Chapter 5 Eraser

When I was six years old and entered the first grade of Juemin Primary School in Shanghai, it seemed that my whole person had changed.I am no longer a free-spirited "dumb kid" (that's what my family calls me), but I have become Lin Yuru, who pronounces it in Shanghai dialect, and people in school call me that with my first name and last name.I have the concept of "I". "I" sat in the first row because I was short.After learning to write the word "I", I found that the word "I" is very similar to my palm prints, which deepened my awareness of "I".

My mother bought me a schoolbag, which contained exercise books and legal pads, and I wrote "Lin Yuru" on them.There was a tube of wooden rulers, and a wooden box, slide the lid off, and inside were two pencils and a pencil sharpener.I couldn't be happier.The barrel of the pen is yellow, hexagonal, with seven halves, and there is an orange eraser at one end that is clamped with a metal sheet.I used a pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencil, and the rolls of sawdust and lead powder were all stored in the cardboard box I folded, and I was reluctant to throw them away.I take my schoolbag to school, and I feel very proud. I am an out-and-out primary school student.

But I was taken aback by the fact that grades were used for everything in school.When the question was answered correctly, Mr. Zhou (we all called the teacher "Sir" at that time) would use her red pencil to mark the answer with a "√".So I got a taste of competition, and ended six years of carefree life in my life.I worked very hard and paid full attention to Mr. Zhou's speech in class, but it was inevitable that I would make typos or answer questions incorrectly.A lifesaver for mistakes caught early is the orange eraser on the end of the pencil.At first, it worked, not clean, but so-so.But the more you use it, the worse it gets, because it is covered with a layer of lead dust. The harder you rub it, the dirtier the paper will become, and even streaks of orange streaks will appear.Try to wash it off with saliva, it's a big mistake!As a result, the pencil ink and the orange streaks all turn into one big smudge on the paper that you can't even try to get rid of!

I was very disappointed with the eraser, but I also learned a little bit of cunning because of it. I learned the cleverness that one stroke is worse than one stroke when writing. Once, I overwritten the word "Wu", and my husband immediately discovered it.But the other time I wrote "Wu" I missed the above point, but she didn't notice it.If I wrote the character "wu" with one more stroke and it became the character "bird", she would catch me, but she didn't notice that the character "bird" lacked a middle stroke.So I decided, when in doubt, that less is better than more.Alas!I am no longer an innocent child!

I told my father about my troubles.He had an eraser that was two long and one wide on his desk, and he said, "Try this." Ouch!That eraser is so nice!Wipe the pencil writing clean without leaving any traces!Dad said that it was an eraser used by people who specialize in drawing.I said, can you give it to me?Dad said, if you want, go to the stationery store with your sister after school to buy them.But you are growing up, you have to speak for yourself, you can't rely on your sister for everything. This is another big test for me, because although I talk a lot at home, I am very shy in front of strangers, and I have never bought anything.But for that eraser, I had no other choice, so I had to hold a few copper coins in my hand, go to the stationery store with my sister, and said to the clerk in a low voice like a mosquito: "I want to buy an eraser." The clerk pointed to the glass cabinet. The various erasers displayed here asked me which one I wanted.I recognized the one I wanted, he took it out, I gave him the money and he gave me the eraser, the transaction was successfully completed.I feel relieved, shopping is not as difficult as I imagined, and talking to strangers won't swallow me up!

I have an eraser for blocks and life is so much easier.Writing wrong characters and answering wrong questions can wipe out the mistakes and give me a chance to reform and start a new life. Time flies, and I already have grandchildren.One day, the grandson who was in the first grade came back from school crying, saying that the teacher scolded him because his homework was so dirty.He showed me the test paper and I was taken aback, the gray orange smudges on the paper seemed familiar!I took out a pencil from my grandson’s schoolbag, which was exactly the same as the one I used in elementary school, with a yellow pen barrel, hexagonal shape, and an orange eraser clamped on the end of the pen.I tried rubbing it, and it didn't do any good at all.Haven't pencil factories learned to make better erasers after all these years?

I did some research on pencils and the eraser that clamps on the end of the pencil. It is said that in the middle of the sixteenth century, near Keswick in the northwest of England, a strong wind blew down an old tree. The shepherd found a kind of black soot stuck to the root of the tree. It turned out to be graphite, and the shepherd took it Come and mark the sheep.Soon, the British began to mine graphite, tied the graphite with rope or planks, and called it a pencil, although the material did not contain lead.In 1794, a French inventor ground graphite into powder, added clay and water, baked it to harden, and made long strips of refills.At this time, someone used the eraser produced in the West Indies to make an eraser, but it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that the eraser was clamped to one end of a pencil.At this time, the pencil uses glue to stick the narrow strip of wood and the pen core, then cuts it into a hexagonal shape, sprays it with yellow paint, cuts it into seven and a half lengths, and then puts an eraser on it with iron pliers.It is said that a pencil can draw a straight line thirty-five miles long.Americans buy 430 million pencils every year, half of which are imported from mainland China.Because pencils made in mainland China are cheaper.

"Baby, don't worry, I'll take you to buy a useful eraser." I comforted my little grandson.There are many kinds of erasers in the stationery store, and there is a small orange cap that can be put on the end of the pen.Some are like pencils, the pen core is not lead but rubber, and there are mechanical rubber pens, with a click, a section of rubber is exposed from the pen barrel.I don't want any of these various things.All I need is the drawing eraser I used when I was a child, called Draftingeraser, and I bought one for my grandson, saying, "Just use this eraser to erase your typos."

"It's best not to make mistakes," he said. "Everyone makes mistakes," I said. "You see, how else would they sell so many kinds of erasers, as well as ink correction fluid and correction film? It's a big business. Don't blame you This elementary school student, even the majestic "New York Times" will make mistakes, and if he finds mistakes, he will correct them as soon as possible and publish the second edition. Of course, mistakes in fact are easier to correct than other kinds of mistakes." "What kind of mistake is there?" "Wrong behavior, wrong morals, wrong judgment, etc. You are still young, so you don't have to worry about these things. Take a new eraser to school tomorrow, erase the wrong words, and your teacher won't scold you again !"