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My Rose

The days when I was handpicked were very hard, but also very happy

By JamesPublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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My Rose
Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash

My hometown is a small mine, the people there are particularly simple and hardworking, they are working every day on the construction of the country a hundred miles underground, but few people remember them, and no one has ever paid attention to their lives, but they are so uncomplaining, day after day, year after year, with their own hands in the sunless underground digging out a piece of coal with warmth and hope, these lovely miners often say: It doesn't matter how hard they work, as long as they live and make a contribution to our country, they are satisfied. Today I would like to talk about a special group of miners in this big collective - mine hand selectors, most of the personnel of this group are female workers, I call them "mine roses" because, in my heart, they are the most beautiful, the most lovely mine Roses.

My mother was once handpicked, and I first learned the term handpicked from my mother. I remember when I was a child, my mother worked in the selection and transportation area, she was very busy every day, and it took her a long time to get home from work. Whenever we were particularly loud, my father would come over and take my brother and me out, lead us out into the street, and then say to me, "Wei Wei, your mother works very hard and has to take care of the house, you are the older sister, from now on you are not allowed to take your brother and make a lot of noise in the house, affecting your mother's rest, okay?" I was still reluctant to talk to my mother for a few days because my father said so himself, and I wanted to think that it was not because she was resting, and my father would not teach me a lesson.

In 2001, I was assigned back to work in the Duckou Mine, and after reporting to work, I was assigned by the mine to the transportation area for a six-month apprenticeship. I remember that my first shift was a night shift, and the shift manager assigned me a master and told him to take care of me and let me get familiar with the environment first, so I didn't have to work. Then, I followed the master to the east building by the sieve, and the master introduced me to the east building one by one. At that time, I just felt that it was so noisy there, the sound of the sieve was loud, and it was dark everywhere, and it was not good to think that I would have to work here for six months. The next day when I returned home, I told my parents I did not want to go on, want to go to work, when my father said to me, your mother has been working there for ten years, and never shouted, you just went to a day, nothing to do to beat the drum, you have this point. My father's words made me feel that I couldn't be a deserter and that I must persevere.

So, I followed the master and started to learn the work of the hand selector, and slowly I learned to open the coal feeder, move the gangue, open the first belt, flat car, pick coal, and open the sieve and return the coal belt, etc. I also got acquainted with the people upstairs, was helped by their enthusiasm for each of them, and learned from them to be optimistic about each day. I remember the first independent work is to open the coal feeder, sometimes after the wet coal is down, the coal feeder will be blocked, you must take the pry bar to pry out the stone, and the coal feeder can be normal operation. The pry bar was so heavy that I couldn't hold it. At that time, an aunt in the same class saw it and helped me pry out the stone. When I saw her, who was even thinner than me, helping me with the pry bar, my eyes were wet with tears and I felt especially useless. Auntie saw me crying and told me: "child, it's okay, dry familiarity will be good, when I first came here then you are still small. When I first came here, I was younger than you. I couldn't do anything either, but your mother helped me. Your mother is a very capable person." That's when I knew how ignorant I was as a child and didn't talk to my mother because she had to rest, but it turned out that her work was so hard.

Half a year passed, my apprenticeship was over, and I was assigned to work in the mine. However, whenever I encountered difficulties in my work, I would remember what happened in the coal processing building. What I remember most is that once I was assigned to open the No.1 belt, and all the coal picked up from the working face of mining area three that day was wet coal. I felt so helpless that I sat down and cried. Suddenly I heard the sound of the squad leader and the master talking, only to see them come over with the shovel, then the master said to me: "Do not cry, crying is useless, this difficulty can not bear, after your life will be more difficult, get up, we work together, learn to smile in the future to face life, do not just cry about everything, to find a way to solve ah, wet coal down, you How do not report to the class leader? We will help you if you have difficulties, we are a collective".

The days when I was handpicked were very hard, but also very happy, and I learned a lot of knowledge so that I know how to face life, how to deal with life, how to work, and all of this is those who work every day in the front line of the coal mine, doing the most tired and hard, but still smiling handpicked taught me, if not them, maybe now I am not sitting in a bright office, but in the city. If not for them, maybe now I am not sitting in a bright office, but in a small corner of the city, playing odd jobs, living a life that can not even feed itself. They are the most lovely and respectable people in my heart, and they are also the roses in my heart, the most beautiful "mine roses".

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James

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