I miss the river in my hometown.

Not long ago, I wrote an article "I miss the village entrance most: tofu". After reading it, my young lady in Beijing posted it, saying that the tofu pole at the entrance of my grandmother's village was not impressed, but the clear river next to my grandmother's house left a deep impression on her.

Oh, yeah. In a trance, my ears seemed to echo with the beautiful melody of "I miss the river in my hometown, ah …".

So, in the long summer solar term, in such a day of heavy rain, strong wind and sandstorm, I downloaded this song many times on the Internet, and recalled my beautiful childhood with my singing voice.

Grandma's family lived in the west of the village, and there was a small river passing through the village further west. I can't remember the direction of the river, let alone its name. Because, no one has ever mentioned it, adults often say, "Don't go swimming in the river."

But I think this river has a name, and it should have a name. If there is, it must be called a car bubble.

Because grandma's village is called Chepao. In the south of the village, there is another village called cart and cannon, which lives by the river. I have no textual research, and I can't do it. I just stubbornly believe that the car bubble should be a "car bubble". It was originally named after a lotus leaf as big as a wheel that grew in a river. Later, like a broken neon plaque, people often see the handwriting with missing arms and legs. After a long time, the word "Lian" was simplified to "Lian". Bubble, of course, is a river bubble. The river flows through this place, and the water flows slowly, forming a wide water surface, which is now called wetland.

Because of the impact of the current, the river bank twists and turns, and some big willows with decades of age naturally grow on the shore. When the spring breeze blows, the ice and snow melt, the willow branches turn green, the hands and feet are not frozen, and friends are alive and kicking again.

The first thing is to climb the tree and make a flute out of a willow branch the size of a pencil. At one time, there were always flutes playing in the streets and lanes, and friends were playing.

"Crows cry when they are frightened, and all the birds come." .

As soon as the Xiaoman solar term arrived, we suddenly became wild children. At that time, there was no make-up class, and school was over at three or four in the afternoon. Naughty bag didn't go home to send schoolbags, so he called friends and got into the Woods on the river bank. The handle of the slingshot is hand-polished by the branches chosen by myself, the rubber band is the valve core sold by the supply and marketing cooperative, and the bullet pocket is the egg-sized skin smashed by "five horses for six sheep", and the bullet is completely rubbed by myself. At that time, the little boy in the countryside had a slingshot on his back and a bag of mud eggs in his pocket, which was simply standard. The bird named Liu Ye, which appeared in the bushes in early spring, became the target. At that time, children were not sensible, and neither adults nor teachers taught them not to shoot birds. Playing sparrows is still a "four evils". It's a sin to think about those poor birds now.

Summer is coming, and river steamed buns are the most popular among children.

Every adult told us not to take a bath in the river, but it still didn't stop the children from playing in the water. Those who are bold and swim well can swim 40 to 50 meters and swim back and forth on both sides of the strait; A timid person like me who can't swim well has to learn dog planing, play with water fights, pick up snails and catch tadpoles near shallow water.

To tell the truth, catching fish is the most fun and fulfilling thing in summer.

There are not only fish in this river, but also many kinds. There are carp, crucian carp, grass roots, white stripes, diced meat, sand dew goo, snakehead, catfish and gayazi, all of which are real wild fish.

Children have their own way of fishing.

One is to use a shovel net to make rough wood into a semi-circular grid with a straight wood bar in the middle, which seems to be a Chinese character. The net is most suitable for pushing and running in shallow water, and most of it is caught by some small fish and shrimp. In those days when food was scarce, these small fish and shrimps were all good things, and frying a bowl of fish sauce was particularly appetizing.

I also came up with a more convenient way. It is to fold a foot-long tree stick with a few fingers thick, tie a T-shaped hook under the tree stick with a dark rope, and hang a frog the size of a thumb on the hook. When it's dark, find a waterway among the aquatic plants and fix the two ends of the tree stick with the aquatic plants, so that the little frog dragged by the fishing line as bait will always swing or float in the waterway with the current. Drop a hook every few meters, and a waterway can always drop ten or eight hooks. The next morning, when I went to get the hook again, most of them would catch snakehead or catfish two or three and a half feet long. If you are lucky, you may even find one or two duck eggs by the river.

These two methods of catching fish are both good, that is, they all need tools, borrow nets and prepare hooks. This is a big problem for children, because parents don't allow you to swim in the river at all.

At this time, the most primitive, powerful and fun way for children to fish was born, that is, to fish in troubled waters with aquatic plants.

An experienced child's head, like a fish head caught in Chagan Lake in winter, will choose a place with a water depth of about one meter in advance, and then organize friends to dive barefoot into the water to form an encirclement. Let's work together to shovel the grass under our feet and in front of us from the roots, roll forward bit by bit, and gradually pile up into a grass wall. When the encirclement narrowed to a certain extent, all the children stepped into the encirclement, waded desperately and muddied the water, scaring the fish to break through and get into the water grass. Look at it. Everyone bent down together and searched carefully under the water wall. How can I catch twenty or thirty small crucian carp at a time? Not only have fun, but also delicious fish.

The autumn wind has started, and children's play is still inseparable from this river.

The autumn water is full of delicious food. The water chestnut is full. If you pick the right leaves, you can always find some green water chestnut, which looks like a bull's head and has a pair of big horns. Bite it open from the middle, revealing white meat, crispy and sweet juice. It's just that biting the water chestnut shell is a bit astringent. There is also a kind of rice called Jitoumi, whose leaves are as big as umbrellas and spread flat on the water like bamboo rafts, with sharp protrusions on the leaves. The chicken's head rice the size of a pig's heart is ripe, and the heavy green surface is covered with thorns. Taking it down and opening it is really a technical job. Open the fruit of the chicken head rice, which is full of orange balls the size of abacus beads. Bite open the balls, and the milky fruit inside is what we call Gordon Euryale. In autumn, lotus leaves all over the river also bear lotus seeds. Children who can hold their breath and dive have a chance to dig out a crispy lotus root.

In winter, the river freezes. But children never "cat winter". The most fashionable skating car at that time was a kind of skating car called "one-legged donkey". "One-legged donkey" refers to an ice skate with only two feet that can barely stand on the table on the ice skate. Instead of sitting and sliding, this ice car stepped on it with both feet and squatted on it to slide. Think about it, an ice car that can be called "donkey" must slide fast, turn and turn flexibly, have low requirements on the smoothness of the ice, have strong ability to adapt to natural conditions, and be the craziest to play. This ice car, not to mention skating very well, is difficult to stabilize at the beginning of learning to squat on it. Generally speaking, ice skewers are used to stick to the blade of ice skates and ice. Ice, ice carts and ice skewers line up at three o'clock and are supported by ice skewers. Where the ice skewers are stuck, you should step on which foot first, stand firm, step on it, then step on the other foot at a very fast speed, squat down, lean forward slightly, and the two ice skewers vigorously support your back. But if you want to skate well and take part in a friend's chase, you don't have to practice for a day and a half.

Throughout the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, this car-soaking river has brought too much joy to my childhood. Every time I think of my hometown, I think of this river first. In my memory, this river has become synonymous with my hometown.

I went back a few years ago. Grandma died at the age of 92, and her old aunt and her family moved to town. After lunch at my aunt's house, I want to go back to the car 8 miles away and have a look. The old aunt said, don't go, there is nothing to see, the trees are gone, and the river bubble has long been broken.

I thought about it, but I didn't go in the end. If nothing else, let's cherish the beauty of my childhood brought by the river in my hometown in my heart.

Let me always have a good idea.