Chinese have traditionally been tolerant of drinking, especially towards boys in the family. When boys were young, they were often beaten for secretly smoking, so they had a full childhood, but few children were scolded by adults for drinking.
It's the same with my family.
His father said that when he was very young, he was fed by his grandfather or older elders with chopsticks dipped in wine. By the time my generation arrived, I had some scientific awareness, and I probably didn't have the experience of being fed alcohol like this, but I did drink a small amount of alcohol before I went to school, with the intentional or unintentional acquiescence or connivance of adults.
The first thing I drank was rice wine, which was brewed by my father.
My father only had a primary school diploma and I don't know what caused him not to continue his studies. I had never talked about these topics in my father's memory, and I couldn't ask them now. But think about the age when he studied was at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, everything was in ruins, and educational resources were even more scarce.
After not studying, he worked for a time in a winery in Qili.
Probably thanks to that work experience, my father would use traditional techniques to make rice wine. It's just that this kind of rice wine is more laborious to make, and with his alcohol volume and hobbies, rice wine is estimated to be only a drink, and he doesn't make it every year. Whether to do it or not probably depends mainly on his mood, which is quite troublesome.
To make rice wine, the most important raw material is medicinal koji, that is, the wine introduction, which is the soul of rice wine. Without it, you can't make wine. Whether rice wine is done well or not, the quality of medicinal koji is very important. I still remember the appearance of the koji: beige pieces, much like compacted rice bran, which can be broken with a little force, revealing white or red threads that look like mold. It smells a bit of alcohol, but it's more of a fermented taste, and it doesn't smell good. The koji is usually stored in a woven bag and stored in the east warehouse of the house. In summer, when the weather is good, it will often be taken out of the barn and poured into a large flat basket to soak up the sun and ventilate to dry.
Another important ingredient used to make rice wine is rhubarb rice. Mother usually boils a big pot: boiling over a high fire, cooking slowly over low heat, steaming in the stove, rhubarb rice is very viscous and not easy to dissipate heat, and in order to prevent it from sticking to the pot, it is necessary to use a rice spatula to stir constantly in the pot.
The boiled rhubarb rice is porridge-like, fragrant, and more viscous, and it takes a long time to dissipate heat alone. Wait until it has cooled to a certain temperature, then pour in the powdered koji and continue to stir until the mixture is very even. The amount of medicinal koji is proportional to yellow rice, less will not be wine, more wine will be bitter, and the father needs to use experience to judge how much should be put in the portion.
My father and I brothers worked together to carry a clean water tank onto the fire in the Westinghouse.
This cylinder not only enjoys the treatment of the kang, but also occupies the hottest position of the kang head. The winter in the north is too cold, and there is no wine to brew without the right temperature. At that time, the living conditions were poor, and most of the heating depended on kang and braziers. If the vat is placed on the ground, it will freeze.
All the raw materials and a certain percentage of water are poured into the tank. Every once in a while, a large rolling pin is used to vigorously stir the various ingredients in the jar. After a few days, the cylinder was sealed, and the cylinder mouth was covered with a lid, and the paste newspaper was firmly sealed along the edge of the cylinder mouth to prevent a trace of smell from escaping. At this time, various microorganisms interact with each other in the dark world of the tank, looming, there is a rustling sound, and the pure grain slowly catalyzes a mysterious liquid.
My father should have some specific processes for making rice wine, but I didn't remember it at the time, and I have long forgotten it. I only remember that my father seemed to pour some white sugar and high liquor into the vat. Sugar will increase the sweetness of rice wine, and liquor will increase the degree of wine, both for the sake of enhancing the taste.
Soon, the smell of wine could be smelled from the seal of the vat, and after a while, the whole room was filled with a rich aroma of wine.
The time for drinking is usually in the days before the Spring Festival.
The day of opening the cylinder is a joy. Tear open the newspaper and lift the lid, you will see only a shallow layer of milky yellow liquid on the surface of the cylinder mouth, and all the muddy rice milk below. The rice and wine were mixed together, and it was impossible to drink it directly, so my mother took out a bamboo pot rind, washed it and inserted it into the wine jar. The wine flows slowly from the gap between the outer skin of the warm pot, and the glutinous rice is left outside, and the inside is pure rice wine, and the space constructed from the warm pot skin is scooped out one by one with an enamel jar.
The first stubble of rice wine is a little sour, cloudy in color, but very refreshing, slightly sweet, the wine flavor is the heaviest, and the degree is also the highest. Of course, for those who can drink, this degree is not a good thing, and you can drink it in large gulps.
Although I was young at that time, I drank rice wine during the Chinese New Year, and my family never cared about it. This kind of alcohol has a lot of stamina, and if you drink too much, your legs will be heavy and you will feel very tired.
After drinking the first stubble wine, you can add cool white to the wine vask, ferment for a period of time and continue to drink, which is called the second stubble wine. You can drink up to three stubbles, but the wine is already tasteless.
When he first came out of the wine, his father also drank rice wine, but after all, the degree was still too low for him, and after he tasted it, he was still used to drinking white wine; Sometimes, when he came back from playing cards at night, he would go to scoop a bowl and drink it slowly.
Rice wine is a good thing to entertain, suitable for men, women and children. When guests come, sometimes they don't need to prepare food, scoop out a jar, and taste it, which is also a compliment.
In my hometown now, there are people who specialize in brewing rice wine and selling it, selling it in large barrels. During the Spring Festival, my brother and sister's family often buy some hospitality. I drank it at my brother and sister's house, and the wine didn't taste heavy, it was a little sweet, more like a drink. I guess this is no longer a traditional craft, but it is also delicious.
It's just that I remember the kind of rice wine that my father made a little sour, and I never drank it again.
By today's standards, when my father worked in a distillery, he was considered a child laborer. It's not quite clear how many years he worked. Rural people generally report their age when they say that they are false, and he was only about 17 years old when he started working as a teacher, which is the age when children are now in the second year of high school. In those days, many people started working very early. With only a primary school diploma, he became a teacher by chance and has been teaching for more than 30 years.
In the 90s of the last century or even before 2000, teachers in rural areas were staffed, usually with only one teacher per class, from the first grade all the way to the fifth grade (at that time, primary schools in rural northern areas were five-year). The two main subjects of Chinese and mathematics, as well as the minor subjects such as history and nature, are all taught by this teacher, and each teacher is a generalist. In the 90s, the country implemented a teacher qualification system, and my father was one of the first senior teachers and a special teacher.
When I was young, my father should have liked tossing very much.
He used to keep bees, and I was probably very young at the time, and all I have left is a few frames of what I can remember:
Swarms of bees buzz around the beehives under the trees in the East Garden;
playing in the garden, being stung by bees, crying to death, going to find his mother;
In the summer, my father used bees to mix cold water for me to drink, and it was really sweet.
Honey bee farming has obviously failed, and according to my mother, she needs to buy a lot of sugar for the bees to eat every year (the northern winters are long, and the bees have no nectar to collect, but they still need to eat), but very little honey is produced. If the gains outweigh the losses, there will be no beekeeping. I don't know the remnants of the bees** are gone, and only a pile of wooden beehives remains, which are haphazardly stacked in the barn on the west side of the house, covered with a thick layer of ash. In the gaps between the beehives, there are also several broken books that resemble bee farming techniques and the like.
My father also raised Qu Python for a few years, but in the end it was not successful.
The relationship between the parents has always been bad, and they often quarrel very badly. But for as long as I can remember, my father has always been kind to me. The old and young in the family may be favored. I slept under my father's bed until I was at least 9 or 10 years old.
Every morning, my mother would wake up early to make breakfast for the family.
Before the children at home get up, the mother will bring the prepared egg water to the father, which is an exclusive benefit for the father. At this time, I also wake up by coincidence. Then my mother brought me a small bowl and gave me an egg and soup. Occasionally I didn't wake up, and my father would leave me an egg and soup in the bowl to drink when I woke up. Two brothers, one sister, no one seems to have this treatment.
I have to say that the egg water with white sugar is really delicious.
When I was a child, I was probably still before I went to school, and I had a lot of headaches. I was in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep at night. My parents must have used a lot of folk earthworks to heal me. The most impressive thing was that I mashed and mixed fresh sheep dung eggs with some unknown herbs, poured them into a long, thin cloth bag specially sewn by my mother, and tied them wet and tied to my head. Although I can't smell any stink, I always feel wet and itchy and hot flashes on my head, which is very uncomfortable and I can't scratch it. The process was slow and I still couldn't sleep night after night. At this time, my father often stayed up late with me, and under a dim kerosene lamp (at that time, there should have been no electricity in the countryside of my hometown, or when electricity was connected, it was often turned off and the power was cut), and I "looked at the cards".
Look at the cards, is to play the Water Margin cards, the cards are about seven or eight centimeters long, three centimeters wide, plastic material. The suit of the card, cake, strip, ten thousand are one to nine each four, one is called a small fish, other names and mahjong the same. There are three special cards: Qian, Honghua, and White Flower, four each, for a total of 120 cards. One cake and nine cakes, small fish and nine strips, all the ten thousand cards, as well as Lao Qian, white flowers, and red flowers, are painted with portraits of heroes of Liangshan on the front. When I was a child, I was fascinated by the portraits of these heroes countless times, and I often lined up with cards. The playing of solitaire is very similar to mahjong, there are eats and touches, the normal is generally played by four people, there is a lack of people, three people can also play, called three turns.
Look at the cards and look at the cards, as the name suggests, someone at home plays, and you learn to look at it. Father said that when he was a child, his grandfather and a few people looked at the cards, he sold a single next to him (to see the excitement), once the grandfather won the card but did not see it, the father said you are Hu, the grandfather did not believe, and then the father helped the grandfather count one by one. Grandpa sighed and said that after watching the cards for a lifetime, he is not as good as a child, and he can't play anymore, so he will play for you in the future.
Look at the cards must have a color, so this kind of card is of course also a kind of money (gambling) tools, but but among the various gambling equipment, I think the most civilized to look at the cards, the least harm to people, is a small gambling pleasure (the rules of the card are established, the gambling is not big).
Watching cards is my father's favorite, but playing with me is purely to coax me, make me less miserable, and kill time.
I don't know when my father was not as close to me as I was when I was a child. When children are older, they are often not as fun as they were when they were younger. He became more and more serious. Actually, I don't know if he has always been like this, or if he became like this later. In front of his mother and children, he barely smiled and had no words. He was accustomed to frowning and his face gloomy, and when he stayed at home, the atmosphere in the room became particularly oppressive and heavy. His family became more and more afraid to get close to him, and even I would try to avoid him.
His temper also became more and more irritable, and he even ignited a fire, and his arguments with others were often due to a disagreement. At that time, I was very fond of people from my family, especially his relatives and friends. Because there are only two situations in which he is usually happy: one is to have a meal with friends or relatives, especially after drinking, he becomes very active and sometimes smiles. The second is to look at the cards, especially after winning, he will be very happy. Only then will the atmosphere of the home improve.
According to my older siblings, his temper has improved a little since I left home for college, and he has fewer quarrels with his mother. But it's just an improvement, and it doesn't get better after all.
However, he has never failed to care about his family, especially for his children, and he always expresses his love in the way he is used to. His three sons and one daughter, at every important juncture on the road of life, he is an important promoter or participant, and provides important help. However, this love of his is too wordless and is always hidden in serious faces and rough language. It may take years to precipitate, and when you think about it slowly, you can turn it up little by little.
I often think that a mother's life revolves around her father and her children, without herself; And his father has never left his mother's care in his life, and probably the only thing he has failed is his mother.
My father was still a little particular about what he ate. Ordinary people, except for killing New Year's pigs when the winter moon is approaching, only have fresh meat to eat, and most of them have no money to buy meat at other times. At that time, the living conditions of those who earned wages in the countryside were still better. My father is a teacher, and my family eats red food, and I don't have a lot of money, but I still have a little money to spare. Whenever he heard the cries of selling meat, such as cattle, horses, and mutton, my father would shout to buy a few catties. After a long time, some meat vendors drove to the gate of my house, and they often shouted louder.
When the meat is brought back, the mother cuts out a part of it or uses it to fry or stew or make dumplings and buns, and the rest of the meat is packed in a plastic bag, put it in a bucket, and put the rope down in a circle, and when it is close to the surface of the well water, use the rope to tie a knot in the reel. Even in the middle of summer, the old well inside the house is cold and cold, and this is a natural refrigerator that keeps the meat for a long time.
At that time, the quality of the meat was also good, and my mother would make it delicious every time. Every day like this is as happy as a holiday for me. Of course, even if there is no meat, my mother is very good at preparing meals, and she always creates many tricks with her combination of ingredients.
My father has been smoking since he was a teenager, and in the early days, he smoked home-grown tobacco leaves. At that time, the rural economic conditions were poor, cigarettes were not yet popular, and almost all smokers smoked dry tobacco.
On the kang of every house, there is a box full of tobacco and a pile of folded cigarette paper. Cigarette paper is generally cut from newspapers. Some people who come to the door and want to smoke cigarettes take out the tobacco directly from the cigarette box, sprinkle it on the cigarette paper that is held into a curve, cooperate with both hands, press the tobacco with their fingers while rolling, rotate and circle, a cigarette roll appears, the edge is placed on the side of the mouth, and the tongue is stretched out to seal the edge with saliva. The front head is thick, and the back head is thin, a bit like an umbrella after folding. Then I pulled off the handle of the umbrella, struck a match and lit it, took a deep breath, and two puffs of smoke poured out of my nostrils. Most of the people who smoke dry tobacco are middle-aged; And the older people, many of them smoke dry tobacco pouches and pots. I still remember when I was very young, my grandfather walked into the house from outside, my mother helped him onto the kang, he sat cross-legged against the wall on the kang, his mother took a small quilt on his lap, he smoked a cigarette bag, waiting for his mother to bring him a bowl of egg water.
My family also used to grow tobacco in the area near the river. It is a very productive crop, and each plant grows very tall and has large leaves. At the time of harvesting, the tobacco leaves are broken, strung into a string with thread, pulled home with a trolley, and hung on the shelves in the yard to tan golden.
Later, when cigarettes appeared, my father switched to cigarettes, and until he was in his 40s, he had a very serious lung disease and had to quit smoking.
The habit of drinking is maintained by the father for the longest time. Roughly three times a day, except in the morning, he had to drink some at lunch and dinner, and then he gave himself a supplementary meal. Every time I don't drink much, about two or two, my father is still very self-disciplined. Whether he drinks at home or at someone else's house, I've never seen him drink too much.
He gets off work early and is close to home, and when he gets home, he always takes out some leftovers from the cupboard first, and does not heat them, and drinks them with a good taste. In the summer and autumn, there are some pickles, and sometimes wild vegetables, and the dishes are richer. His mother knew his habits and usually prepared a little food for him to keep in the cupboard for him to use at any time. After drinking, he will usually go out to find a game of cards, and if there is no game of cards, he will go home to eat before dinner, and then go out to play after eating; Once you have the hand, you won't come back when it's time to eat. After we finished eating, we would put the food we had left for my father in a pot and warm it up, and when he came home in the evening, he would take it out and drink a few cups for himself.
My mother had already tasted some of my father's habits. She said that every time he came back to drink, if he was silent, it meant that the cards were not going well that day, and he would definitely lose when he looked at the cards; If you drink with a sound and a sense of excitement, you've won.
Every time there was no wine at home, my father would take money out of his pocket and let me carry the wine jug to the supply and marketing cooperative. The supply and marketing cooperatives are in the west of the village, a row of houses. There are all kinds of delicious things on the shelves and under the counters in the store. The long counters were all glass-topped, and the glass had many cracks, and they were held firmly with disgusting buttons. Every time I went to drink, I avoided my gaze and didn't dare to look at the buttons.
Near the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, there are two huge cylinders. One vat contains soy sauce, and the other vat contains loose liquor. The salesman inserts the funnel tied to the side of the wine vat into the mouth of the wine jug, and uses a long scooping spoon to reach into the wine vat to scoop the wine, and the wine enters the wine jug along the funnel, and the wine taste is very strong, very strong and fragrant. A spoonful is exactly one catty, and my father's flask can hold five catties. When I got home, I usually returned the rest of the money to my father, and the change would go to me. The unit of change was cents at the beginning, and then inflation, and what I left behind was the corner. Before junior high school, I drank for my father a lot of times, and I didn't have the habit of spending money, so I didn't spend it, but after a long time, I had a lot of savings. Mainly coins, sometimes it's okay, and I count the money. When I count the money, I am still very happy.
It's just that when I was in high school outside, my savings were somehow gone.
My father didn't pay much attention to drinking, and in the early days, he drank loose liquor from Qili Distillery, and later began to drink bottled pure grains, which were all locally produced and not expensive, but they were all pure grain wines. Although I don't drink much every time, two or two drinks each time, but I drink alcohol for a long time, and it is a high degree of liquor, coupled with many years of smoking habits, and I also lack the necessary exercise, my body will inevitably deteriorate.
When my father was seriously ill, he once told me that he was very envious of the father and son in the hospital bed next to him, who treated him like buddies. I'm speechless. I could never have imagined that my father would have such a mind. If people's emotions are in a kind of depression, they will slowly become more inexpressible over time. If the father can control his emotions earlier, he will be better to the mother; Putting down a serious face and clearly expressing love for the child, can the relationship between parents be well improved? Isn't it as much as it was later? None of this is known.
Some things, once wrong, can never be undone.
There are many things that I didn't understand or didn't understand when I was young, and I didn't know how to get along with my elders; But when you are really mature and want to understand or **, your loved ones are often gone. That kind of regret and pain can only be experienced slowly for the rest of your life.
Later, I had children of my own. I never hesitate to say love to my children. If there is a mistake, I will also admit it to my child in person, especially when she cries, I can hold her, say countless sweet words, and never feel that there is anything to be ashamed of or numb.
I think that's how you should treat your family. Especially for children, be sure to express love clearly.
The influence of the family environment on a person is too great. A child who has grown up in a loving environment since he was a child must be confident in the future, and will know how to respect and love others more; If you grow up in an environment that lacks love and are always immersed in tragedy, the child must have low self-esteem, and the personality must be defective to some extent.
For a long time after my father left, even to this day, when I saw the grocery store selling cold vegetables, Daoxiang Village's mixed belly shreds, etc., I couldn't help but think that it would be nice if my father was here, these are his favorite snacks.
I miss the way he looks when he drinks, it's delicious.
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