[Hometown Old Business Story Essay] Master Chen of Umbrella Repair

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After a heavy rain in summer, the sky is as blue as washed, and many fallen leaves lie wet in the soil, as if you can hear the sound of summer when you walk past.

In the rainy south, umbrellas are particularly important, especially in the busy farming season, when it often rains cats and dogs. Farmers who pick lychees under lychee trees will soon get wet if they don't have raincoats, straw hats and umbrellas around them.

Straw hats can be woven by themselves, and raincoats can be simply cut with transparent film, which is also easy to obtain. Only this umbrella, in the era of material shortage, a family has at most two umbrellas. If a child holds an umbrella to keep out the rain and accidentally breaks it, he will definitely be beaten by his parents.

Once the umbrella is broken, you have to expect the arrival of the umbrella repairman. Repairing umbrellas is a delicate craft, and you can't be careless at all. Few people attended the meeting, and the one who impressed me the most was Master Chen who repaired the umbrella.

Every time it clears up after the rain, Master Chen who repairs umbrellas will appear in the streets and alleys. Holding a small iron bar in his hand, he knocked on the wooden box in front of him and went door to door to ask if there was an umbrella to be repaired. When the villagers saw him, they couldn't help chatting. Speaking of it, it seems to be a convention.

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The old man in the village said that this master Chen is a craftsman who gives people a thumbs up. When I was a teenager, I studied this craft with an old master in the next town, and I have been diligent. This umbrella has been repaired for more than 40 years. Good technology, sincere price, no need to bargain with him.

I remember Master Chen is not tall, a head smaller than my father, thin, with a little dark skin, but also very handsome. Every time he comes, he can hear the sound of knocking on the wooden box and the clear cry from a distance.

Soon, his basket was full of broken umbrellas.

Master Chen's umbrella repair booth is on the roadside, with a red cloth, a small wooden chair and several Xiao Mu stools. Then take out the tools in the toolbox, such as a small hammer, scissors, steel file, needle-nosed pliers, screwdriver, brush, coiled iron wire and small iron box with needle and thread. Put all these on the red cloth and the umbrella repair work will begin.

An experienced umbrella repairman will know what is wrong as soon as the umbrella passes. I once stood by and watched Master Chen skillfully use tools. With a click, I cut off the broken umbrella rib gap in my hand, replaced it with a new one, and pinched the interface with needle-nosed pliers. Then thread the needle, cover the umbrella cloth on the new umbrella rib, finally sew it, try on the umbrella, and give it to grandma who repairs the umbrella.

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This is the repair method of cloth umbrella, and every household uses paper umbrella. This paper umbrella is very cheap. The umbrella frame is made of bamboo, and the umbrella cover is oiled paper coated with tung oil. Although it can be waterproof, it is made of paper after all. This careless stroke is a knife edge, and the skeleton is extremely bad.

Master Chen soon repaired the paper umbrella. He put some tung oil on the small knife edge, picked up a piece of Korean paper from the red cloth, put tung oil on it and stuck it tightly, so that the knife edge was stuck tightly.

If there is a big hole in the blade, it is necessary to clean up the periphery of the hole first and tie the oil-paper umbrella surface tightly with needle and thread. Make the hole as small as possible, and then apply tung oil. This extra process, he is very careful, make up the bright white Korean paper and brush it with two layers of tung oil.

When the umbrella at home is scattered, it can no longer be formed, and the woman who has to throw it is distressed. Seeing Master Chen is like seeing a savior.

When he takes over, he will carefully take apart the umbrella stand that can no longer be used, carefully remove it and replace it with a new umbrella stand. It is also necessary to sew the old umbrella cover and the new umbrella rib together with cotton thread, then brush tung oil and stick Korean paper. The repaired umbrella will tell women to open it and put it in the shade, and tung oil will be dried before use.

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Master Chen is always smiling and often chats up with people when repairing umbrellas. If it weren't for what happened in the village that day, most people wouldn't know that Master Chen had suffered so much.

"Come on, come on, help! Liu's youngest son was playing by the river, stepping on the air and falling into the river. "

It rained heavily in those days, and the river was almost flooded. The messenger came in a hurry. Master Chen dropped his tools and flew to the river. He jumped into the river in the direction pointed by the crowd.

After a while, the unconscious child surfaced in her arms. Two people took the child in Master Chen's hand, and the other two pulled up the pale Master Chen. He didn't have a rest, and frantically pushed the crowd around the child to save the child. His heart was hanging in fear that the child would not be saved.

Under the repeated pressure of Master Chen, the child finally spat out a mouthful of water, and everyone around him sighed lightly. Fortunately, it was nothing serious. Master Chen knelt on the ground and repeatedly said, "God bless, God bless, such a small child can't suffer."

Hearing the news, he bowed to Master Chen and thanked him, saying that in order to save his life, the children must recognize him as a grandfather.

Master Chen said with tears, "I'm afraid. I'm really scared. I want my peach blossom back. " He just sat on the ground, because the umbrella was rough all the year round, and his chapped hands wiped his tears.

Sanliu took the children home and asked the villagers to take Master Chen to his house and put on dry clothes.

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Master Chen was helped to leave, and the village chief spoke slowly. His only daughter, Taohua, fell into the water twenty years ago. That time he worked in the next town, and the villagers came to give him a message. He didn't believe anything.

I didn't know it was too late until I saw my daughter's cold body. Without people, there is nothing. And his daughter-in-law, unhappy because of her daughter's departure, also left soon.

Up to now, for 20 years, a person, walking around the streets and repairing umbrellas for a living, has long been used to going out early and returning late. When I get home at night, I light a dim oil lamp and smoke a cigarette.

Everyone burst into tears after listening to his experience, but what do they think and feel about the suffering in the world?

Master Chen and Sanliu often walk around. Sanliu is a sincere person, and his younger son likes Mr. Chen. Every time he comes, he brings some gadgets and snacks and walks very close. He also stayed at Liu's for dinner on New Year's Eve, which is also known to the villagers.

Later, life became better and better, people stopped worrying about umbrellas, and the business of umbrella repairers became more and more deserted. Many people stopped doing this business, and Master Chen could not set up a stall, so it became more and more difficult to find umbrella repairers.

Collection of local stories and industry stories. The first novel: the story of the old business in my hometown