On the fifth day of the first month, the north wind feels colder. At 8 o'clock in the morning, according to the agreed time, a group of five of us drove back from the city to the place where we worked when we were young, looking for the place where we used to work and live.
On the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the weather was clear. There are not many cars on the highway, and there is no obstruction. We arrived at our destination at about half past nine, parked our car, and walked along the north-south street towards the center of town.
What used to be a narrow strip of stone pavement has now been transformed into a wide concrete road. The old bungalows along the street have also been converted into two- and three-story buildings, and there are also some four-story houses. Occasionally, I see one or two dilapidated old houses. Post and telecommunications bureaus, power supply company offices, health centers, central primary schools, towns, etc., these familiar units still exist, but they are all newly built buildings, without a sense of history.
We walked all the way to the familiar bridge at the end of the town street. 40 years ago, the bridge was a common stone slab step bridge in an ancient water town in the south of the Yangtze River, but now it has become a flat and spacious cement bridge. I stood on the bridge, looking at the river flowing below the bridge and the trees along the banks of the river, and pondering. The river that flows quietly seems to tell me about the past years and the passing of time.
In the late 70s and early 80s of the last century, I was transferred here from the county seat to take over the work of a comrade surnamed Yuan who was transferred out for personal reasons at that time, so I worked and lived here for three years.
I remember that there was a tiger stove next to the bridge, in the past, because of the shortage of firewood and briquettes, it belonged to the product of the planned economy era, so in some market towns and cities, some business owners, it was used to boil water and sell it to residents for personal drinking, when to buy a bottle of boiling water, RMB two cents, now these have long been gone, has become history.
The photo studio from memory is also gone. Now a new hotel is built on the original site, perhaps because of the Spring Festival, and the door of the hotel is locked. I remember when I was working here, I met a big brother who was a little older than me in the photo studio and became good friends. It's a pity that the name has been forgotten now, and I don't know where the others are now? How's the body? I haven't been in touch since I left. At that time, I was not busy at work, I went to the photo studio to play with him when I had nothing to do, and by the way, I took a few free **, and now I still have a few ** taken back then.
Follow the current cement road and move slowly. Eyes look around, as if looking for something. The hard work paid off, and finally under the guidance of an elder, I finally found the two bungalows where I worked and rested in a row of abandoned old bungalows behind the buildings along the street. Fortunately, the old building you see now, although dilapidated, has not been demolished in the renovation of the old city, and it still retains the quaint architectural characteristics of that era. Looking at the two words "protection" marked by the ** housing and construction department on the pillars of the old building, I can't help but praise their work! Thanks to them.
Forty years in the blink of an eye. After 40 years of absence, I can't help but feel a lot of emotion when I stand in the same place where I used to live and work in the past. The handsome little guy of the year has become today's old man, and the years are really unforgiving. Over the past few decades, we have all moved forward with the pace of the times, although on the road of life
We have encountered all kinds of difficulties, but we have all come through after all, thanks to this great era!