In the north, ondols are very easy to see, especially in the countryside, where every family is indispensable and absolutely standard. Rectangular or adobe or brick made, almost occupy 1 2 area of the room, the inside is connected to the fire pit of the stove house, whenever the stove is burned, the hot smoke will pass along the inside of the fire kang to the chimney, so that the kang will be warm, this is also the cheapest, most practical and safest way of heating for ordinary people, especially in the era of the last century, the fire kang handed down from generation to generation by the ancestors plays a pivotal role.
My hometown is a small fishing village on the coast of the North China Plain, and although the cold in the 70s and 80s was slightly inferior to that of the three northeastern provinces, the long winter and the cold wind were also terrifying. And there are no mountains and forests and trees to provide abundant fuel, and even the dead grass that ignites the fire is dragged home by manpower in the distance, so even if there is a stove, there is no effective fuel, or there is no extra fuel expenditure in addition to cooking, so since I can remember, the house is also cold and swishing in winter, and the only thing that can have a little temperature is the heat of three meals a day, as well as the warm earthen kang in the master bedroom. So at that time, we all wore thick clothes during the day, and at night we could take off our bulky cotton clothes and lie down in the warm quilt easily, day after day from the beginning of winter to the beginning of spring.
Mother in the winter to do housework, mainly the whole family three meals a day, so the stove three times a day fire, so the kang is always warm, but not too hot, only when the mother steamed steamed buns, sweet potatoes are more fire-intensive, the kang will be more obviously hot, most of the time is just not cold or just a little warm. Every day after dinner, my mother would lay out the futon early, that is, let the residual heat of the kang cover the quilt, so that it would not be too cold when we burrowed into the bed. And I was afraid of the cold since I was a child, so the kang head (the closest place to the stove and the easiest place to get hot) belonged to me.
The kang of the old house in childhood is made of adobe, the top is smoothed by mud, and then a layer of bamboo mat is spread, moisture-proof and dustproof, and the bamboo mat is covered with a layer of cotton made of kang quilt, in order to prevent dirt, the top is covered with a layer of plastic leather, which is both smooth and dustproof and waterproof, and it is OK to wipe it with a wet cloth when it is dirty, especially if there are children at home, it is too practical.
The east and west sides of the kang are connected to the wall, the south is connected to the window, and the east or west is generally next to the stove, commonly known as the kang head, which is the "** lot" of the kang, which is hot. On the other side is the kang, which is often equipped with a kang qin as standard, which is used to store the bedding of the whole family, at that time, it was a necessary furniture for young people to get married and start a family. When I was a child, my father was a carpenter, and he played the kang qin, all solid wood, and the glass inlaid with colorful green patterns on it, which now seems very fancy, but at that time it was the most eye-catching decoration in the monotonous house.
The fire kang in the countryside has a wide range of uses, especially in winter, and ordinary people only have the kang as a relatively warm place, so three meals a day are solved on the kang. In order to be clean, the mother first spread an old cloth larger than the small dining table in the middle of the kang, and then put the low small dining table on the cloth, and then put the food on the table, beckoning the whole family to sit around the dining table to eat.
And the most common thing to do in winter is to weave fishing nets, I have been weaving nets with my mother for as long as I can remember, mother and daughter sit side by side on the kang, and at first my mother weaves in front, and I chase behind, and soon I weave nets faster than my mother, I am in front, and my mother is behind me;Sometimes my mother told a little joke, and more often I listened to the very small radio at home, but the speed in my hand never slowed down, and these warm scenes are always evocative. The fishing net changed from short to long day by day, and finally the net head hung on the kang, and we couldn't spread it when we sat on the kang, so we had to tie it up so that we could continue to weave on the kang. Day after day, after all, it is a large fishing net, which is woven on this less than 10 square meters of soil kang to complete.
In the middle of winter, the weather is very cold, and sometimes the heat is insufficient at night, so my mother will fry some sunflower seeds for us in the name of burning the kang, and my grandmother's family will plant the kind of small oil melon seeds in their own yard that is a little longer, but the seeds are full of small oil melon seeds, which are very fragrant when fried, so that the kang is burned, and we are brought snacks, and soon the house is filled with the burnt smell of melon seeds.
At that time, the neighbors had a close relationship, and neighbors often came to visit the door at night during the winter leisure period, so the uncle and aunt in the front yard entered the house with a cold air and hands in their sleeves. Parents are busy greeting, have you eaten?Let them sit on the kang, at that time the highest courtesy to entertain guests is to invite the guests to sit on the kang, the aunt happily took off her shoes on the kang, chatted with her mother, and the father and uncle sat opposite each other on the edge of the kang, also talking about the topics they were interested in, smoking paper cigarettes, drinking some hot water, and the room was suddenly lively and warmer. When I was a kid, I loved this kind of atmosphere the most, quietly snuggling up to the side, quietly listening to the adults chatting.
If it is said that the most important drama of the fire kang is the busy year, when the countryside enters the wax moon, the flavor of the new year is getting stronger, and every household begins to steam the noodle flowers (the local noodle flowers are already an intangible cultural heritage, which has been described above on the homepage). First of all, the first thing to do is to make the dough, the mother will add the old yeast noodles the next night, put it at the head of the kang, after a night can be fermented, the next day the mother will roll up the kang quilt early, revealing the kang mat, this is my family's steamed noodles every year so "start ceremony".
The whole family goes into battle, according to the steps to make it, neatly placed in the warm place of the kang head, let it go to the second proofing, and then steam it in a large firewood pot, at this time the kang mother must ensure that it is hot, otherwise the noodles are not good to rise, and the steamed noodles will be like raw, the appearance is not good-looking, and it is not auspicious. And the kang also has to be hot, because a batch of noodles to be divided into several pots of steaming, and then three meals in a row, so the stove fire almost does not stop for a day, and sometimes the mother also intends to open the kang to prevent the danger of too hot. When the fire kang is hot, the whole house looks warm, which should be to set off the atmosphere of the New Year.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, the local custom of eating dumplings will put a cannon battle, of course, there is no ban on that year, my father prepares a firecracker with the largest number of heads every year, and puts it under the fire kang quilt in advance to remove the moisture, so as to prevent the firecracker from extinguishing the core in the middle, and the sound of burning is continuous, deafening, indicating that the coming year will be prosperous and loud. When the dumplings came out of the pot and the cannons in the alley rang out, my father took out the firecrackers from the kang, and we hugged my father to the front of the gate, until we covered our ears and were shocked by the sound of firecrackers.
Until I grew up, when I left home, every time in the middle of winter, I came home with a cold air, and the first thing my mother always encouraged me to lift the kang quilt and stuff myself on the kang head. As long as you sleep in the warm kang head for a night, you can worry about your cervical spine and waist, and the thief who is ironed by the residual temperature of the kang head is comfortable, and the accumulated troubles in your heart will also disappear. I didn't realize it at the time, but later I realized that it was the greatest happiness in my life that family affection brought me!
Later, I gossiped with my son when I was a teenager, I said that your mother's biggest hobby is to have a real kang in her later years, I like to sleep on the kang, and I have no regrets when I can leave this world in a warm kang, my son laughed, and replied very formally, your old desire is really too high, then I have to work hard from now on, and I have to study hard for your kang Xi--- we all laughed.
The fire kang, it is the plot of my life, because I am physically and mentally exhausted, I have felt the family affection from the warmth of the fire kang, smelling its slightly scorched earth breath, so that the disturbed mind is at peace for a moment, maybe it will disappear from my life, but the comfort I have received will accompany me for a lifetime!