Old things in the south

Chapter 24
Bamboo jacket, black skirt, female student from Peking.

A painter who grew up in the south came to Peiping for the first time one year.After living there for a few days, he said that after living and painting in Shanghai for many years, he didn't like any blue cloth.But this time when he came to Beiping, he changed his opinion all of a sudden. The blue cloth is so cute, and the female students riding bicycles all over the streets in Beiping, wearing all kinds of blue uniforms, are so cute!

When I first entered middle school, I was happiest when I changed into the uniform of middle school girls. In summer, the bamboo cloth jacket was moon white—very light and very light blue, and it was ironed evenly; A silk black skirt, long linen socks, and a pair of cleanly brushed basketball shoes.Instead of a hand-held schoolbag, a stack of books is tied up with a book tie.Short hair, parted obliquely, with the short side tucked behind the ears, and the long side half-hanging on the sideburns, almost covering half of the eyes.In groups of three or four, or ride a bike or walk.Whichever street has a girls' high school, that street looks lively and happy, which is highlighted by the youthful atmosphere of the female students.

Female students in Peiping wear long cotton gowns in winter, and a blue cloth gown, this time dark blue.Anyone who wears a new coat has to come over and beat him three times. This is the rule.But the old clothes that can stand the white dust are also very good, because they are old companions and they fit well.Remember the days when gym class was required?Half of the long white velvet sweatpants were exposed under the cotton robe. It was really ugly, but since everyone wore it like this, it didn't feel ugly.

After the birth of Indanthrembu, female students love it even more.Indanthrene is a name for artificial dyes, and it has various colors, but the "indanthrene color" that people often say in their mouths mostly refers to blue-blue.Its color is brighter than other fabrics, and wearing an indanthrene coat makes people feel particularly clean and smooth.The "hair blue" color, which is lighter than dark blue, is my favorite. I always wear this color at the turn of summer and autumn or spring and summer.

In fact, blue cloth is a characteristic of rustic northern clothing.People living in Peiping, regardless of age, gender, occupation, or class, have several pieces of blue cloth clothing throughout the year.Grandpa wore a satin squirrel fur gown with a blue cloth gown on the outside; mother wore a silk cotton gown with a silk lining and a blue cloth gown on the outside; It is also covered with a blue cloth coat, with a melon skin cap on the head; an extra fountain pen is inserted into the lapel of the blue cloth coat worn by the professor, and a navy blue French cap is on the head, an academic atmosphere!
Clothes made of indanthrene cloth, after a few washes, the stitches become obvious white, that is because the indanthrene cloth does not fade but the thread fades.This can prove that the material of the clothes is indeed indanthrene cloth, but for some reason there is no indanthrene thread, and suddenly I remembered the big girl who was sewing on the table in front of the window.A girl who never got married after a failed engagement once sewed clothes for others and supported herself and her mother with a meager income.There are many sisters in our family, and when it was time to make clothes in late autumn, my mother would always buy a large amount of indanthrene cloth. Song and mother couldn't make it together, so she always asked me to find the eldest girl.When we arrived at the eldest girl's house, the eldest girl was sewing clothes by the window, while her old mother was hunchbacked and coughing, making pancakes on the small briquette stove in the house!
When the eldest girl comes to my house, she always stays all afternoon. My mother discusses with her about cutting, because the children grow taller year by year.Then she went back with a large bag of cut clothes.

That year I left Peiping and passed through Shanghai, where I stayed at Xian's house and waited for the ship.One day when I went shopping in the street, I was used to wearing a blue cloth coat, but she taught me to change into a woolen cheongsam, because I would be discriminated against by the clerk when I went shopping in the street wearing a blue cloth coat.In the foreign market that "only recognizes clothes but not people", no one will sympathize with "self-inflicted humiliation"!

(End of this chapter)