Chapter 115 Grandfathers and Blackouts

In the autumn of 1911, we returned to our hometown in Fuzhou from Yantai, Shandong.On the way back to the hometown, my mother and father repeatedly told me, "Go back to Fuzhou and live in a big family. You can no longer be like a wild child. You must be careful in everything. You can't be kind to the elders. My grandfather is The head of the family must especially respect..." When I arrived in Fuzhou and settled down with a big family, I felt that my worries on the way home were unnecessary.My grandfather, uncles, uncles, cousins ​​and brothers did not treat me as a wild child, and everyone was very close and equal, and there were no "rules".I also feel that our large family is a very loose collection of several small families.Every small family lives in its own place, eats its own food, and has its own relatives and friends. For example, we each have our own "grandmother's house"!

In this year, maybe the second year, Fuzhou has an electric light company.Electric lights were also installed in our big house, which is also a new thing in Fuzhou. Our group of children ran around the house with the installation workers, very excited and joyful!I remember that the electric light was hung from the roof, and there was one in every house, fifty lights in the hall and in the drawing room, less light in the bedrooms, and even smaller lights in the kitchen.There are at least fifty or sixty lights in our big house, and when they were lit on the first night, they were so brilliant that our children clapped and cheered!

But the main switch is installed in the grandfather's house.Grandpa got up early and went to bed early, going to bed at nine o'clock every night.Before he went to bed, he turned off the electric switch, so the whole big family was in darkness! We had just returned to our hometown, and our parents and their brothers and sisters had a lot to say about each other. We, a group of brothers and sisters, were also having fun together, and rarely slept before nine o'clock in the evening.In order to guard against the sudden darkness, every night before nine o'clock, every small family would light a dimly twisted kerosene lamp in one or two rooms.At nine o'clock, the electric lights were all turned off, and the kerosene lamps were turned on. Everyone looked at each other and laughed, talking, laughing and playing under the lamps.

Only at this time, I realized that our big family is a whole, and grandpa is the head of the family!July 22, 1982