It's a joke, but I didn't hear it until the 80s of the twentieth century, a rather poetic word. At this time, I had already worked in the Education Bureau, and I used this term when drafting the document: Picking up autumn, also known as small pick-up activities, rural students carry out work-study activities in their spare time, go to the harvested farmland to pick up those crops that are lost by farmers when harvesting, the purpose is to cultivate students' good habits of loving labor and being diligent and thrifty. As I drafted the document, I thought, "I've done this since I was a kid!" It's just that when we do this, we neither think of loving labor, nor do we think of being diligent and thrifty, and there is only one purpose, that is, to fill our stomachs. Therefore, we are not engaged in "picking up autumn" out of any noble and great sentiments, but out of people's original survival instinct.
I didn't really catch up with the most extreme period when I really used the highest wisdom of mankind to search for all possible food and maintain the most basic living conditions of mankind; To be precise, I caught up, but I didn't have a deep memory because I was too young. The late 50s and early 60s of the 20 th century were the years when the sequelae of the Great Leap Forward broke out. Hunger threatens people's lives. People exhausted all possible means to sustain life. Those days, for people who are slightly older than me, are an unbearable but unforgettable memory. By the time I can remember, the most difficult period has passed. Even so, the act of searching for food to fill their stomachs (the so-called "little pick-up") is probably inconceivable to today's children.
Our autumn harvest at that time included everything we ate. For example, when the adults harvest wheat, we pick up the ears of wheat that they have left behind. When you cut the beans, you pick up the beans that have been discarded; When the corn is harvested, he turns over the corn stalks; Another example is to go to the harvested pear row to find pears, to the jujube forest to "pick up jujubes", and to turn the melon seedlings in the melon field where the seedlings have been pulled......In fact, in that era when food was regarded as life, people would easily throw away even a grain of grain? While the crops were being harvested, the adults were picking and picking, picking and picking, and by the time we came on the field, there was almost nothing. Sometimes we complain and say, "It's cleaner than a cow licked!" "That being said, there will always be fish that slip through the net, and that's what we're aiming for.
If I want to say that my favorite is still looking for sweet potatoes, in the words of my hometown, it is called "stealing yams". The word "theft" is not necessarily accurate, it should mean "捯" or "turn"; However, it is not unreasonable to say that it is not unreasonable, because if you really can't turn it over, in order not to be reprimanded by the adults when you return home, you simply go to the unharvested land to "steal" a little. Of course, such times are rare. Most of the time, before the land is green ("Kaiqing" is to wait for the production team to harvest before it will be opened to people to "pick up autumn"), we have already waited there early with shovels or iron mountain teeth. At some point, someone suddenly shouted, "It's green!" We would jump up and run into the green field, as if we were grabbing, and we would turn over with a swift movement. At this time, except for the occasional cough, almost no one could be heard, only the sound of a shovel turning the ground. Stealing yam is actually a very exciting process, full of anticipation, searching, surprise or disappointment, excitement or anger. I don't know when I suddenly hear a click, we know that we have touched the "prey", and when we turn it over, a large yam appears in front of us, and we will cry out happily, attracting envious eyes from all around; If we try our best and get nothing, we will sit on the ground in frustration and scold "what fucking bad luck". Stealing yams is actually a technical job. First of all, you have to judge where there may be "goods": in general, there are few opportunities in the middle ground, only those places that are edged and cornered, which are easy to be ignored by people, miracles will easily happen, and even pull down a whole yam that has not been touched, which is a big harvest! Secondly, you have to learn to look for clues. Sometimes you see a small root, maybe you follow it and you will be greatly surprised. However, there is one type of yam root that is the most tricky. It pierced far and deep, and you tried your best to turn it over for a long time, but in the end it was still a thin root, and you were so angry that you slapped it to a pulp.
In order to pick up autumn, sometimes I can't even take care of eating, and even have to bring my own rice to the field to eat, for fear that someone will rob it if it is delayed for a while. However, at the end of the day, there are few surprises and many opportunities for disappointment, and sometimes the little gain is not worth the increase in the amount of food due to too much effort. However, you can only blame yourself for being unlucky.
Therefore, the word "picking up autumn" has a romantic name, but in fact, it is not romantic at all, and it has nothing to do with nobility and greatness, and it is more than a bitter memory.