Memories of educated youth After decades, I still remember the Spring Festival in 1970

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-02-14

In the winter of 1969, we were not going to return to Beijing because we had just returned to the village from Beijing, and the Spring Festival of 1970 was still in the village.

I miss my relatives every festive season. It's the New Year, the ice pot in the kiln of the educated youth, and the Beijing educated youth, who are far away from their relatives, are sitting on the door frame, sitting on the stone steps, homesick.

In the cold winter, the north wind blows so much that people can't stretch out their hands, and every household in the village is busy. Grinding noodles, grinding grain, and making tofu were all preparing for the Spring Festival in 1970. Seeing that the villager's steamed bun was snow-white, he humbly asked for advice. Then he went to the team to take out white corn, wheat, and beans, and began to prepare for steamed buns. I grind the white corn first, sift it with a fine basket after it comes out, and the fine white cornmeal sieved out is set aside separately, and the rest of the coarse noodles are kept for cooking porridge. The wheat is then milled, and the flour is also sifted out with a fine basket, and the rest is the bran.

After the noodles were grinded, I mixed the white flour and white cornmeal together to make the dough, and then put the mixed noodles on the kang. The next day, the noodles were made and the steamed buns were ready. The two classmates worked together, carrying water and burning the fire, and I made alkali and kneaded the dough.

In the busyness, I had an idea: in Beijing, every Spring Festival, my mother steamed steamed steamed buns. Although my mother is a southerner, she follows the local customs. She is ingenious, the steamed flower steamed buns are particularly good-looking, there are flowers, birds, and small animals, I also learn to steam it! So after I steamed some of the buns, I started kneading the flowers. I took a pair of scissors and made a hedgehog, a bird, a frog, a rabbit, and even a tortoise.

The classmate looked interesting, and couldn't help but reach out and do it. The two of us were amused by each other's work as we showed off our work. Although her work is not the same, she is still full of interest. Our laughter brought together all the neighboring aunts. These aunts and sisters-in-law gossiped, and this one said, "This woman is okay, she can also steam flowers." The one said, "Han girl, why did you pinch Wang Ba." "Hahaha! We burst into laughter, and laughter shook the cave. An aunt brought red water, and I dipped it in a little red water and lightly dotted it on the flower bun, which was really festive.

As the saying goes: fat first month, thin February, half-dead March and April. The people of Yan'an, who were already poor, suffered from a drought in northern Shaanxi in 1968, making their lives even more difficult. It was in this situation that the Beijing educated youth spent the first Spring Festival after cutting the queue. This is a sketch painting by Xing Yi, a Beijing educated youth in Yanchuan County, "Spring Festival Party Breakfast", which truly records the scene of eating pie rice during the Spring Festival.

When the flower bun is ripe, when you open the lid of the pot, you will see that the white bun is covered with small red dots, which is as beautiful as a doll on a New Year's painting. The flower bun was full of a large basket, enough for us to eat for half a month.

Looking at the snow-white steamed buns, I couldn't help but secretly sigh at the wisdom of the people who have lived on the Loess Plateau for generations. Due to the local climate and soil, the wheat harvest is very low, the quality is not very good, and the flour is not white. In doing so, it not only improves the brightness of the white noodles, but also tastes very good, and the nutritional combination is more perfect.

After making the steamed buns, prepare to grind the tofu. I borrowed a small mill from a fellow villager, and the beans have been soaked. Grinding tofu is also a skilled job, and in the rural areas of northern Shaanxi, all men do this work, but I plan to do it myself.

When I heard that I was going to grind tofu, several elderly uncles in the village all shook their heads, how could a girl do this? I don't believe it, can't a woman really do this? So he set up the grinding and opened the stance. I held the mill handle in my right hand and turned the grinding disc while holding an iron spoon in my left hand to scoop a spoonful of beans from the bean basin and pour it into the grinding eye.

In this way, I pushed a few laps of grinding, scooped a spoonful of beans into the grinding eye, and did different work with both hands, I couldn't stop, I had to cooperate with each other. I was a little jerky at first, but after a few minutes I was at ease. Looking at the turquoise soy milk flowing out of the mill, I felt indescribable joy in my heart.

This little woman is really capable! "A few uncles praised me while teaching me some brine, and helped me filter bean dregs and press tofu. The tofu is finally taking shape. After steaming the bun and grinding the tofu, it will be the root of the year.

What do thirty dumplings stuff with? What to do without meat? Looking at the oil buns sent by the villagers on the board, I had an idea. I washed a few white radish, blanched them in boiling water, chopped them into a pureed radish, chopped the steamed buns, and chopped some tofu. After a while, a pot of vegetarian stuffing was ready. The dumplings on the 30th night, the two classmates and I thought it was really fragrant. There were a lot of dumplings, and there were left, so I called the aunts and sisters-in-law who came to the door to try it. They asked curiously, "Why are dumplings without meat so fragrant?" ”

Due to the late sleep on the first day, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, a knock on the door woke us up while we were still asleep. When I opened my eyes, I found that it was already dawn, and the window paper was completely white.

I asked, "Who?" I couldn't hear what the answer was. I dressed and went to the ground, opened the door of the cave, and the door was blocked by a middle-aged woman, surrounded by four broken babies of different heights, dressed in tatters, covered with snowflakes, and behind them was snow-white. Oh, it snowed. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, on this snowy day, if there is a way, who can bring a few broken babies to the door to beg for food.

My heart felt sad, and I turned around and took a dozen white buns from the basket on the board, and stuffed them all into the arms of the middle-aged woman. Seeing her hurriedly filling her dirty pockets with white buns, and the children were pitifully frozen, I said, "There is no hot water in the house now, you can wait a while." ”

Before I could finish speaking, she said over and over again: "Good people, good people, there is a good reward!" Then he led the child and left slowly. The children looked back at me as they walked, and I looked at them in amazement.

This process was all seen by the wife of the accounting uncle who lived in the same hospital. "Han girl, just give the last one, why do you give so much? Your student baby's days are over! "Auntie has her own reasoning. But I am naturally compassionate, and I am not capable of helping the world, and I can't watch these children go hungry on the first day of the new year.

The Spring Festival of 1970 passed quickly. As the saying goes, Ruixue is a good year, that year, I look forward to a good harvest and hope that the villagers can have enough to eat. After so many years, I still remember the Spring Festival in 1970. (This article ** Old Educated Youth Home, thanks to Mr. He for recommending the manuscript).

Author: Wang Shuhua (Ganquan Beijing Educated Youth).

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