Chapter 5 Four Tasteful Poverty Life

It is precisely because of the courage to stand up and say: "Our ancestors have been poor for generations." Grandma's poor life is really firm and thorough. When I was in the lower grades of elementary school, the scars of the war were still deep, everyone was poor, and many children did not have enough to eat.Therefore, the school regularly conducts nutritional surveys for students, asking questions such as "what did you eat this morning" and "what did you eat last night", and we write the answers in the notebook and hand them in. "I had lobster miso soup for breakfast."

"Grilled lobster for dinner." The head teacher saw that I wrote like this for several days. One day after school, he came to our dilapidated home with a suspicious expression—he probably thought it was too strange for a child from such a poor family to eat lobster twice a day.The teacher showed the notebook to grandma and asked: "This is Tokunaga-kun's answer, is it true?" I retorted angrily: "I'm not lying, am I? Mamaw, we eat lobster for breakfast and dinner every day!" Grandma immediately laughed. "Teacher, I'm sorry, that's not a lobster, it's a lobster, but I told this kid that it's a lobster..."

"Is that so?" "It looks about the same!" "Oh, really." The teacher also laughed, and finally figured out the matter. Grandma gave me lobster, but told me it was lobster. I, who had never eaten lobster, really believed her.By the way, crayfish are often available in our family's own "supermarket". This was the only time my grandma lied to me, and it was a harmless lie. Once again, such a thing happened. In summer, I went to a friend's house to play and found an interesting thing - a mask made of watermelon.Because there is a farmhouse, there are mountains of watermelons.Like the masks people make out of pumpkins for Halloween now, that mask was made out of watermelon rind.

"It's funny, it's fun." Seeing that I was full of praise, my friend gave me the watermelon mask. I was overjoyed, and solemnly took it home to show my grandma. "Grandma, do you look good?" "Oh, very interesting." Grandma also looked at it approvingly. When I went to bed at night, I put the watermelon mask next to my pillow, and I planned to take it to school tomorrow to show off to my classmates.But when I woke up in the morning, when I opened my eyes, I found that the watermelon mask beside my pillow had disappeared without a trace. Grandma went to work and was not at home. I had no choice but to go to school.After returning home from school, ask grandma again:

"Grandma, where is my watermelon mask? I haven't seen it since I woke up this morning." "Ah, that..." Grandma smiled and showed me the glass plate, "Look, it's delicious, right?" Watermelon rinds are being marinated on a plate. From these small stories, we can understand that in the life of the poor, the most important thing is the daily diet.Although the house is dilapidated, it can still shelter from the wind and rain; I don’t ask for luxury clothes, and I don’t worry about shortages. My cousin always wears what I don’t need.Only rice is something that must be eaten every day, so grandma is very shrewd in eating.

First of all, grandma likes to drink tea very much.After drinking tea, there will be tea leaves. She dried the tea leaves, fried them in a pan and sprinkled them with salt.If it is now, it may be sold under the title of "Grandma Fragrant Pine" rich in catechins. Then there are fish bones. "Fish bones contain calcium, eat it." Grandma told me to eat even very thick fish bones.But there are always some fish bones that are hard bones that cannot be chewed, like mackerel bones.Every time after eating fish, grandma puts the fish bones in a bowl, pours hot water into it, and drinks it into bone broth.This is not over yet, the remaining fish bones are dried in the sun, chopped with a kitchen knife, pressed into powder, and used as chicken feed.Others include apple peels, bruised vegetables, etc., which were all used by grandma as chicken feed.

Grandma always said so proudly: "There are only things that can be picked up, nothing that should be thrown away." Speaking of picked up items, the Riverside "Supermarket" has an annual food extravaganza.That is the Obon Festival. On the island of Kyushu, on the last day of the Obon ritual, there is a "spirit flow" ceremony to send the gods to the gods, which is to float down the river with flowers and food on the boat. As you may have guessed, the boat drifting down from the upstream was of course stopped by grandma's wooden stick.Grandma picked up the boat and picked up the apples, bananas and other fruits on it.

I really want to eat apples and bananas, but when I saw my grandma doing this for the first time, I was worried that I would be punished by God. "Grandma, is this something for Bodhisattvas?" "Ok." "Won't God punish you for doing this?" "What do you mean? Let them float down like this, the fruit will rot, it will pollute the sea, and it will also cause trouble for fish." As she spoke, she scooped up small boats and picked up the fruits without stopping. "But……" Grandma continued: "The souls of the dead are still on board, so they can't be sent back to the river properly."

After speaking, he put the boat back into the river respectfully, clasped his palms together and said, "Thank you." Grandma is a devout Buddhist.As I said before, she was never sloppy with the food she offered to Buddha every morning. Even though she was so poor, grandma never stingy with donations to temples and Buddhist offerings. If a bodhisattva punishes us for our annual food feast, it will make people think that the bodhisattva has no bodhisattva heart.