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A few days ago, I went to the theater to watch a movie, and before the time was up, I sat in the waiting area and saw some young people holding a can of golden popcorn and munching it with relish, looking like they were enjoying it. I can't help but think of popcorn fried in the countryside when I was a kid.
In my memory, the master who fried popcorn came to our village;It is mostly in autumn and winter, which may be because just after the autumn harvest, every household has enough food, and business is relatively easy to do. - They carried a pair of burdens, one end was the bellows, the other was the popcorn machine, and as soon as they entered the village, they first shouted: "Fried popcorn!".Then find a relatively spacious place with a windproof wall to lay down the burden, set aside the bellows and the stove, and then use the wood chips that come with it to light the fire.
Soon, there were adults and children gathered over, carrying bags and basins, lining up in order;Standing, sitting, talking and laughing, very lively.
Most of the popcorn cooks are elderly, but I remember an old man in his fifties, wearing a black thread-woven peaked hat, a bronzed face, a little coal stain on the sides of his nose, and a kind smile on his thick lips.
The popcorn machine resembles a large oval bomb, more than two feet long, with a crank handle at the tail and a temperature gauge on the crank.
The old man sat on a small pony, pushed and pulled the bellows with his left hand, turned the rocker with his right hand, and the bulging belly rotated at a uniform speed on the fire.
Occasionally, the old man would stop the bellows, pick up the tongs and poke them into the stove, and add a few small lumps of coal, so that the fire became more vigorous, and the blue flames jumped merrily like the petals of a flower.
When the thermometer showed a certain degree, the old man would stand up and shout, "Firefire—" and the child next to him immediately covered his ears and stepped back.
At this time, the old man aimed the head of the popcorn machine at the opening of a long cloth bag, and then used a wide plastic cloth to pad it underneath, and then inserted an iron rod into the mechanism of the popcorn head to stabilize it, and stepped on the fuselage with his footAt the same time, some sporadic popcorn will be splattered like golden pearls on the plastic sheeting, and the children will scramble to pick it up and feed it into their mouths.
At that time, it was still the era of large collectives, the countryside was relatively closed, and the life of the villagers was relatively monotonousEspecially at the moment when the popcorn is exploded and the lid is opened, a firecracker-like sound echoes in the sky, and the rich aroma of popcorn wafts everywhere, making the village permeated with a festive atmosphere of human fireworks.
It's hard to see popcorn in the countryside now, and you can buy popcorn at any time if you want to eat popcorn. Admittedly, this is a kind of social progress;And the kind and warm nostalgia about fried popcorn will always be cherished in the depths of my memory.
Author: Li Xinquan, member of Guangdong Writers Association, **Writer, Meiwen WeChat***Anchor: Tang Panruo, Production: Wang Yiqian).