I always think of my father's fish pond.
At that time, I was very young, a preschool child.
Father decided to build the largest water conservancy project and a fish pond in the village.
The reason why the project is huge is that our hometown is in the mountainous area, where there are mountains and hills everywhere, and there is little flat land.
A few hundred meters downhill in front of my house is my vegetable field, a rare piece of flat land, less than half an acre.
My father studied in a normal school and worked as a teacher for several years. His life is full of legends, but he will eventually belong to this village called "Zhao Dawan". Here, he always wants to do something earth-shattering to prove himself. In this life, he can't eat the imperial salary, nor will he accept his fate.
In order to build such a "big project", he had a big fight with his mother. My father traveled far and saw the world, hoping to change the fate of the family by his own efforts, but this decision is also risky. At that time, my mother was a good wife and mother, and she didn't want to be rich and expensive, as long as the family lived in peace.
However, the mother can't stop the father's eloquent rhetoric after all. As a result, the family meeting was approved by my father and the project began.
Admittedly, this is a big project.
At that time, there was no excavator, but it was dug with a pick and hoe in hand. There is a slope outside the vegetable field, and a fortress about two meters high should be built. In other words, this fish pond is on a slope, and it needs to be dug to a depth of more than two meters, and all the excavated soil needs to be transported outside; On the one hand, it is necessary to build a strong fortress more than two meters high in the periphery, and finally a pond can be formed.
I have always wanted to know my father's decision. From my current point of view, there is something wrong with the location of the fish pond in that place, which is really unwise. Needless to say, the workload is huge, and the danger is always like a hidden mine. This is another story.
Father showed his boldness of vision, mobilized all relatives and mother's family in the village with his strong mobilization ability and appeal, and started an unprecedented feat in this village and even the whole village.
Of course, not everyone comes to work together, but in batches. This may not be difficult for the father who is a village accountant. He can always plan ahead and make arrangements, who will be here these days, who will be visiting relatives during the Spring Festival and who can take part in the work. He arranged everything in perfect order. Because there are too many people in the construction site and too few people, this chore can't be completed.
I think there were many relatives who came to my house during the Spring Festival, and I actually had some complaints in my heart. I was supposed to pay a New Year call to my family. As a result, my father took me as a "able-bodied man" and participated in the construction of the fish pond together.
Wages may be saved a lot, but living expenses can't be saved. My father arranged for my elder sister to be responsible for purchasing materials and go to the village to catch up every two days. My elder sister will go to the street to buy pork, cigarettes, wine and so on.
Mother is naturally the director of the logistics support department of this project, responsible for three meals a day in the kitchen. There are many children at home, with seven or eight to more than a dozen construction teams. The task of mom's cooking class can be imagined. Without exception, the second sister and the third sister have a division of labor, and they have become the mother's deputies. My brother studied in the district and escaped the construction.
I also have a work plan.
Every time I have lunch at noon, my father will arrange for me to stay at the construction site for fear that the tools for working will be stolen.
I was five or six years old, which was the age for fun. Besides, the smell of lunch is very attractive to a child.
Mother showed her fine style as the logistics support minister, and solved this problem with the bones taken out by cook the meat at noon every day. I was guarding the construction site, holding the meaty bones my mother handed me and chewing them with relish.
I am not alone, except that I can attract the yellow dog at home to chase me. I also use these bones as shares to win over the children in the village and let them play with me.
Smoking is indispensable at home, and the cigarette case left by adults after smoking has become a prop for me to play with my friends. The game of shooting cigarette cases has always been one of the happiest games in my childhood.
I have forgotten how long this project lasted. I only remember that before I went to primary school, there were always many people working at home every day, and there were always so many things that I couldn't finish.
The elder sister said that the pork she bought home was estimated to have several big fat pigs.
Mom said that her waist disease was caused by this fish pond. With so many people eating, I have a headache now!
Fortunately, the project was finally successfully completed. Although there is no grand completion ceremony.
I remember that day, when the fish pond was built, the stream rushed to the fish pond and sang a happy song!
The whole family is very happy!
After all, this is a unique fish pond in our village and even in my hometown at that time.
I watched the water in the fish pond rise slowly, and watched a vegetable field slowly turn into this fish pond in our house. My heart is also full of pride!
Water storage, disinfection and precipitation, my father's face is also full of his pride.
Father went to other places to buy fry himself.
The dense fish, which are almost invisible to the naked eye, are carefully taken care of by their fathers. After being locked in a small pond for a while, they dug out the entrance of the fish pond and let them enter a wider fish pond.
My father walked around the fish pond with a China pipe in his hand, watching the fish in the fish pond laugh.
The fish pond is not far from our home, about 500 meters.
If someone steals fish, they can't hear you. There was nothing high-tech at that time, but now, don't worry, just install two cameras.
Father then built another hut beside the fish pond.
This is a hut, but it is not made of thatch. My father started his career by studying carpentry under his guidance. For a time, he was a famous local carpenter. In our family, when the whole village was covered with mud walls, my dad relied on his carpentry skills to get up early and get greedy, and built the house into a big tile house with pure solid wood structure!
It is hard to avoid a dull pain when I think of the old house that has been quietly slipped away and demolished by the years. It's hard to find a house made of all solid wood now.
Father naturally won't build the fish pond hut badly, in the words of now, it is not low.
This is a log cabin. The room is not big, only one bed is put. The room is bright because the lighting and ventilation conditions are excellent. On three sides are walls woven by my father with water and bamboo. Artistic and dense, but it can also leak air. The side facing the fish pond turned out to be a fully ventilated, barrier-free floor-type windowless design. Lying in bed, 180 degrees can clearly see the periphery of the whole fish pond, without dead ends! That area is the periphery of the fish pond, and it is a key defense area that is easy to be attacked by fish thieves.
Roof or tile. Father said that thatched cottages are a sign of poverty, and we can't build thatched cottages in our family.
I admire my father very much. He has a confidence in his bones since he was a child. No matter how poor he is, he will arm his family cleanly and decently. He always said, "People should live decently and not lag behind others."
This is also a kind of spirit. Starting from repairing fish ponds and building huts, he is actually building a future for our family, a bright future.
After the hut was built, my father went to the fish pond to watch and sleep after dinner every night-guarding the fish pond.
My father always takes me with him.
Father likes reading books and newspapers. At that time, he subscribed to the annual issue of Sichuan Rural Daily. When I can't read, I watch my father read the newspaper with relish, and he will tell me something he knows.
A kerosene lamp, hanging on a bamboo bow. Father leaned slightly against the bamboo wall, changed his usual stern appearance and hung a gentle smile on his face. I don't know if it's because of the contents of the newspaper or because he heard the fish jumping out of the water in the fish pond.
I sat opposite my father, lying at his warm feet, listening to him read the newspaper. I heard the sound of running water flowing into the fish pond, the rustling of the night wind blowing through the bamboo forest, the croaking of frogs in the rice fields next to the fish pond, and slowly entered the sweet dream land!
I opened my eyes when the dazzling sunshine in the morning shone on the quilt of the cabin through the "French window" without glass. Father is walking leisurely on the fort ridge of the fish pond, with a dry cigarette in his mouth, and a morning mist floats behind his head. He sometimes walks with his hands behind his back and looks thoughtfully at the fish pond; From time to time, pumpkin flowers, who was blooming brightly on the fort, was picked and thrown into the fish pond. A group of fish immediately surrounded him, and a pumpkin flowers disappeared at once with a "chug chug" sound. .......
When my father saw that I was awake, he called me over, taught me how to cut the grass that fish like to eat, taught me some knowledge about fish farming, and told me to remember to disinfect the fish regularly and check the water level in the fish pond every day. ......
Father's fish pond brings together all the expectations and happy dreams of the family.
Father, how much did you bet to harvest his brave words in this fish pond?
He reads books and newspapers and collects all skills and experiences related to fish farming.
My earliest term for science was from my father. He always warned us that to understand science and technology, we must work hard and get rich scientifically. ......
Father's fish pond is a testing ground for him to integrate these scientific elements.
However, the god of fate cares too little about his father.
Nightmares come late at night. It was a night after a heavy rain and the quiet village was broken by a loud noise. That night, only I didn't go to the fish pond cabin with my father. I got up in a daze, but I didn't see the shadow of my family early. I flew to the fish pond, and I was stunned by what I saw: the water in the fish pond had dried up and the fortress outside had collapsed! Although the stone fortress was stitched with cement, it failed to withstand the flood and was ruthlessly torn apart under the pressure of rapidly rising water level. ......
Mother and sister carried buckets and pots and chased the cracks in the fish pond all the way to the stream to catch the fish that were not swept away by the stream. But the hope is slim, and the fish that are alive and kicking, the fish that carry my father's dreams and hopes, have been swept away.
This is a disaster. For a family, the fruit that is about to be harvested is lost overnight.
Mother supported her father's backbone with her tenacity. She didn't blame her father. Accept this reality silently.
Father rolled up his cigarette and sat on the edge of the hut. He frowned, and the light of dry smoke gave off a faint light under the "click" sound of his cheeks. The smoke floated on his father's forehead like a melancholy cloud that could not be waved away.
I saw those wrinkles, which seemed a little deep.
Some of the neighbors in the village came to comfort them, and some were happy behind their backs!
This world will always be like this. Some people want you to be excellent, others want you to be knocked down by difficulties!
Father, how can he give up?
Father was not knocked down by setbacks. He had the fort repaired again.
With that painful lesson, my father realized that the fort ridge was the key part of the whole fish pond and needed to be strengthened. Then an emergency drainage hole was built, which can be used for emergency flood discharge when the flood comes.
Whenever it rains heavily, my father takes me, and we patrol the fish pond together to check the water level of the fish pond. At the scale line marked by his father, as long as the water level is close to the warning water level, he immediately jumps into the fish pond and opens the gate to discharge the flood.
Summer is a thunderstorm season, and the rainstorm in the mountains is coming soon.
Since my family built this fish pond, our family has been big and small, and we are nervous in summer. My father was even more worried, especially on the night of heavy rain, and he almost stayed up all night.
Our family is so concerned and scared day and night.
It's finally winter. Before the Spring Festival, my father opened the floodgate to release water, and my younger brother got off the net to collect fish. Watching glistening fish roll and bounce on the fishing net, and then being caught in the bucket one by one, the family is indescribably happy!
Father's cigarette lit, "pattering", braving the smoke, his face reflected the flashing light, as well as his joy and pride!
Sisters pick fish and sell them in the street. In our village, there are no fish ponds in other people's homes, only in our home, or raised by the living water of our own fish pond. Many people bought it, and the fish sold out in less than half a day.
In the evening, the family sat together, and my mother fully demonstrated her cooking skills, such as braised fish, pickled fish and dry fried small fish. ......
It was the happiest reunion dinner for our family after all kinds of hardships in life.
The unhappiness caused by cutting fish grass and not having time to play, and the unhappiness caused by staying in the fish pond without enjoying the warmth of home, all the hardships of the family running in the rain of lightning and thunder disappeared at that moment.
"Diligence is fundamental and science is indispensable." Father always gives us a "political lesson" by drinking. He still remembers that he is a teacher. He still remembers that being a farmer should be different from others!
After I went to primary school, I was on duty in the fish pond at night. My father gave it to me.
I was scared alone, so I called my brother.
We live in that cabin. Under the kerosene lamp, I read the books and newspapers my father had read. I don't like the news on it, but the poems, essays and stories published on it make me fondle admiringly. There are also starry nights, doing nothing, lying in bed, watching the stars all over the sky, dumping in the quiet fish pond outside.
Father has a good habit of ordering a newspaper on time every year. At that time, the newspapers sent by the postman could only be sent to the township government. According to my father's reminder, I went to the township government regularly to get the newspaper sent by the postman. So I have a chance to sneak a peek.
Father collected the newspapers he had read and put them away neatly, so that our brothers and sisters wouldn't take any of them casually. During the Spring Festival, as a summary, he arranged all the newspapers, covered them with thick kraft paper and tied them with hemp rope. A year is a thick newspaper collection. Father hung the newspaper on the wall, like a cultural showroom, covering the whole wall.
You can learn a lot from newspapers. All the young people my neighbors like come to my house to borrow books, and my cousin has to visit my house across the river for half a day before leaving. I learned something from it. I don't know. Only once, the teacher and the headmaster came to me and asked, "Your Chinese performance has always been so excellent. Any tips? "
I thought for a long time and replied weakly, "Maybe, maybe there are a bunch of newspapers at home?"
Father's fish pond, no, is also our fish pond, which runs through the daily life of the family.
My primary school life is accompanied by a fish pond and that hut.
Junior high school left the village and lived in the town. Only in summer vacation and winter vacation will I go back to the fish pond hut.
Later, my sisters got married one after another, and my brother got married. This fish pond, which brought economic income to our family, gradually withdrew from the stage of our family history.
After I went to college, that fish pond was used by my brother to grow rice. Later, even rice was too lazy to grow. Directly planted a few bitter bamboos in it.
Mom and dad have left us for several years.
I went back to my hometown in Tomb-Sweeping Day this year. I saw the fish pond again, and the hut had already disappeared.
Bitter bamboo has grown rapidly in this fertile land where fish were once raised, and it has covered the whole fish pond.
My father's fish pond and my hut have all disappeared in the long river of years.
But no matter how the years pass, my father's fish pond has always been in my heart, swaying in the sentence "half an acre of square pond opens, the sky is high and the clouds are light"; The fish pond hut that grew up with me, in my memory, in my sleep, always opens a window with no frame or window on the whole floor to welcome the sunrise and shine in my heart!
Father's Day is coming, Father in Heaven, I wish you a happy holiday! By the way, say hello to your mother, too!
(Written on the eve of Father's Day on June 1, 202 19, beside Mahu Lake in Chongqing)
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