My hometown and my uncle

I went back to my hometown last month, mainly to celebrate my second uncle's 80th birthday, and secondly, I also wanted to take the opportunity to enjoy the landscape of my hometown, and then I wanted to collect the stories of my parents and grandparents in my second uncle. Before coming, I heard my sister and brother-in-law say that the last time they returned to their hometown, our family had lived in the old house is still there, but has been in disrepair.

My mother was a careless person, and I didn't even know that the old house that had accompanied our childhood had been there without my knowledge. It was the second uncle who mentioned the old house during a casual conversation with the family. It was only then that my sisters realized that they had gone to "revisit" the house. But unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.

I am not a good speaker by nature, but I am nostalgic by nature and like to record things that interest me in writing. Knowing about the old house, more inspired me to return to the hometown of the intention.

My hometown of Lishu County, Heshan Village, located in the southwest of Jilin Province, is one of the important food production bases in the northeast, the famous war hero General Han Shupeng was born in our Heshan Village (Chinese military network - martyrs memorial hall can be found). I have the deepest impression of the village is the two waters, one of them is an artificial river, the locals call him Da Jiang, a river forced to be dug out by Chinese laborers during the Japanese rule in Northeast China, in order to be used for irrigation of paddy fields downstream (Gujiazui). At that time, many people died, which is one of the evidence of Japan's invasion of China, but also exposed Japan's ambition to long-term domination of the eastern provinces! And a river east of the village is natural and, that is the East Liaohe River Basin, an important river in Northeast China. I remember as a child my sister, brother, sister and I often went to these two waters to play, play in the water, catch loaches, and play slippery sting in the winter. It was the Eden Garden of my childhood and a happy paradise for the little ones in the village ......

The hometown: about one hundred and thirty kilometers away from where I live now, it only takes two or three hours by car, and belongs to the jurisdiction of Jilin Province. But even I can't believe that the land where my grandparents lived, I haven't ventured into forty years! The years are long, forty years may be the universe light years of a moment, but it is the life of half a life ......! How many old things in this half-life in the old and new, intertwined and changed, how many stories could have been passed on to future generations but because of the "disinterest" of future generations and forgotten by time, and finally disappeared into the clouds of nothingness and the nine heavens, never to be found ......

In fact, although I have not been back to my hometown for so many years, but the contact between relatives in the hometown has never been interrupted, other members of the family occasionally still go back, more often than not is the second uncle's family to visit us in town. Among the many relatives, the second uncle is the most frequent contact with our family. When I was a child, I heard the letter carrier shouting outside the courtyard door: "Old Yang family letter from your home", I knew that it must be from second uncle.

My grandmother had three boys and two girls and five children, and my father was the eldest son. Shortly after my father and mother got married, they left the countryside with the pursuit of a better future to go to the city, and after several changes, they finally stayed in Liaoyuan (called Xi'an at that time). My second uncle was very handy, not only in crop work, but also in carpentry and ironwork, so people in the village respected him as Master Yang.

As our parents stabilized in Liaoyuan, we gradually accepted this strange city as our new "hometown", while our former hometown had become a "distant" hometown.

But the sky was unpredictable: a Red Revolution came out of nowhere, and my father passed away unjustly, so my mother took us sisters and fled back to our hometown in a hurry to take refuge. I was only four years old that year, my eldest sister was only 11, and my youngest sister was only a year old. It was Uncle Er who took us in, and with his help we survived the hardship. Our family spent two years in the countryside, living from day to day. Then my father was rehabilitated and my mother led us back to the city. But my father's death was a heavy blow to my mother ...... , but my second uncle has not forgotten the care of these nieces and nephews.

Perhaps it is influenced by the concept of "where the mother is which is home, perhaps it is adapted to the pace of life in the city, and diluted the location of the hometown in my heart, or because of their own reasons, in the family several times back to the hometown I was not able to go with ......!

But no matter how my love for my hometown has never changed, to know that is printed on my account book branded in my heart of the place name, "Lishu County" three words have been deep in my blood, is never change the fact. After all, that is where my grandfather and grandmother lived.

The place where my grandparents lived, there is the story of my parents growing up. They studied there, met, fell in love, got married ......, and although they later "flew far away", their roots have been deeply rooted in that fertile soil, where we have

The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you want to do.

My second uncle is the most helpful person to my family among my father's relatives, and is our most dependent relative. But to be honest; my feelings for my second uncle is only from the "courtesy" between relatives, and not much feeling, after all, I was still young, do not appreciate the difficulties of life, but also do not understand what is called a drop of grace when the spring, but also can not remember those "old sesame things ......

What made me respect my second uncle is: a year ago I went to my sister's house, our sisters had nothing to chat, talking about the family's past, she and I told a rural residence when she was engraved in her mind, my sister said; "once back from outside, passing the door of the second uncle's house, from the second uncle's house hidden door came the sound of the second uncle and second aunt talking ", the second aunt complained to the second uncle said: "so a large group of people, one person a bowl of rice is seven bowls of rice, one person a cotton clothes is seven", ......! Words reveal the pressure we bring to his family! The second aunt is actually right, that year the second uncle is only twenty-six or seven years old, an ordinary farmer, both to support the grandmother and to support their own family of several people. In those days of economic backwardness and poverty, life was not easy, and the arrival of our family brought them not only economic pressure, but also the special period of "nine clans in a row", which invariably brought them a political risk that could not be ignored.... ...! For a young

This is indeed an unprecedented risk and test for a young farmer.

But Uncle Er didn't hesitate and took us in without a care in the world. After my elder sister told me these stories, I instantly felt a warm current in my heart, and the image of Uncle Er suddenly became taller. I understood my mother's deep feelings for my uncle's family all along, and I also understood that after my sister bought a house in Sanya in 2018, she took my uncle and aunt there at the first time and treated them like parents, so that my uncle and aunt, who had never been outside the provincial capital, were really happy for a long time, and the beautiful Sanya left them unforgettable memories.

The hometown is still the hometown, but its shadow in my mind is no longer blurred, the second uncle is still the second uncle, but his position in my heart has been as important as the parents.