Sand turner is a dirty and tiring job. In the 80s of the last century, I worked as a sand turner for 6 years, and the first thing I did after work every day was to take a shower in the bathroom of the factory. As soon as the towel was pulled into the two nostrils, two dark marks were left, like two black seals that had just been stamped on white paper.
At that time, I was thin, with a long waist and face, and weighed less than 100 pounds. Seriously, asking me to do this manual work is a bit like plowing a field with a dog. It's not that I'm lazy, it's that my physical strength can't match this job. For example, for some small castings, two workers need to carry the freshly baked red molten iron, and let the molten iron slowly pour into the sand mold through the casting hole. Although I gritted my teeth and carried it, sometimes I couldn't lift it, my body collapsed involuntarily, and the two lifting rods in my hands were also thrown on the ground, and the molten iron flowed out, and then splashed out, burning my work clothes and underwear to the ground.
I entered this factory in the second year after graduating from high school and took the recruitment exam. When I was a student, I preferred Chinese, especially writing, and I was a mess of mathematics, physics and chemistry. I wasn't surprised that I failed in the college entrance examination. My father quietly enrolled me in a repeat class, hoping that I would repeat my studies for another year to take the college entrance examination. And I resolutely asked my father to go and return the money, because I would not go. To this day, I still remember what my father said to me at the time: "I told you this, and if you still don't listen, then you can't blame people in the future......”
How can I blame my father?In my 6 years of sand turner, I have never complained to my father about being bitter or tired. This can be regarded as making me truly taste the meaning of the phrase "if you don't eat the hardships of studying, you will suffer the hardships of life".
Slowly, I also adapted to the life of a sand turner. During the day, he was on the sand with the masters, bending his waist and pouting his buttocks. Sometimes it takes the early hours of the morning to open the furnace, and when I hear the alarm ringing, I quickly get up, rub my sleepy eyes, get on my bicycle and run to the factory. After casting, it is also a chore to clean the surface of the casting. In the hot and dusty workshop, the sand boxes are opened one by one, the castings are cleaned out of the inside, the burrs on the surface are carefully knocked off with a hammer, and then the sand adhered to the surface is cleaned little by little with a drill......Whenever this happens, the sweat on my body feels like I have been in the water. The most fearful thing is to do this work in the summer, the weather is stuffy and hot, but because of the need for safety protection, I have to wear a pair of heavy suede shoes and airtight canvas overalls, which is really a bit uncomfortable.
At that time, for us young workers in our twenties, happiness was a simple thing. After getting off work, I made an appointment with three or five workers, bought braised vegetables and peanuts, gathered in the dormitory of the factory, drank and bragged, so unhappy!I remember once after drinking, I accidentally cut my palm by the glass door of my bedroom, leaving a crescent-shaped scar to this day.
After a long time, I Xi used to being a sand turner. But one day, I remembered my hobby of writing when I was a student. So, after work, I no longer knew more than drinking, and after dragging my tiredness, I sat down at my desk and started writing. When an article was published in the newspaper and a snowflake postal remittance slip was sent to the factory communication room, I gradually became a "celebrity", so much so that the factory manager paid attention to me. One day, when the factory manager met me, he said that he was going to transfer me to the factory union as a propaganda officer.
Since then, I've been working hard in the workshop. I think I'm going to say goodbye to this workshop soon. When I went to the factory union, I was sitting in the organ, which was something I never dreamed of. After another half a year, I lived like a year, and I was tormented. I waited and waited every day, and I thought to myself, why didn't the factory director transfer me?Suddenly, I remembered that a few months ago, the factory union asked me to write an article in the blackboard newspaper, and I wrote about a leader of a certain unit who drank at noon every day and came to work in the afternoon with a red face, and I commented on it in the article.
A few days after this article was sent, I met the factory manager in the factory again. I was full of thoughts about the day when the factory director transferred me to the union. Unexpectedly, the factory director didn't say a word, but asked me: "Xiaofu, the article on the blackboard newspaper was written by yourself?""I immediately thought, is the director of the factory suspected that I plagiarized?I replied, "Director, I really wrote it myself!".The director only said, "Oh, that's a good job!."Then he departed with his hands behind his back.
Later, I finally realized the reason why the factory director did not transfer me. It turns out that the factory director often drinks and blushes to work!At this moment, it is superfluous to say anything. I thought to myself, it doesn't matter, I'll just keep doing my sand turner!Unexpectedly, a year later, a county transfer order transferred me to the radio station, and I began my career as a journalist.
More than 30 years later, I still sometimes remember that I was a sand turner. Those 6 years related to youth were written into my life profile.
*: Worker**
Editor of this issue: Sun Zhen.