There is an old well at the entrance of the old village. From the day I can remember, our family has eaten the water from the well, until the family moved to a distance away from the village, and in the case of inconvenient water, we had to ask a professional drilling master to dig a new well in their own yard, which ended the history of the old well.
The wellhead of the old well is round, about 60 centimeters in diameter, and about 30 centimeters above the ground. The height from the wellhead to the surface of the groundwater is about one meter high, and the water space inside is cylindrical, with a diameter of about one and a half meters. The mud surface close to the water body is attached to the stones of similar size, each with a diameter of about ten centimeters, densely packed like a pimple on the body of a leprosy, which makes people prone to dense phobia after seeing it. However, to the relief of the villagers, the old well provides sweet groundwater for the villagers all year round, and even in the dry season, the well water will not be reduced due to drought, and the water body is sufficient all year round. Therefore, whenever the Spring Festival is approaching, the elders of the village will buy big firecrackers from the street and set off a circle around the old well, so as to pray that the old well will continue to send people cool and sweet well water in the new year.
In the summer of the seventies and eighties of the last century, there were almost no fans, and the pu fan occupied an important position. Fetch a bucket of cold water from the old well and bring it home and put it in the shade of the yard. Whether it is the elderly or children, as long as they are thirsty, scoop up half of the bowl with a bowl and drink it all, it is definitely a natural drink that not only cools down but also quenches thirst. Picking some melons and fruits from the vegetable garden and other necessary summer foods to cool off the heat are also put in the water taken from the old well. Whenever the ice reaches a certain time, take a bite slowly, the sweetness is cool, and the whole body can feel the coolness brought by the old well.
Whenever someone moves out of the village or a girl marries from the village, some of them take fresh water from the old well and bring it to their hometown in a bottle. This metaphor is to remind the migrants to never forget the mountains and rivers of their hometown, and at the same time let them (her) often return to their hometown to see, drink water to think of the source, and do not forget to raise his (her) hometown.
Later, our family drilled a well, and then the village was connected to running water, so we rarely touched the old well ever since. To this day, the old well at the entrance of the village still plays its role, and the nearby villagers use it to wash their clothes or water the nearby vegetable fields, and still exert its due residual heat.