Nowadays, people greet each other by saying, “Hello, what are you doing? Are you busy? But in the past, the most common greeting is “Have you eaten? This shows the position of food in people’s minds.
I don’t know when, people no longer see eating as so important, and from time to time complain about what to eat does not smell good, so from the ordinary family table, operating a hot restaurant, and even luxurious and beautiful hotel, there are people long-lost dried vegetables, wild vegetables, large cakes, bush haw porridge, but also become fashionable, entertaining guests with taste.
“People to food for the day”, since ancient times is the first proverb of our country in the East, some simply named the hotel “food for the day”, what is more important than eating things? This is certainly due to our thousands of years of history, experienced numerous foreign invasions, internal wars and natural disasters, often hungry and cold, not enough to eat.
The rest of my life was also late, and I did not experience the miserable life before the liberation of New China, “born under the red flag, growing up in the new society”, and spent a carefree childhood in happiness. However, I was caught up in the famine in the early 1960s. Was it a natural disaster or the Soviet Union’s forced debt? Or the Great Leap Forward, satellite and other tossed, it is not known, this will have to wait for the future historians to explain and comment, not we can say clear.
The following is my own personal experience of several things.
One, the vegetable group
At that time, I just went to the fourth grade, every day to walk to school 8 miles away from home, the daily ration of 4 taels of food per person, only a little corn flour porridge in the morning, can not go home at noon, with only a little corn flour vegetable nest, the actual is the vegetable dumplings, carrying a school bag, carrying a bag made of towels sewn, containing two vegetable dumplings, a canton of seven or eight students, all so, then it was so fair, who are the same, no one special, can bring some good food.
On the way to school, often a person telling a story, everyone around the side of the walk to listen, long can be told for several days, the speaker add oil and vinegar, listening to the people with great interest. Forgetting everything, no story to tell, everyone argued over a matter, no one could convince anyone, and unknowingly walked to school. In the age of hunger, this is the best way to fight hunger.
It was impossible for twelve- and three-year-old children to be honest and disciplined on the 8-mile road, and there were often several active classmates who would chase each other, swinging their bags and hitting each other, ignoring the food in the bags. 8 miles of road sometimes took an hour and a half, and sometimes they were late.
In the morning, I ate two bowls of thin paste, a few bubbles of urine out, my stomach has long been rumbling, starving after a few classes in the morning, rushed to find their bags, open a look, dumbfounded, two vegetable dumplings are all scattered, there is no point in the original shape, which is less noodles and more dishes. Although the number is not less, but already does not look like rice, in the heart has been discounted, but to fill the stomach is important, so do not care so much, with the hands of these scattered, re-group together, wolf gobble, a little while not survived the piece of armor.
At that time, thanks to the wild vegetables, people used it to fill their stomachs that never knew hunger, and to maintain the yellow, thin, malnourished life. At that time, they looked forward to when they could eat dry food or thin porridge without wild vegetables, and when they could have a full meal.
Of course, no matter how would not think, now people eat enough, eat well, eat about nutrition. Wild vegetables, like the “hometown group” as the people’s eyes again, on the people’s table, and on the rich and powerful people often access to the Hall of Elegance. It is really thirty years of the river east, thirty years of the river west ah!
Second, “starch”
Starch is a polysaccharide synthesized by many glucose molecules, widely found in plant grains, fruits, tubers, bulbs, etc. It is the main form of energy storage in plants, such as rice, wheat, potatoes, etc.. It is an indispensable component of nutrition and food, and it cannot be associated with hunger in any way, just as ridiculous as having an emperor who said that the people would eat meat if they had no food. But in those times of famine, they did eat “starch”.
In those years, there were wild vegetables and leaves to feed the hungry in spring and summer, but there was nothing to use in winter, so I don’t know who, or where, invented a method called boiling “starch”.
It was the winter of 1960, I was still in elementary school, after school, I ran to the production team’s yard to see how to boil “starch”, first washed the bole leaves, put them into a large pot, add water, boil the fire, and from time to time put alkali into the pot, repeatedly boil until the bole leaves are rotten, then mash the bole rice in the pot into hemp, then fish out the bole leaves, the pot is “starch”, and finally over the package, that is, filter out the water with gauze, like the process of making vermicelli, and finally became a pile of “starch”, a pile of 2-30 kg, made into small pieces, and then distributed to each population by the pound.
This thing is dark brown, crushed with a hand, very fine, really starch kind of feeling, is this why it is called starch? I don’t know, divided into homes and mixed into the rice flour, or made into large cakes, or made into a nest, a bite is very difficult to eat, to the mouth is also difficult to swallow.
In the process of boiling “starch”, put a lot of alkali, just like now boiling porridge put alkali, is to increase the viscosity, or for other reasons, I do not know, anyway, more alkali, in addition to bad taste, eat the stomach can not stand, many people ate, swelling, but it can fill the hungry belly after all, better than nothing.
After boiling the bole leaves, the bole straw was used as raw material, and in the winter and early spring of that year, folks relied on this “starch” to sustain their lives. Weak and old people spent the rest of their lives in such winter.
Of course, this is by no means an invention of our place, all rural people who passed through that era will not forget, this is also considered a new thing in those days.
III. Poisoning
In the years of famine, people even the most basic survival conditions, food is a problem, other aspects of materials can be imagined, but the New Year festivities are still lively, happy, children also want to wear new clothes, firecrackers, food is not, a few catties of white flour, New Year’s Day also want to eat a dumpling. Other than that, there is nothing different from the usual. But the specific has been forgotten, only one thing, deeply imprinted in the brain, and still clearly visible.
In 1960, on the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, my mother made soba noodles, no marinade, pounded garlic sauce, noodles on the garlic sauce is also quite delicious, the color of the noodles some reddish, but in those days can eat a noodle, that is really difficult.
When we saw such a delicious, we children naturally gobbled it up, quickly, but Mom could not eat more, not waiting to finish eating, we children fell down, not long, Mom also confused.
The day the old lady finished her meal and came out to do the dishes, she felt puzzled, just now there was a lot of noise, but now there was no movement at all.
The old doctor was drinking at home, listening to the girl said our family is sick, and my father was not at home at that time, put down the wine cup, picked up the clinic box and came to the home to see, the dining table is still on the pit, the basin inside the noodles have not finished eating, the old doctor took a look, and asked, how this noodle so red ah? The mother ate less and still understood a little, saying, “When grinding buckwheat noodles, I saw too little, and it just so happened that there was a pile of scabiosa (pronounced: làng dàng) seeds next to it, so in order to let the children eat more, they mixed it in.” It was sifted out of the buckwheat by someone else.
The doctor understood and said, “Scopole is a medicinal herb, it’s poisonous, you’re getting food poisoning.” At that time, there were no conditions in the countryside, so they used the native method, filling us with feces one by one, telling us to vomit, and the old lady there boiled mung bean water with her girl, and the old man looked for a medicine book to find the medicine that could detoxify the scopole, such as hemp, rhinoceros horn, licorice, crab, etc. He only had licorice there, so he washed it and let us chew it, and drank mung bean water.
The mother regretted it and said, “These days when I see children hungry, I want them to eat more, which I thought almost got them killed.”
After more than 40 years, remembering this incident, still have palpitations.
Four, constipation
I feel indecent to write out the title, but in those famine years, people in order to survive, in order to live, try to fill their stomachs, naturally happened some of today’s indecent and unclean things. At that time, it was still called dry intestine, so I chose this more elegant and popular expression.
In the spring of 1961, it was the time of the green and yellow, my family children, but also all boys, clothes worn fast, food to eat more, the family really did not eat, Dad found the production captain, the captain said: the team also no food, some grain, is the seeds left after planting, lend it to you, to the autumn to return on. Dad was naturally grateful.
Normally, the grain can be ground into rice for cooking and eating, but at that time it was too extravagant. Dad borrowed the grain, all ground into noodles, said noodles, in fact, very rough, there are some grass seeds, and the grain layer of the crust is very hard, with the past kind of mill simply can not grind, grinding a few times also do not sieve, and took home.
How to eat these ground grains? Of course can not cook, can not do porridge, do porridge those husks, will float on the water can not eat, can only be mixed with some rice flour to make cakes or nest, eat no other taste, is a little scratch throat, not easy to swallow, better than the taste of starvation.
A week later, the problem came, several of our children feel uncomfortable stomach, can not pull down the poop, I am the most serious, thought of a lot of native methods, with salted vegetable strips suck, oil on the buttocks, eat cathartic, how can not pull out, the stomach bloated bulging, at this time is not hungry, did not eat anything for several days, really can not help, has been eight or nine days, had to go to the hospital.
A doctor felt my bulging and shiny stomach and asked what methods were used, then said: enema, told the nurse to take a basin, pour half a basin of water, then some small pieces of soap, stirred in the water, I thought, with so much water enema, I can drink in? Besides, how can I drink the soapy water?
The doctor told me to drop my pants, squat down and pucker up my buttocks, he used an oversized syringe, drew a tube full of soapy water and injected it through the anus, and told me to hold it in, just injected, stomach rumbling, and injected a second tube, injected halfway, really can not hold it, the family rushed to bring the first prepared basin, the doctor just pulled off the syringe, it came out, like a stone dropped in the basin.
I heard that now there are also many people constipation, is a disease, also said to be rich disease, is too little diet, food is too fine and too fine, the lack of fiber in the food, lack of exercise caused.
At that time just the opposite, eat more, and coarse and brown, so called dry large intestine. It seems that nothing can be taken to extremes.
Five, picking food
In the summer of 1961, I was already in middle school, and the school was in a town more than 50 miles away from home, and I was fed at the school, with more than one pound of food per day, although I was not too full, but it was much better than at home. At that time, 14-5 years old, it is the period of growing body, sometimes after the evening study, or idle hunger hard to bear.
One Sunday in the autumn, a classmate and I did not go home, there is nothing to do at school, we discussed, now that the autumn harvest is over, let’s go to the nearby fields to pick some bush rice, to the same school home fried into bush rice flower, evening to play sacrifice.
So the two of us took a bag sewn with a hand towel and set off, said near, in fact, out of town is quite far, through a forest belt, only to see the crop field, and we came out of the imagination is completely different, a white blanket really clean, even the straw is no longer, we thought, here is too close to town, the street people are here to get firewood, go farther to get some good, and continue to walk.
Before we knew it, it was noon, and we didn’t feel anything, because the front was full of hope and temptation. We can’t walk along the road, far from seeing a crop field, we went straight, far from the town, the crop field is also more, we also have some harvest, to be honest, in those days, the harvest can lose a few, is to lose more, but also long ago told others to pick away, we picked a bush rice, the grain rubbed into the bag, even if only a few grains, also picked up, the particles to the warehouse well. When you see bean sticks and pods in the bean field, you can pick them up, anyway, they can be fried and eaten.
Gradually feel some tired, we will take a break, it is already afternoon, also feel hungry, look at the bag, really good, almost full, thinking that this will be able to eat a week. We both joked, don’t be greedy, like the boss of the Sun Mountain, called the sun burned. This is a story told in the elementary school language text.
We both began to walk back, seven around eight around most of the day, only head down to pick food, which still remember the direction, I said to go this way, he said to go there, walk a while, argue a while, the sun is going to set.
At this point we are both anxious, the wilderness of the deserted mountains, can not tell where it is there, we do not fight, towards a direction just keep walking, a day without food also do not feel hungry, just anxious to go back to school, we found a road, looks quite wide, walking a lot of people, in fact, it was already dark, did not walk for a while, saw the lights, the original is to a village, to the production team asked, here more than 30 miles from the school, the original is the wrong direction, the further away.
We asked how to go back to school, and the old man said, “It’s so late, what are you going to do, go to my house for dinner, stay here for the night and go back tomorrow.
We are afraid of teacher criticism, the next day at 3:00, the old man up to feed the animals, on the road, to school is less than 7:00.
It is said that people die for money, birds die for food, we are not busy for food?
Sixth, drink porridge
In 1964 to the city to study, this time is no longer a famine years, school meals are also much better, every week to improve once, eat a fine food, still remember, every Tuesday at noon, eat a meal of rice or steamed buns, then is the rice ticket queue to buy food, this rice ticket than other special, there is an Arabic numeral “2”, eat steamed buns, so we all say, “small 2 small 2, two steamed buns a bowl of vegetables”, some students accidentally lost this rice ticket, this meal of fine food can not eat, that is the most frustrating.
At that time, the school management was strict, residential students were not allowed to leave the school from the morning waking up to the evening lights out, and they had to wake up in the morning for morning exercises and go to bed at night to take roll call. Just to Saturday after school is casual, just to the city, everything feels new, once Saturday after dinner, students will gang up to go shopping in the street, to eight or nine o’clock to come back, each time back is exhausted, tired and hungry.
Every time you go shopping there is no purpose, is curiosity driven, so this time to go here, the next time to go there, one day we walked to a small street in the middle of nowhere, found a porridge store, someone out and about, a few of our students also went in, (of course if it is a brightly lit hotel, we are afraid to go in), a door, there is a small blackboard, it says, rice porridge 5 cents a bowl, sorghum rice porridge 3 cents a bowl The price of some small dishes, we looked at each other and laughed, really happy, do not have to discuss a person bought a bowl of sorghum rice porridge, dishes can not be asked, then students have no money, just drink porridge no taste, each table has soy sauce, is free, a bowl of porridge poured on some soy sauce, and do not have to find a seat, standing a few minutes to drink down, also considered a full meal. So we all say, “It’s hard to buy a Saturday with money, eat a full meal and sleep enough”.
After every Saturday night, we have to go there to drink porridge, although we all keep it a secret, but the news is still not the path to go, and then go to see the other classes of our school, now I still remember that the street called Jinhui Street, the congee store called Jinhui congee store.
A few years after graduation, to that city, but also to see there, but has been called Jinhui restaurant. A few years ago, I went back to that city, but it had completely disappeared. All are lined up, staggered high-rise buildings.
Over the past few decades, I have been to countless restaurants, hotels, and even star hotels, eaten wild vegetables and flowers, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also eaten mountains and seafood, delicious food, but Jinhui congee store porridge, but I can not forget, not how delicious that porridge, how nutritious, is that it called me to remember that era, people’s helplessness to hunger, the satisfaction of filling the stomach.
Time is always passing, and those events of the famine years are getting longer and longer ago. With the development of society, the standard of living is getting higher and higher, eating in people’s lives, occupying a smaller and smaller position, if there are still people who are not satisfied with eating, it is how to eat delicious, nutritious and safe, which is a higher level of worry, and famine will have nothing to do with it.
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