Essays on dung-picking stories

Please don't think that "picking up shit" means "digging shit". That's not true.

In the village, on the road, at the edge of the field, where there is shit, cow dung, horse dung, donkey dung, or sheep dung balls, just pick up a small shovel and put it in the dung basket behind you. It's called collecting dung.

Please don't necessarily associate "collecting dung" with "old people".

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the specific background that the production team kept score and the school experimental field kept weight, not only the elderly but also a large group of children were picking up feces.

There are boys and girls picking up dung. Like me, I was a girl who picked up dung.

Old people and children who collect dung most want to see carriages, ox carts or donkey carts passing by in the street. If passing horses, cows and donkeys can leave a pool of dung in time and take care of their own dung baskets, the old people and children who collect dung will be excited. At this time, everyone rushed in. You took yours and I took mine. Young, not fast enough, only empty dung baskets.

It is not easy to pick up the feces of horses, cows and donkeys on the road, although there are several dirt roads leading to other villages in the village, although the most basic means of transportation in the village are horse-drawn carriages, ox carts and donkey carts.

Drivers all know the importance of the excrement of their horses, cows and donkeys, so almost all drivers wear a bag made of sacks on their buttocks to hold their excrement. Unless this linen bag is full of feces, or drivers forget to put linen bags on their horses, cows and donkeys. Only at this time can an old man or a child pick up a shovel and a half.

So it's not easy to pick up dung on the avenue. Sometimes, after waiting for a long time, except occasionally seeing a few bicycles flying around triumphantly (who would buy a bicycle, especially the "Dajinlu" brand, which can make our ancestors proud), we often just watch the carriage, ox cart or donkey cart pass in front of us, and then watch the driver wave his whip and drive them away.

Every household in the village has a dog, and every dog likes to get together and play at night.

So, you can pick up shit early. According to common sense, whoever gets up early will pick up more shit.

There is no clock, no watch, or even the concept of "time", but the old people and the children who pick up dung get up on time every day. No one hurried, carrying a dung basket and a small shovel, wandering around the village. Old people with courage will go to other villages.

It is often the loudspeakers of the brigade that start broadcasting, and the smoke from the chimneys of every household begins to curl up, which means it's time to go home for dinner and the children who pick up dung should get ready for school. So, no matter how much there is in the dung basket, everyone should go home quickly.

I feel that in winter, the dogs in the village seem to be particularly active, and it seems that it is easier to pick up shit.

Usually I work with my brother. I carry a dung basket, and he carries a small shovel; Or he's carrying a dung basket, and I'm carrying a shovel. But sometimes, we argue about who carries the dung basket. I am one year older than him, and he is taller than me, and no one will let anyone. What shall we do? I have to cut the bag and hammer it.

Wherever we hear dogs barking, we will go. Old people and children who collect dung are not afraid of dogs, and dogs are not afraid of people. When you see someone approaching, the dog looks at you at most and doesn't bark. They are just a group or a few, and everyone will disperse or find another place. Sometimes when you meet a dog you know, it wags its tail at most as a greeting.

Children who pick up dung get up early. Although they pick up dung, they don't just pick up dung. Children together, itself has endless fun. Moreover, older children will teach some knowledge that they don't know where to learn, such as where to find the nest when digging it, and which star in the sky tells people that it is almost dawn. Wait a minute.

My brother soon learned to dig the nest. One day, he really caught a little sparrow that was almost frozen. That morning, my mother got some mud, glued the sparrows tightly and threw them into the stove. Finally, we smelled the meat. In the blink of an eye, a small sparrow, with no bones left, entered our stomachs.

When I was collecting feces, I also found a strange thing.

That morning, according to current experience, it should be four or five o'clock in the morning. In the northwest, a green star suddenly appeared in the sky. It is big and bright, the diameter is as big as a bowl, and half the sky is green. The houses, woodpiles, hutongs and even the broken bricks on the ground in the village can be seen clearly.

Then, the green star began to fall, fall, very slowly. It seems that after a long time, the big star gradually disappeared on the horizon until it disappeared. With the disappearance of this green star, everything in the surrounding sky and the scenery on the ground is gradually fading and darkening until it is restored to its original state.

That day was 1976 1.8, because a great man died on this day, so I remembered it.

Of course, this is not entirely correct. What happened at that time was that after my brother and I witnessed the whole process of the green star falling, we were both shocked. In the morning, we took it to school as a strange thing. Some of our classmates also saw this green star. We exchanged views with these students again. The next day, the news of Premier Zhou's death came from the school radio.

To this end, I firmly remember this strange green star.

Some people say that the stars in the sky correspond to people on the earth. I don't understand this. But I hope everyone is lucky.

I'm afraid it's the only time in my life that I can see such strange things when I pick up feces in the morning.

Picking dung also pays attention to a "Tao". Old people and children who pick up dung know that sometimes dung cannot be picked up casually. The horse manure, cow manure or donkey manure piled there in the field was put there by others and cannot be moved. A pile of dung is not seen by everyone, but discovered by one person first, so the ownership belongs to that person and no one else can move. If someone does not follow this "way", they will be severely criticized by public opinion.

The collected horse manure, cow dung, donkey manure and dog shit will not be handed over to the production team immediately. No matter how much dung you pick up, you will pour it into your own cesspool. After many a mickle makes a mickle, it is used to plant ash, transported to idle land, dried into dung, and then handed over to the production team for work points.

Moreover, the manure collected every year can be converted into some rations after being converted into work points.

Every semester, the school should set a task for students and pay 5 kg of fresh feces. By this time, students can have two days off. This in itself is very tempting.

As a result, everyone in groups of three or five showed their magical powers and wanted to pick up more horse manure, cow manure or donkey manure to complete the task assigned by the school.

In fact, if you can't finish the task, the teacher won't punish you, but those who overfulfil the task will not only be praised by the teacher verbally, but also be awarded prizes such as "Playing Herbs" and "Tian Zige" at the end of the year.

Looking back now, picking up dung is really a very pleasant thing.