Chapter 13 12. The "Cultural Revolution" in the courtyard

As soon as spring comes, I feel a little nostalgic and miss our courtyard.This year is no exception.A few days ago, Uncle Zhang, the janitor, called and said: "The flowers in the yard are all blooming, and they are beautiful, but it is a pity that you and your mother are not here." Family members enjoy flowers, watch the moon, recite poems, taste tea, compose lyrics, and drink wine in the yard, so that every breath of air has a cultural flavor. Actually not necessarily. When we were young, our courtyard house was basically a private plot. There was a large round flower pond in the center of the yard. There were no flowers, so our family planted peanuts.Harvesting peanuts is a great joy for me. My parents pulled the peanuts out of the mud, and I was responsible for pulling the peanuts out from the roots, making my body covered in mud and my face covered with dirt.My grandma is a Shanghainese old lady who has a cleanliness habit. Every time she sees my parents allow me to be a peanut farmer, she is very dissatisfied.She always stood at the door of the living room, opened the sand door halfway and shouted: "Niu Niu, come in, come in."

In addition to peanuts, loofah and bitter gourd are also grown in my courtyard.Both of these dishes were my grandfather’s favorite. At that time, they were almost unavailable in Beijing. If they wanted to eat them, they had to wait eagerly for relatives and friends from other places to bring them to them, so they simply grew them themselves.The flowers of loofah are yellow and very big. I like to pick loofah flowers and wear them in my hair.My aunt said to me, I let you pick up all the flowers, what kind of loofah does grandpa eat!Grandpa said with a smile; let her go, let her go.The seeds of bitter gourd are sweet. Our family does not eat green bitter gourd. We must wait for the bitter gourd to turn yellow before picking it and eating it.I always wait for the adults to cut the bitter melon open, and then I lick out the red seeds inside with my tongue, making my face covered with seeds, a big painted face.Grandma can't understand my food, she always looks at me incomprehensibly and says, "Niu Niu, isn't Shanghai's white rabbit toffee better than this?"

During the "Cultural Revolution", the People's Liberation Army came to my house and dug a luxurious air-raid shelter.The wall inside the cave is made of blue bricks, the entrance of the cave is made of cement, and there is a corrugated iron cover.The People's Liberation Army built two holes, a large and luxurious hole with concrete steps and handrails, said to be for the elderly.The other, which goes straight up and down, has several ladders buried in the brick wall, and this is for other people in the yard.There are often drills in the alley. As long as the siren sounds from the horn, everyone has to go into the air-raid shelter.The street committee will also come to check, if you don't drill the air-raid shelter, you will be punished.I look forward to the exercise every day. As soon as the siren sounds, I will follow the example of the People's Liberation Army. First, I will help my grandmother down from the hole with steps, and then I will run up by myself and get down again from the small hole.My grandma was afraid that I would fall, so she always yelled: "Niuniu, don't go out anymore, isn't it already down?" He explained that Uncle Liberation Army said that the hole with steps is only for grandma and grandpa.My grandmother always sighed and muttered in a low voice: The People's Liberation Army is so troublesome, why teach children these things.

Besides my grandmother, Mrs. Peng is another central figure in the courtyard. She is the aunt who brought me up.Mrs. Peng is fat, with thick eyebrows and small eyes, and looks a bit fierce.Grandma doesn’t like her very much, but she just can’t live without her. First, she’s good at doing housework. Second, I’m almost inseparable from her. The most important thing is that Mrs. Peng cooks good food. Without her, our food level will drop a lot. chunks. During the "Cultural Revolution", Mrs. Peng caused a rebellion in the courtyard.She talked to my grandma and said that she is the only proletarian in this courtyard, and our family is all feudalism except me, so she should lead all of us to ask for instructions early and report late.My grandmother was terrified by the Red Guards raiding the house, so she agreed immediately, but she must have hated this rebel who knew how to cook.Mrs. Peng appointed me as her assistant. She rang the bell every morning and gathered everyone in the dining room to sing "The East Is Red" in front of Chairman Mao's portrait, and then ate her mung bean porridge and fried scallion pancakes; she rang the bell again in the evening. , this time singing "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman", and then eating her stewed elbow, fried black bean bitter gourd, watercress su, and fragrant white rice.My grandma only eats rice, not noodles, and our family will always have to exchange the noodle tickets for rice tickets. These are the work of Mrs. Peng.At that time, the latest instructions were issued every two days, and then everyone would wear Chairman Mao badges and go to the streets to celebrate. Mrs. Peng always took me with her. All face tickets are exchanged for rice.

I don't know how I can recall the courtyard without thinking of the "Cultural Revolution", think of grandma, but not ransack the house;Perhaps these memories that twist beauty and ugliness, happiness and sadness, goodness and evil together are my most precious treasures.