Affection for Sidaogou during the Famine

"What do you know? Do you think tap water is free? Although the government charges a small amount, you still have to pay every month.

You will not be poor if you have enough food and drink, but you will be poor if you don’t plan well. Every penny does not fall from the sky, but is saved from every corner.

There is nothing we can do if other people don't have a well. We have a pressurized well at home, so we just need to put in some effort. Every penny saved counts. If we can use a pressurized well, we should try to use water from it!"

Han Zhaozhao muttered to herself, there was no water meter in this era, and she didn't understand how to pay for tap water. If the fee was charged by household or by the number of taps, she would still have to pay even if she didn't use water.

She can't save the water bill, right? Then her grandmother will be disappointed! It's easy to save, but she insists on doing the hard work. I don't know what her grandmother will think when the collector comes to her house!

Persuasion was useless, Han Zhaozhao sighed!

Further north of Dongzhimen, tap water is produced there. The tap water is really good, it can be used for washing clothes and vegetables. Once the tail pipe is opened, water will flow in spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Han Zhaozhao often heard her friends in the alley singing the nursery rhymes that were popular in old Beijing, but this was the first time she heard it for free.

It’s not that she doesn’t believe it. There was a saying in her previous life that there is no free lunch in the world.

People nowadays are very conscious. Big leaders live in public housing and still have to pay for the room, furniture, water and electricity. It is unlikely that ordinary people can take advantage of the country!

Grandma went to the back warehouse and took out a three-piece laundry set, a washboard, a mallet and a small stool. With a few "bangs", she had washed and hung a large basin of clothes and bedding out to dry.

Han Zhaozhao seriously doubted whether it could be cleaned clean with such efficiency and speed.

I had a question in my mind, and asked it out loud unconsciously. "Why can't it be washed clean? There's no oil stain, at most there's a little sweat stain, a little bit of soap."

The grandmother looked at her granddaughter with dissatisfaction. Why doesn’t this child understand? Didn’t we wash clothes like this at home before? Why are there so many questions today?

He stretched the cloth on the clothesline, lifted a corner to show her, and said, "Look how clean it is!"

Han Zhaozhao took a closer look and said, "It's not gray anymore, but it's a little yellow, which is too ugly.

Grandma, let's buy some cloth to make a quilt cover. It will be much cleaner. If it gets dirty, we don't have to take it apart to make a quilt. We can just wash the quilt cover."

The old lady didn't understand, "What are you talking about? What quilt cover? And you need to buy cloth? Child, please stop making trouble! Doesn't buying cloth cost money?

Three years new, three years old, three years mending. In life, save as much as you can and save when you should.

You have never been to other people's homes. Those families have many people and the children are about to get married, but they have never worn new clothes. The adults wear the clothes and then the women wear the clothes and then the children wear them.

The eldest child gives the small clothes to the second child, and the second child gives the small clothes to the third child. Those who can wear old clothes that don’t show their skin are from a good family. It’s not like our family, where you are the only one and you can’t even pick up the rags of the older children.

"Your parents treat you so well and are always thinking about buying you new clothes. Even when they don't go home, they still send me letters asking me to buy cloth to make new clothes for you. You are so lucky to be born in our family.

I won't be able to do that anymore... Hey! Why am I saying this again? Or is it the fabric? Isn't it normal for it to turn yellow? This is sweat stains. It stays like this for a long time. It's not dirty at all.

If you think it doesn't look good, grandma will cover the head of the quilt with a piece of white cloth. If it gets dirty, you can remove the quilt and wash it clean with just a handful of water.

At noon, grandma will roll noodles for you. Add some chopped green onions and cabbage leaves. It’s delicious! After dinner, grandma has to starch the quilt. Please help grandma go to the backyard and pull two green onions and a cabbage. "

When Han Zhaozhao came back from the backyard, her grandmother had already cleaned the yard. The laundry water had spilled all over the yard, and the wooden basin, washboard and mallet had all been put away.

In the kitchen, Han Zhaozhao helped add water and light the fire. She stared with wide eyes as she watched her grandmother pull out the key from her waist again, open the kitchen cabinet door, and scoop out a small ladle of flour from a one-and-a-half-foot-high ceramic jar on the lower level.

Poured into a brown ceramic bowl, there was only about half a bowl, less than half a pound.

There was still a handful of flour left in the ladle. She wanted to see what was in the cabinet, but unexpectedly the old lady locked the cabinet door.

Her movements were so smooth, it was obvious that she had done it by habit, which was enough to show how much the old lady valued food at home.

Han Zhaozhao thought: There is really no need. There are only two people in the house. Who should I be on guard against? From what I remember, the original owner didn't seem to be a naughty kid who didn't cherish food!

Grandma kneaded the dough very quickly, and in a few seconds she kneaded it and rolled it out on the board. With the rhythmic "click, click, click" of the kitchen knife, the noodles were formed.

Adding eggs when kneading the dough is impossible! They focus on making it simple and quick.

The flour is a little yellow in color and the grains are a little coarse. If you look closely, you can see bits of broken wheat bran in the flour, which is similar to cornmeal in later generations, but it has a stronger wheat flavor.

Cook the noodles in boiling water. When the water boils twice, scoop it into a large bowl. Crush two large grains of salt in a garlic nest, pinch a pinch and sprinkle it in the noodle bowl. Place the blanched cabbage leaves on the noodles, sprinkle a few chopped green onions, pour a spoonful of noodle soup on it, and the boiled noodles are ready.

Sesame oil, MSG, and soy sauce do not exist. Don't even think about adding chili oil to it. The main focus now is on originality and genuine flavor.

Even so, there was only one and a half bowls of noodles. Han Zhaozhao's bowl was full, but grandma's bowl was only one bowl with soup and noodles, with only seven or eight noodles in the bowl.

The grandmother and granddaughter pushed the noodles to each other for a long time, until the noodles were about to clumping together. The old lady finally accepted the five or six noodles that her granddaughter pushed over. She refused to take any more.

Finally, the old lady took out a steamed bun from the basket hanging from the beam and soaked it in the noodle soup. Then the two of them started to eat.

They didn't go back to the main room, but finished their lunch directly at the stove. Strangely enough, the grandparents and grandchildren, old and young, had big appetites, and in the end, the mother and daughter drank up all the noodle soup in the pot.

Han Zhaozhao touched her belly and smiled bitterly. In her previous life, she flew in the sky, swam in the sea, and ran on the mountains. She had eaten all kinds of delicious food, but she had never been so useless.

Coming to this backward 1950s, drinking a bowl of noodles cooked in broken plain water and being so greedy that I almost licked the bowl, it was so embarrassing!

After lunch, grandma started to make paste with the residual heat from the pot. She diluted the sweet potato starch with cold water, added a ladle of water to the iron pot and heated it, then poured the paste into the pot and stirred it while cooking on the fire.

Wait until the pot boils and it becomes a thin and fine paste. The paste for starching the fabric is ready.

The old lady was quite ritualistic in applying starch to the cloth. She poured the prepared paste into a clean porcelain basin, took the cloth that was 80% dry, spread it on the kang, and pressed one end into the paste first.

Roll the fabric into the basin and stick the glue on it, making sure every inch of the fabric is evenly covered with glue.

After rolling the fabric, you have to rub and beat it. "Rubbing and beating is the most critical step. Whether the starch is well hung depends on whether the starch is evenly mixed into the fabric.

In addition, the thickness of the paste is also very important. If it is too thick, it will easily form lumps and make the work difficult. If it is too thin, the paste will not be able to be mixed in. The right balance is what is needed, which is neither too thick nor too thin.

Han Zhao was beating the cloth hard while passing on her experience to her granddaughter.

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