes smiled, sometimes looked sideways, sometimes squatted or stood to change postures, and sometimes waved to everyone with one hand...... The swing swayed vigorously, and the elegant figure that flashed by made everyone envious.
Children are very interested in the comfortable work of playing "swinging". If there are few people, you can enjoy it. If there are many people playing, you will have to queue up. Feng Shui takes turns, waiting for you to be helpless! Some "clever ghosts" want to cut in line or swing one more time, and often give some "small favors" to the little owners of the swing, this "bribe" consciousness is really human nature! There are also some "bean ghosts" who like to play some pranks, and when others are swaying leisurely, they unexpectedly push from behind and throw them high all at once, scaring people to feed and cry and cry dad and call mother, while they laugh and then hurry. But if this scene is discovered by adults, the "bean ghosts" will be severely reprimanded, in case of an accident, it is not a joke......
Nowadays, in some modern playgrounds, children can still be seen swinging leisurely and happily enjoying a wonderful childhood. Seeing their smiling faces and hearing their joyful voices, we feel as if we have returned to the past.
Author: Xie Wei, born in the countryside, has been cultivating the altar for more than 20 years. Once a vassal elegant played with words, he didn't grow much and ended hastily. In recent years, he occasionally wrote some words on a whim to express life and spirituality, which were scattered in newspapers and magazines. Over the years, he is not confused, looks down on everything, talks about words and photography for entertainment, and now works for the Education Bureau of Xinshao County, Hunan Province.