Old things in the south

Chapter 35 My Childhood Play
My "Little Feet Girl"

In Lao Jiuxia's shoebox, lived my beloved "little feet mother", quietly waiting for her playmate - Li Lianfang's "little feet mother".

On a summer afternoon, on the elm trees in the yard, chirping birds (cicadas) made a long cry of "chirp-chirp--".Although the voice was very loud, it was not noisy because of the monotony. Instead, the mother took her little brother and little sister to take a nap peacefully amidst the rhythmic sound.I was the only one, waiting excitedly for Li Lianfang's arrival - we were going to play with Little Feet.

As soon as the summer vacation was over, I became a few new mothers with little feet.A match stick, a little foot girl made of a few small pieces of floral cloth, I don’t know why it gave me so much happiness.

Lao Jiuxia's shoebox is the home of Littlefoot's mother; the compartments and furniture in the shoebox are also made of Danfeng brand matchboxes.If it is a bed, there are pillows and quilts made by myself on it; if it is a table, there is also a piece of white cloth cut by me and a lace doily on it.In short, everything in this little-footed girl's house is based on my ideals and interests, and most importantly, it is made with my artistic vision.

The most exciting thing is that when I was eating at noon, I prepared a vegetable box made of thick paper and put it next to my buttocks on the stool.When Dad put down his chopsticks and left the table as soon as he finished eating, my vegetable box was on the table.I picked up fried bean sprouts, fried mustard with shredded pork, white sliced ​​meat, etc., and filled a box.Of course, Mama Song would stare at me from the side.Regardless of that, bring a few toothpicks as well, so they can be used as chopsticks.

Li Lianfang came with her shoebox in her arms.We started our family relationship in the cool North Room suite.He opened two shoe boxes and each took out his little feet.I pinched my mother's little feet with only a pair of trouser legs and exposed shoe tips, and tremblingly walked towards Li Lianfang's shoebox, and then I opened the door, gave up my seat, drank tea, ate, and chatted.In fact, all this is the two of us talking, drinking tea, and eating leftovers from lunch.It's what adults say, and it's very interesting.Because at this moment, we become a housewife, a housewife who can take the initiative and play, and the most important thing is not to be controlled by adults.

From six to 60 years old

Almost all of the homemade toys and games made by girls in the old days were related to their learning about women and practicing housework.The so-called combination of education in games can be said so.But this is not a school education program, but a natural formation in the old family.

I went to Peiping from Taiwan with my parents when I was five years old. I grew up in the north of the mainland in my childhood, and I was already full of northern girlishness.I would like to pluck from memory my childhood amusements, my toys and a life gone forever.

Yesterday, in order to write this article for "Hansheng" and make some practical toys, I went to Yuanling Street to buy silk threads and small beads, just like Rui Yuxing went to Beiping Rongyan Hutong to buy silk threads when I was a child.But it is impossible to buy velvet thread for wrapping rice dumplings in Taipei.I had to buy some thick silk threads and small beads with larger holes, because the six-year-old me and the 60-year-old me now use eyesight differently!

Wrapping zongzi with silk thread is a seasonal toy made by little girls in the north with female red materials.First make a zongzi shape with hard paper, and then wrap it with velvet threads of various colors.Color matching makes me the happiest. I can match various colors as I like.After the zongzi is wrapped, make tassels on the bottom, maybe put a few beads on it, it all depends on your own arrangement.The wrapping of zongzi started many days before the Dragon Boat Festival, and it was already ready by the time of the Dragon Boat Festival. Some were given away, and some were kept for hanging up.At the same time, there are also sachets, which are cut into gourd shapes, diamond shapes, and squares with small pieces of red cloth, and sewn into small bags, which contain some spices.String it up and add a small rice dumpling, hang it on the right button, and walk around, it's so beautiful.In addition to wrapping zongzi, velvet thread is also wrapped around sanitary balls (camphor balls).After all, it has become a work of art.

Beads are also self-made toys that girls like to play with, and they also serve as decorations for women to learn to make.I used the beading method in my memory to wear a pair of rings, earrings, and bracelets, which can be regarded as my six-year-old work!

Lao Zier

The weather in the north has four distinct seasons.Children's games are also slightly different between seasons and indoors and outdoors.Of course, most of the dynamic ones are outdoors, and the static ones are indoors.Girls often play games indoors, but there are also action games, which are held indoors, and that is "Laozier".

There are many kinds of utensils for Laozier, such as ginkgo fruit, peach pit, cloth bag and glass ball.But when they play, they feel different.Ginkgo and peach stone have similar hardness and elasticity.The cloth bag contains mung beans, which are not round and solid and cannot be rolled, so the gameplay is slightly different.The glass ball is hard, slippery, and can jump up, so there is an extra way to play.

The odd number (five or seven grains) was scattered on the table, and the table was covered with a wide, evenly woven scarf, which was soft and moderate.Then take out one grain, throw it into the air, quickly pick one up with your hands, throw it again, pick another one, pick up all seven, and sprinkle it again, this time pick two at the same time, and then pick three more. pieces, and finally pick all of them.Finishing the whole set is a unit, if you don't finish it, you will lose.

Women's hands are more skilful in use, of course, it has a lot to do with childhood game actions.I remember reading foreign magazines saying that some surgeons learn how women use two knitting yarns, just to practice the dexterity of their fingers.

Lao Zier, I play a lot in winter, because it is on the indoor table.I remember that when I was studying in elementary school in winter, 10 minutes after class was over, the boys rushed out of the classroom and ran out of the classroom, and the girls hurriedly took out the woolen scarves and spread them on the desks, and opened them.

In order to collect these toys for "Han Sheng", I bought some ginkgo and tried to play with them.The result is that a ginkgo fruit is thrown, presbyopia and slightly trembling hands, unable to accurately pick the ones on the table and catch the ones falling from the air at the same time.Very sad!
In addition to Lao Zier, there is also "bounce iron broad beans" playing on the table.As the name suggests, broad beans are called iron, which is extremely dry and hard.Before you eat it, let’s play with it for a while. Sprinkle it on the table, draw it with your little finger between the two grains, then pinch your thumb and index finger, release your thumb, and use one grain to flick the other. granule, not allowed to touch other.After you play it well, you can pick up one to count as a win, and then continue to do it, to see if you can play all of them to count as a win.

Skipping rope and kicking the shuttlecock
Although these two games exist today, regardless of place and season, the toys are different.Skipping rope, of course, is basically hemp rope, and later there are boy scout ropes and rubber bands from Taiwan.My favorite is the skipping rope worn with a bamboo pen tube when I was a child.After I left, I went to a pen-making workshop in the west gate of Liulichang. I went to buy a pen and cut off the remaining bamboo tube about an inch long. Its thickness was the pen we used to write Chinese characters.It is very cheap to buy a large bag and use white string to thread them into a long rope.This kind of rope, no matter it is hit on hard ground or brick floor, will make a crisp sound of bamboo pipes, and it also has a pleasant sound in the game.

Jumping double rope is not easy, rhythmic and fast.But it is not easy to pick coins in skipping rope.Put a stack of copper coins on the ground (where the rope cannot touch the ground), and every time you jump, bow your head and bend down to pick up a copper coin, and jump a second time to see if you can catch up.Jumping, bending over, and reaching out to pick up money, although it is not an intense exercise, it is an exercise that moves the whole body!

Shuttlecock kicking is a Chinese game since ancient times. This toy feather is the foundation, but the bottom support has changed with the times.When I was young, although copper plates were used as coins in the currency system, there are still many uses for the money left over, and the bottom support for shuttlecocks is the best.The square hole is passed through a belt, and the feathers are tied up, which is the shuttlecock.

It is also fun to make your own shuttlecock.The feathers were cut out of colored paper, and the big autumn chrysanthemums were used as feathers. They were all shuttlecocks.In my memory, there is a kind of shuttlecock kicking for children, which is called "kicking money". Two pieces of money are worn with a red string, which is just the length of the child's hand to the foot.The child carried it, kicked it, and hit the upper of the cloth shoe, but it went smoothly.

When kicking the shuttlecock to learn tricks, there is a song that you can read, kick, and move according to the lyrics: "One shuttlecock, kick two petals. Hit the flower drum, wind the flower string. Kick inward, turn outward. Eight immortals, cross the sea. 99, one hundred."

After reading it, it was exactly ten kicks, but after the fifth kick, it was all "stunts"!

live thing
For little girls and young boys, raising silkworms in spring can also be regarded as a kind of "play"!In the spring, the children came to ask for the silkworm egg thrown on the paper last year, and saw that it had black spots, moved, gradually turned white, and became bigger.So I started looking for mulberry leaves, washed them, dried them, and tore them into small pieces to feed the silkworms.When it’s time to spin silk, cover it with an ink cartridge, wrap it with paper, put a few silkworms on it, let it spin silk, and carefully remove the silkworm excrement.I spit enough to make the core for soaking ink in the ink cartridge. When I use it to write brush characters, I feel very kind in my heart, because the whole process is done by myself.

The most unexpected thing is that the children living in Peking even play "Hanging Ghost".Hanging ghost is another name for the locust tree worm. In summer, the worms on the big locust tree are like silkworms, hanging from the tree by strands of silk, and the strips are light green.Sometimes we take an empty bottle and a pair of chopsticks, and we pick them off one by one under the tree and put them into the bottle. When the bottle is full, watching them squirm in the bottle is very disgusting, but I don’t know why.I have forgotten how to deal with it after playing enough.

A small light gray snail crawled on the white wall of the yard after the rain. The place it crawled over became a silvery white line due to the passage of mucus.You want to take it off, but with a light touch, the snail's sensitive tentacles will retract into the shell, fall to the ground, and won't come out.At this time, we will pull out the voice and sing:

"Buffalo—buffalo, first the horns and then the head. Your mother—your father, buy you sesame seed cakes and mutton to eat!..."

In the sound of the market in spring, there are sellers of goldfish and tadpoles. The tadpoles are commonly called "toad bones" in Peking.When the flower is in bud and not yet open, it is called "guduo'er", which means that the frog has not yet grown up.Peiping people swallow tadpoles alive, thinking that they can clear fire.Children often buy some tadpoles from goldfish pickers to raise, thinking that they can turn into frogs. In fact, raising tadpoles in glass bottles has never turned into frogs, but it is always very interesting to play with living things.

the day of paper cutting

Sheets of square and colored electro-optic paper were folded in half, folded in half, and folded in half again, and small scissors were running freely on them to cut various patterns.After cutting it and opening it, I was really happy. It was another creation. The design was so beautiful. I admired it for a while, and it was sandwiched in a thick foreign book of my father.

Paper-cutting is not a clipping class in elementary school, but one of the artistic life of a little girl in the north.Sometimes we little girls each took their own pile of colored paper, cut it together, admired each other, and were very happy.

When we grow up, if there are festive events in the family, such as grandpa’s birthday, elder brother’s marriage to his sister-in-law, and birthday characters and double happiness characters are posted everywhere, we can’t rush to help cut them. At this time, creative artistic characters are can appear.

(End of this chapter)