Author: Liu Qinghua.
Life is not a complete story, and although it is messy, there are paragraphs. No, I have to clean up and sort out the old things, and shake out a string of "rare treasures", each of which evokes a memory and chews the taste of life hidden in it.
"Manuscript paper" vs. manuscript paper
I marked the manuscript paper with "double quotation marks", and it is self-evident that it is not a manuscript paper in the true sense of the word—it is a record book used to overhaul the performance of railway signaling equipment in those years. On the reverse side of the notebook page is the "manuscript paper" I used in those years.
These pages, which can still confirm the footprints of the youth trek back then, record the test data of the operation status of the signal equipment on the front, and the text draft of "write and scratch" on the back.
From the slightly blurred and still legible handwriting, from the yellowed pages stained with kerosene drops, I saw the shadow of yesterday - a young man in the lonely and desolate small station work area next to the herdsmen and road road maintenance workers next to the adobe hut, accompanied by the kerosene lamp dancing and flickering fire, wisps of oil smoke nose blackened and did not know how to wipe it, concentrating on writing the poems of youth, singing harmony with the whistle of the train, and talking to the rails lying silently in the Gobi, expressing the feeling of life. Imagine a vision for the future.
The young man's words are as youthful as his age, and the immature and shallow thoughts and emotions expressed between the lines are inevitably naïve and even ridiculous, but they are real and heartfelt.
There is a shortage of paper and ink in the small station work area, and there is no manuscript paper, so you can only write on the "waste paper".
Until one day, I attended a writing training course at the railway branch, met a newspaper reporter, and was presented with a manuscript paper with a square with a letterhead. Owning manuscript paper for the first time is of great significance and impact to the workers in the small station work area. A manuscript paper with rewards, support, encouragement, guidance, and hope.
I am reluctant to use this manuscript paper, and I usually write something, but I still write it on the reverse side of the equipment notebook. In this way, the manuscript paper and the ink on the "manuscript paper" were treasured like treasures, and they were not lost many times when they were moved. When I saw it today, it naturally triggered thousands of words and emotions in my heart.
"Pork kidney" lunch box
Because the lunch box is shaped like a "pig kidney", the families of railway workers are called "pig kidney". This kind of lunch box is very suitable in the railway industry with high job mobility, and almost everyone has it in those years, and every family must have it. It is no exaggeration to say that the "pig kidney" lunch box is the pot stove and dining table of railway workers. When the rice is cold, you can put it on the stove to heat it, and if you don't have boiling water, you can burn it on the stove, and you can also boil millet porridge and corn paste or something.
When I first entered the road, every time I saw the "old railway" carrying it, I was always envious, feeling that without such a lunch box, it would not be like a railway worker, and I hoped that one day there would be such a lunch box!
I heard the master say that the "pig kidney" lunch box is difficult to buy, so you have to find an acquaintance to bring it from the "mouth". I don't know how long it took, and finally asked someone to buy a good texture "pig kidney" lunch box from Shenyang. I carried the beauty in my heart, and finally looked like a veritable railroad worker.
Since then, the "pig kidney" lunch box has been inseparable from me, and has accompanied me through a long life in the small station in the work area.
Later, I was transferred several times, moved frequently, and I don't know how many things I threw away, but I took this "pig kidney" lunch box wherever I went.
With the development of the railway industry and the improvement of living conditions, there are fewer and fewer people who use the "pig kidney" lunch box, and now it is almost invisible, and the "pig kidney" lunch box has retreated from the "main room" of life to where it should go and no longer shows up, but its value and the role it plays have not been lost!
Pork kidney" The lunch box is full of the flavors of my life, witnessing the pride of a generation of railway workers.
Labor cloth overalls
At present, people may no longer know that there is a "cloth" called labor cloth, let alone what style of work clothes this cloth is made.
The so-called labor cloth is a coarse cloth that is as strong and wear-resistant as denim, and the work clothes made of such cloth are printed with the word "X Iron" and the railway emblem on the jacket pocket.
New work clothes are generally reluctant to wear them, folded neatly and pressed at the bottom of the cardboard box for collection, or worn during the New Year's holidays, or worn to visit relatives and friends, and some also wear brand new work clothes to meet the object, as a glory and win the girl's heart.
Labor cloth overalls are labor protection products, two or three years to change a set, generally not bad, only until greasy can no longer be washed before throwing away. When a clean-minded female worker wears new overalls to her workstation, she also puts on her old overalls for protection, which young men often can't do.
The love for labor cloth and work clothes is due to the respect for labor and the love for the workers' positions. Labor is glorious, labor is decent, being a worker is proud, and being a worker is beautiful, which is the mainstream value pursuit and admiration of that era.
I shook off the labor cloth overalls that I had cherished decades ago, put them on my body reverently, and walked around the room with a lunch box of "pork kidneys" ......
This walk, into the peaceful but still fiery years, to find back the pride of being a railway worker, and to feel a lot clearer.
Turning my head suddenly, I saw the true colors of life, everything that comes from the gift of labor, the fruit of labor!
About author:Liu Qinghua (Dahua), retired from China Railway, senior political engineer, worked in Xinjiang Hami ** Society, Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Urumqi Railway Bureau, deputy editor-in-chief of "Urumqi Railway Bureau Yearbook", member of the Literary Association of Urumqi Railway Bureau, and member of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Writers Association.