Taking a few days off is the only holiday without homework, and it is also a happy thing for children. But one thing, before the holiday, the school arranged the task of work-study program: during the holiday, we should take part in harvesting and picking ears of wheat, and everyone should hand in ears of wheat when the school starts. Remember less in middle and lower grades, and remember more in senior grades. It seems to be six or seven kilograms, and junior high school seems to be more than ten kilograms.
The first task of Maiye is to help adults. Children send rice or boiled water to the fields. Teenagers work and study part-time, so they began to follow adults, bring straw hats, pick up sickles and cut wheat together. When the wheat is ripe, you should get up early to harvest. When the weather is cool, you will be awakened by adults and feel the glory of labor with excitement. Brothers and sisters compare with each other, and each one doesn't want to fall behind. But after all, wheat cutting is manual work, hot and prickly. I look forward to stopping and having a rest. After a long period of farm work, my arm is tanned, my face is red with heat, and I feel a little suffocated, and my whole body is like a needle. At that time, I heard on the road that "sorbet sugar sorbet" was handed in, and I immediately became happy. I persisted until noon and collapsed instantly, and I no longer had the strength to do it. Usually at this time, adults will buy one to cool everyone down, drive away the summer heat and refresh themselves. I can't wait to take a bite in my hand, and the summer heat is greatly reduced. Have another bite, it will make my heart cold. At that time, buying a sorbet was also a luxury.
When wheat is pulled into the field, it must be stamped first. Several families take turns threshing wheat with fields. Beating wheat is the most tiring job: adults have to stand in the field, and the hotter it gets, the drier it gets. In the early years, wheat was driven by a stone, with a stone behind it. In the late 1980s, tractors equipped with metal compactors similar to stones were used to drive wheat, and Mu Cha was used to pick wheat after driving. When the field is opened in the afternoon, the long wheat stalks are picked and gathered together, and the wheat bran needs to be lifted out when the wind blows. Generally speaking, children can only help adults out of their pockets until the last load of wheat.
At night, sleeping under a mat in the wheat field is a child's best memory, blowing a cool breeze, listening to the endless nonsense of adults and looking at the stars all over the sky. .....
When my family is not busy, some friends go to the fields to pick wheat ears. At that time, every household had to harvest wheat, and it was not easy to pick up wheat in the field. I can't get much out in one day. When you are tired, go to the shade, rub out the wheat and blow it clean. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you will get more gains by picking up the ears of wheat falling from the bus on the road.
School starts in a blink of an eye, and the wheat will be handed in on the first day of school. Wheat will be brought to school, and the teacher who collects wheat will have to check it. No sprouted wheat, no dead wheat, and no clods. Everyone's wheat should be weighed, and the excess students will be praised by the school. I remember handing in wheat one year, because I lost more than a catty, and I didn't finish it. My good partner in my class helped me finish the task.
Now, with the widespread use of large combine harvesters, the wheat harvest is basically over in a day or two, so the children born in rural areas after 1990 have no experience of taking wheat leave. The work scene of a generation is the brand of people's childhood after 70, which can't be traced and lingering. At that time, the work was hard and enjoyable. With a sense of accomplishment, we realize that every grain is hard, and human nature is also infected by this simple spirit everywhere, which has cultivated the spirit of hardship of our generation.
Remembering the lost youth. (Text/Zhao Huasheng)