In the autumn evening, sitting on the empty cliff head of my hometown, looking at the bay not far away, thinking about some stories that happened on this land under my feet, my thoughts can't help but ripple.
In the soil directly below where I sit, there is a cement pool for paper making. I don't know how big and how many cement pools there are, but I did see a corner of it.
The summer vacation when I graduated from junior high school, one evening after the rain, my mother asked me to take a shovel to fill the hole where the rain ran. When I filled the punch with soil, I found two copper coins with green rust lying flat in the wet soil. I picked up the copper coins and dried the water stains on the raw noodles. Curious, I turned the soil deep with a shovel and soon a corner of a cement pool was exposed. At that time, I thought, why is there a cement pool underground? What are these cement pools for? At home, I told my mother my doubts. My mother said that those cement pools were used by my father when he made paper in his early years. When I heard that, I couldn't help being surprised. I didn't expect my father to make paper. He died a long time ago as a farmer. Mom said that your father is a good hand at making paper, and his paper transport skills are unparalleled in their group. You don't know, in the whole paper-making process, end paper is the most technical and laborious process. If the end is light, the paper will be too thin. If the end of the paper is heavy, the paper will be too thick. The thickness of the paper is even, all by the way of the paper collector. At the end of the day, your father is often too tired to eat. Seeing my curiosity, my mother told me the whole process of papermaking in detail.
Below the cliff head of my house is a big water inlet, and rain flows from all directions. Under the high cliff head, there is a bay of clear water rippling all the year round. The first step of ancient papermaking-wheat pulp floating pool was completed in Dawan. There are inexhaustible wheat pulp in rural areas, and the fiber of wheat pulp is the most suitable raw material for papermaking. Bundle the collected wheat pulp and put it into the water inlet. After a period of soaking, the wheat pulp has softened. After taking it out and washing it hard, the fiber of the wheat pulp is completely softened. The second step is alkali pool separation. Soak the softened wheat pulp in large and small cement pools filled with lime water, and after repeated rinsing, the fibers of the wheat pulp are gradually separated; Then there is the key step-fishing paper with bamboo curtain. Beat the wheat pulp soaked in lime water into mud surface, then put it in a pool and mix it with appropriate amount of water to make the wheat pulp fibers suspended on the water surface become paper fibers, and then start to end the paper with bamboo curtains; Step 4: Put the pulp upside down on a press plate, then carefully remove the bamboo curtain, and the paper film will fall on the plate. Layers of paper film are slowly stacked. When it reaches a certain amount, the water in the paper film is squeezed by a heavy object, and the layers of paper film are pressed into a square paper, which is called curtain pressing paper; The last step is drying and bundling. My mother said that the paper made by my father is mainly wool paper and burning paper, which are commonly used in rural areas and sell well, but my father is weak and tired for a long time. With my father's illness, the work of papermaking slowly stopped.
Mom said, staring at the window for a long time, lost in thought, and the cool wind blew into the room from the window lattice after the rain. The tattered wool paper pasted on it was rustled by the cool breeze, as if telling me a story that never went far away.
two
When I was a child, every winter, my mother would go to the market to buy wool paper and stick it on the wooden window lattice. In order to prevent the wool paper from being damaged by rain and snow, mother always coats the wool paper with tung oil. Oiled wool paper gives off a bronzed light and creaks when pressed by hand. I once asked my mother why she had to paste the window with wool paper. Isn't it brighter with white paper? Mom said that white paper is too brittle, and it will be more brittle with tung oil. A dozen snow grains or a strong wind can easily blow the white paper. Wool paper is not as bright as white paper, but it is made of reeds, wheat pulp and rags. Soft and firm, it becomes bright after being moistened by tung oil. On a snowy night, lying in a warm bed, listening to the sound of "sand-sand-sand-"from the snow outside, is particularly comfortable. The next morning, facing the light coming through the window lattice, lying on the kang, you can see that a thick layer of snow has accumulated on the window lattice. Sweep the snow off the window lattice slowly with a broom, and the wool paper is really unscathed.
I clearly remember that when I was in the fourth grade of primary school, one day the school suddenly issued a notice saying that the students' desks and chairs should be reformed, so that the students could move out all the desks and chairs with different heights in the classroom and replace them with beautiful, comfortable and durable pulp desks and chairs.
During that time, all the students sacrificed their extracurricular activities except the adults who knew the masons' skills and kept making cement slabs and brick tables. Each of them carried a washbasin of old paper mixed with books, newspapers, notebook paper and kraft paper to the inlet near the school for elutriation until all the basin papers were elutriated into paste, and then made into big balls that were about to be squeezed dry. After that, the adults smashed the ball that fell in the cement pool with a shovel, mixed some colloidal adhesive, and shoveled the pulp off the brick table that had already been set up with a shovel. The mud board was wiped, and the pulp was smooth and shiny. About half a month and twenty days, the pulp solidified and hardened. Adults brush a layer of green or blue paint on it, and a pulp desk and chair will be ready.
At that time, although the teacher repeatedly prohibited students from carving the surface of the desktop or stool, there were always naughty children who couldn't help but be curious and secretly cut a hole in the pulp table and stool with a pencil sharpener, wondering why the pulp table and stool were so comfortable ... I had a wonderful study time with this pulp table and stool similar to the sofa now.
three
Perhaps it is because I was born in the countryside and my family was too poor when I was a child, so I have a special love for paper until now. Whenever I come to a large supermarket, I always stop at the office supplies section. Looking at that piece of exquisite manuscript paper, which is immaculate in essence, or yellowish, or with other colorful binding patterns, there is always a feeling of fondling. Even those notebooks that primary school students use every day, I want to buy one and keep it. Once, I was looking through a Tian Zi book with inspirational quotations. The waiter in the supermarket mistakenly thought I wanted to buy it for my children, and kept introducing me to the advantages of this book. I didn't know how to deal with it at the moment, so I had to buy a bag of ten books.
We can't help but say that the children's material conditions are really superior now. There are pinyin books to learn pinyin, new words to learn Chinese characters, Tian Zige to learn writing, and grass and grass to do math problems. However, at that time, we only had one kind of art paper called Yikai. When we bought it home, we folded it into 32 or 16 openings according to the teacher's requirements, then cut it page by page with a knife, and finally used the old one. Fortunately, the paper is always cut straight and tidy, but the edges of most children's notebooks are internally hooked and externally connected, lacking edges and corners, just like being bitten by a dog. Even such books are not enough. On the way to school, students often run to the supply and marketing cooperative with a hot egg just taken out of the chicken nest and change it into a piece of paper. In order to save money for students to buy paper, teachers always cross the Yellow River together when the water is low during the wheat break, carry a collar of white paper from the supply and marketing cooperatives in neighboring counties, and then distribute it to students one by one.
In junior high school, my sister and I took part in the math competition organized by the school. After winning the prize, my sister got a big performance herb, and a red "prize" was printed on the cover of the book. Seeing my eagerness, my sister gave me the book, but I didn't dare to use it, and I didn't have the heart to use it, because it was the first time I had real printing performance herbs.
At the five-day rural party, a stall selling waste paper became a must for adults to go to the market. People with children at home choose some "old paper", such as unused paper or account books and printed materials, and buy them home to solve math problems or write for their children; Families of children who are not in school choose some thinner paper to buy cigarettes. I still clearly remember a small invoice paper. After my sister finished writing English words, my mother, who had worked hard all day, always sat in a chair by the fire, slowly picked up a cigarette dustpan from the table, picked up a handful of fine tobacco leaves and sprinkled them on the old invoice paper, and slowly rolled out a cone-shaped cigarette. From the flickering light of cigarette butts, I seem to understand the hardships of my mother's housework and maintenance. ...
Since I was a child, I have written on white paper without horizontal lines, and I have developed a good habit of writing without slanting or slanting. After taking part in the work, my colleagues can't help but praise me as a well-trained person when they see that my handwriting is so neat. In fact, I know that the improvement of this kung fu is related to the endless papers and homework in high school for three years.
After I fell in love with writing, I used more and more manuscript paper. In the era when there are no photocopiers and printers, it is absolutely impossible to complete a decent manuscript without revising it four or five times. For more than 50 years, I can't remember how much paper I used, and I can't estimate how much paper I will use in the future, but one thing is certain, that is, I like paper more and more. Although paper has become a very common thing now, I have always adhered to the habit of never throwing away the front and back.
Up to now, I still have the manuscripts of eight books I wrote and the proofreading manuscripts sent to me by the publishing house when they were published. Every time I see those thick boxes of manuscript paper, I will think of the vivid stories that happened before, and the different lives of myself or my relatives, classmates, friends and all the characters in the manuscript. ...
Liang Wudi Xiao Yi has a poem about paper: "It is as white as frost and snow, and it is square. Instead of escaping from the net, it is better to express your feelings and remember. " In poetry, the characteristics and functions of paper are very clear, but the stories recorded on paper are a true portrayal of people's attitudes towards life in the whole world.
In fact, people are like a movable pen. When people live between heaven and earth, they will leave more or less, deep or shallow, straight or curved tracks on the rice paper of the earth. Life is endless and the tracks are endless. ...