The earliest old house in the family is an adobe house with three small rooms. The outer wall of the house is rammed with raw soil, and the inner wall is adobe pressed with pond mud and straw. The interior wall of the house is Guanyin soil, and then painted with white ash. The roof is inclined, because the family is poor, and the Chinese fir used as a beam is not a little thicker than the arm, especially thin; You can't afford to use wooden purlins, so wrap two small bamboo poles with straw ropes instead. The arc-shaped red tiles covered above are made in our village, and the front and back are interlocking. Some beams have been bent because of the heavy burden. After a long time, the straw rope has rotted, few tiles have fallen off and broken, and the walls have long been mottled. In the rainy season, there is light rain in the rainy house outside, the cauldrons and buckets leak everywhere, and sometimes the water is scooped out of the house. The danger of house collapse is often a worry for parents.
Although the old house is low and shabby, it is a paradise for me to grow up. 197 1 On the 14th day of January, my mother gave birth to me in the old house after experiencing the pain of dying. Looking at me as thin as a kitten, the midwife shook her head and said, I'm afraid this child is difficult to raise!
As the old saying goes, "the emperor loves his eldest son, but the people harm him", not to mention that I am a sick son! At that time, the family was poor, and it was often impossible to open the pot, but the nutrition had to keep up. Mother took a clay pot, simmered the rice, added lard that others couldn't eat, and then fed it to me spoonfuls. Sometimes, my father will take something from the outside to mend it for me. Once, my father bought a turtle and said that it could cure bed wetting and let my mother simmer soup for me to drink. Somehow, the tortoise turned into black charcoal. For this, my father complained for a long time, and my mother talked about it for many years. Just two days before my death, my mother was very happy to see me coming back to see her. She ordered a big bowl of cold water, soaked the cake I bought for her in water, stirred it carefully with a spoon, and came up to me trembling with a bowl in her hand: I didn't drink turtle soup that time, but this time it was simmered, so you have to drink it! I took the bowl and my eyes were full of tears. Isn't the mother's seemingly abnormal behavior showing her love and guilt for her son?
My mother loves me, and I am famous for everything. I can eat what my brother and sister want to eat but can't. Brown sugar in the cupboard, roasted seeds and nuts hanging on the beams in winter, will be hit by anyone who moves. My brother and sister were so greedy that the red sugar jar was empty in a short time. The bag hanging in the air has been dug hole after hole, and the bag has shrunk a lot. My mother knows I did it.
It is precisely because of my mother's "preference" for me that I was introverted and shy when I was a child, and I especially liked my mother, and I have been ridiculed as "pants wrapped (worthless)!" Speaking of blushing, I breastfed until I was three and a half years old. Sister said that her mother was exhausted after a day's work. I had a good time, but suddenly I fell into my mother's arms, letting others laugh at me and just burying my head in breastfeeding. My mother and I slept until we were eight. I wouldn't want to sleep with my second brother if I wasn't afraid of classmates' jokes. Because I am used to my mother shaking the cattail leaf fan for me all night in summer, and I am used to her holding me for warmth in winter. I often tease her and warm her bed. In my childhood memory, I often sat alone on the threshold waiting for my mother to come back from work. At that time, my mother was my God, my sun!
My mother never hides her love for me from my sister. Whoever is kind to me will be praised and rewarded, or she will nag me. When my parents gave birth to me, I was in middle age. They are worried that they are old and their youngest son will go to school and get married without anyone to take care of him. My baby's name is "Le Jier", which is the common name of Lao Yao in my hometown, but it also means needing the care of my brothers and sisters. My parents have high hopes for me. Two people often discuss my future. One said that Le Er should study hard and become a Buddhist in the future! One said that working in a big factory is not bad! Anyway, you can't nest in the kiln (village). Finally, after all, I hope my brothers and sisters can help me in the future.
In the mid-1980s, big brothers and big sisters were married one after another. The second sister and the third sister went to work in the ceramic factory in their hometown. The situation at home has improved, and my parents have saved a little money, so they tore down the original adobe old house and built a new house on the basis of the original place. The roof is thick with Chinese fir purlins, and all the red tiles have been changed. The interior walls are white, which looks tall and majestic compared with the old houses. Mother looked at the new house and smiled from ear to ear: "Great, my son (second brother) and Joy will be able to marry good wives in the future!"
Sure enough, a few years after the completion of the new house, there were many happy events at home. The second sister married in Xinjiang, the third sister also found her husband's family, and the second brother also found a satisfactory bride. Three years later, I got my wish and became a member of the Great Green Wall in the northern frontier.
Later, the fate of my family, like the whole society, experienced a period of hopeful but turbulent years. First, the ceramic factory in my hometown closed down. Except for me, I suddenly lost my job and had no place to live. My brother and brother-in-law worked everywhere and paid countless times of hard work, but they couldn't get back a few money; Sister and sister-in-law look after children at home, waiting for odd jobs to make a living; After all, the sick father didn't get through it and left his mother. At this point, I just joined the work. Although my income is not high, it is relatively stable. I brought some money back to my mother from time to time, and finally got through that difficult time.
I have been home many times from work to marriage. Almost all the holidays were spent in the old house, and I also had deep feelings with the next generation of family members. No matter which brother or sister's children are, they respect me very much. Every time I go back, the shouts of "Uncle Xi" and "Uncle Xi" come face to face, which makes me crooked. When my mother and brothers and sisters saw me coming back, they were even more overjoyed. I was surrounded by a feeling of happiness, so that when I was disappointed, I always thought of the warm old house and my relatives living in it, and all the setbacks, difficulties and frustrations disappeared.
After I got married, I went back to my hometown less and less, but my old house still occupies a heavy weight in my mind. During the Spring Festival, I will take my wife and children back to live for three or two days, so that they can also feel the excitement of Chinese New Year in the countryside and the enthusiasm of relatives. At this time, my mother is still in good health. Every New Year's Eve, she will burn a big tree bag to keep the old house warm and let us keep warm. My sister and brother-in-law took the children, my second brother and my two families, all around my mother, making a scene, eating snacks, chatting and watching the Spring Festival Gala.
The life of the second brother's elder sister's family is getting more and more prosperous. They bought a new house in the county and moved out of the old house. The elderly mother still insists on living alone in her hometown. She said that houses in rural areas are spacious and there are all kinds of vegetables and activities. More importantly, there are old folks and sisters who have lived with her for decades, and she is reluctant to leave.
On weekdays, my old house lives with my mother, carefree and lonely. On holidays, our family met to go home, and the old house was briefly lively, and my mother's smile accumulated into wrinkles in these days. In the wave of watching us return to the city, my mother's wrinkles will slowly spread out again, and life will be calm again.
Mother is getting older and older, and the old house is getting worse and worse. I have long lost my tall and handsome image. It looks so low and shabby in the modern small buildings around, which seems to be synonymous with leaking rain, humidity and darkness, but the old house is so stubborn. And my mother refused our invitation to go to town again and again, insisting on living in an old house and living a poor but enjoyable life.
At the end of last year, my mother was seriously ill and had to go to the county for treatment. However, every day is a holiday, and the doctor told us that the old man's time is running out, so we should take good care of her. In accordance with my mother's wishes, I took her back to the old house. My brothers and sisters and I took turns to take care of her and spent the last time with her.
After my mother died, my old house became an empty room. Without my mother's old house, there would be no feeling of dreaming, and our spiritual home can only be hidden in memory. ...
(Postscript: My elder sister, second brother and nephew discussed with me that we plan to build a new small building on the original site of the old house in a few years, and our family will live for the elderly or on holiday in the future. I agree with both hands on this. After all, the fresh air and beautiful rural scenery in our hometown make us nostalgic, and the deep old house complex in our hearts makes it even more difficult for us to give up! )