The quilt was my mother's dowry when I got married. The snow-white quilt is covered with a satin quilt with dragon and phoenix clouds and flower patterns, and the middle is covered with cotton as white and soft as fine clouds, which is as warm as mother's care and love. It's a pity that I always collect quilts in winter in the city. Only in this short day without heating can I take them out to keep out the cold.
People in Lubei Plain pay attention to how many beds and covers they have when they marry their daughters. As soon as the new wife enters the door, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law first look at the bedding, colorful beds and wardrobes, showing colorful celebrations. In the days after marriage, you should always take it out to bask in the sun all year round. The scene in bask in the quilt is the most beautiful scenery in the farmyard. Looking at brilliant patterns, beautiful memories and sweet aftertaste are all in it. After several spring and autumn sun exposure, gradually there are young children running around in the middle of the quilt, running. When children grow up, they go out to study and work, mostly with their mother's newly married bedding, and then they get married. At this time, the mother will set aside the best cotton to make a wedding quilt for her children. In this way, cotton conveys care from generation to generation and spreads warmth all over the world.
When I left home for the first time that winter, I wore a thick cotton-padded jacket and brought two sets of thick cotton bedding. Dressed in cotton cloth and rustic flavor, I broke into the city. When I first arrived here, I was born in two places and had no place to live. A thick pile of bedding was not stored there, but became a burden. Everyone laughed at me kindly: I can see that cotton grows in your place, and I can see that your mother loves you.
Then I lived in a private house in the suburbs, a small western house, which was warm in summer and cool in winter. A lonely and long cold night in a foreign land, just curled up in thick warm cotton bedding, reading by dim lights, and spent several winters like this.
Later, I settled down in this city. When I got married, I attended a simple group wedding and lived in a rented small room of more than ten square meters. Those unattended dowry committees hid in the closet and followed me around the city.
I finally have my own house. Although it is small, it has all the gas and heating. The cold in those days and memories seems a little far away, because there is heating, and winter is not quite like winter. It snows heavily outside the window, and the interior is warm as spring. Thin blankets and light duvets can also cope. Those thick quilts can't be covered, but they have just been collected. On sunny days, take them out to dry and stick your face on them. They are loose and soft, full of the fragrance of the long-lost sunshine. The smell reminds people of the Lubei Plain and the time when I was a child running around in the yard covered with bedding. Flowers in the yard, sunshine in the yard, mother's reprimand, and girls' playful drilling ... cotton, cotton, like my sister and mother, warms my cotton intimately.
When I was a child, I saw my grandmother and mother planting cotton, picking cotton, spinning cotton under the lamp, weaving cloth, and then dyeing the cloth to make clothes and shoes. I think women only work for cotton all their lives, and cotton has trapped women's lives. Gradually, I understand that cotton is not only important to women, but also a cash crop. In the hometown where cotton is the main crop, the harvest of cotton is related to the livelihood of a family. Cotton only grows once a year. From busy spring to autumn, growing cotton is a tiring job. Pruning branches and spraying pesticides to catch insects will kill insects in cotton fields every year and cause pesticide poisoning.
There is still such a memory in my memory: it was in the early 1980 s that the cotton planted by farmers had a bumper harvest, but it could not be sold. There is only one cotton purchasing point in this commune. Farmers in all villages lined up for miles on the road outside the acquisition point, and it took them two or three days to turn. Hard-earned cotton will be deducted at different levels, and only a little money will be obtained in the end.
In recent years, rural people have more ways to earn money, but fewer people grow cotton. Because of improving varieties and planting insect-resistant cotton and non-toxic cotton, cotton farmers will suffer less. A few days ago, I heard from my relatives in my hometown that this year's cotton harvest is good and the price is good. There is also a team that helps people pick cotton and makes a lot of money at the end of the day. I was really happy for a long time.
In recent years, people have worn enough chemical fiber fabrics and are optimistic about the comfortable cotton-padded jacket. They just wear cotton cloth woven on the machine, but they can't find the feeling of mud-dyed coarse cotton cloth anymore. Those broken flowers with blue background and big blue and purple patterns only remain in the memory of the countryside.
The bloated cotton-padded jacket and trousers have not been worn for many years. It seems that they have withdrawn from my life. But a while ago, my mother knew that my leg was rheumatic and painful, so she specially made a pair of cotton trousers to send it.
Every rainy and cold weather, I put on silly cotton trousers. Soft cotton warms and soothes my pain, as if it were the care from my hometown and mother.
Nothing can replace the warmth of cotton.