Memories of rural childhood in the 1990s, full of nostalgia

Without further ado, straight to the pictures.

Rolling the iron hoop

Give me an iron hoop and I can roll it around the whole world..

Spinning top

A game I loved as a kid. What spins is not just the top, but a childhood long gone.

Throwing stones

This one seemed to be played more by girls. Toys back then were pretty cheap, but the fun they brought was immeasurable.

Marbles

And this is no boast. Back in the day I was a sharpshooter, unbeatable in the whole village. Haha~~

Bamboo dragonfly

I can't even count how many times I climbed onto the roof to retrieve a bamboo dragonfly that had flown off course~~

Knee fighting

Two people each bend one leg around the other, hold it with their hands, stand on one leg, and then ram into each other. Whoever gets knocked down loses. This was basically a boys-only game. Back then we relied entirely on this game to show off our manliness...

Game console

Before there were phones, this crude little machine could keep me playing all day long.

Slingshot

Back then, to make a decent slingshot, I searched the hills everywhere for small forked branches, then painstakingly cut them, scraped off the bark, carved the grooves, fitted the rubber bands... And yet, from what I remember, aside from breaking someone's window glass, I never actually hit a single bird~~~

Catching crabs

Back then the river water in the village was still crystal clear, and you could still flip over stones to find crabs and small fish. As I recall, crab pincers were vicious. The pain of being pinched by a big pincer is something you can't understand unless you've felt it~~

Raiding bird nests

As a kid, with pure intentions, I wanted to raise cute baby birds with my own hands. Looking back now, I did a lot of harm back then. So many innocent little birds perished in my hands...

East, South, West, North

I still have some memory of how this game is played, but how do you fold it again? Do you still remember? I certainly don't~~

Threshing rice

This must be a very ancient way of harvesting rice. As a kid I did it myself as a game, holding the rice ears and striking them hard against the wooden board, and the grains would fall off. To me, it was a game, fun. To the adults, it was work, hard work!

Winnowing machine.

After the grain is dried, you use it to remove the hollow husks. Every time you finish winnowing the grain, your whole body itches..

Slaughtering the New Year pig

This was pretty much the most festive activity of the New Year. What I looked forward to most back then was the winter break, the New Year, slaughtering the New Year pig, and eating a big feast. As a kid I loved gathering with my friends to watch the pig being slaughtered. Now that I've grown up, I actually don't dare watch anymore. Even though I still eat meat, watching it still feels a little, how should I put it, cruel? Sympathetic? Anyway, watching it now makes me a bit uncomfortable. At the very least, the fun is gone. Maybe I've really grown up..

I don't know what this is called

I only remember I loved throwing these at my female classmates. This stuff sticks to hair and clothes and is really hard to get off. Yeah, the angrier the girls got, the more pleased we were. Thinking about it now, we were pretty awful~~

Wild strawberries

We called all wild berries of this kind pao (first tone). This kind of pao is usually quite sour, though if it's fully ripe it's fairly sweet. But most of the time we couldn't wait for them to fully ripen. As soon as people found them, they'd basically be wiped out in no time.

This is another kind of pao

I remember there were lots more kinds of pao, all different, some sour, some sweet, some both sour and sweet. But now they've all become memories. I haven't gone into the hills for many years. It seems like after those few years I never had the chance again, never found a reason again to go into the hills to look for wild fruit, pick mushrooms, or raid bird nests. Never again~~ never~~

Ah, sorry, I got sentimental without realizing it. Seems a bit early for that. Okay, no more rambling, let's continue~

Houttuynia cordata (fish mint)

Back then, I'd carry a little basket on my back and a small hoe, and dig on the hillside all afternoon. All for one refreshing summer cold dish: wash the houttuynia and cut it into sections, take old-pickle sauerkraut and cut it into thick strips, take dried chilies, roast them until charred and crush them, best to add a little wild scallion, then add salt, vinegar, litsea oil and other seasonings, and finally mix it all together... Ah, I can't keep writing, I'm drooling all over the table~~~

Raisin tree fruit (Japanese raisin tree)

I remember my aunt's family had a very big raisin tree. When the fruit ripened, you just had to hit the branches with a bamboo pole and wait for the fruit to fall, and then you could enjoy its rich sweetness.

Rosa roxburghii (chestnut rose)

Rosa roxburghii flower

This is a wild fruit that grows by the river. The rosa roxburghii flowers are quite pretty and always attract lots of bees, but the fruit is covered in thorns and doesn't look very nice. The taste, though, is pretty good, sweet and tart. So even though it's covered in thorns, it still couldn't escape the fate of ending up in our greedy stomachs, haha~~~

Cogon grass shoots

This is a unique pure natural pollution-free snack of the countryside. From what I remember, it always appeared on the field ridges, and it should only be around in spring. Anyway, since I only go home during winter and summer breaks, I haven't seen it in years~~~~

Honeysuckle

My impression of honeysuckle is, it can be sold for money, haha. Back then, to earn a little pocket money, I'd head out before it was even fully light, to the hills, to the river, searching everywhere for bright golden and white, money~~

Chinese toon sprouts

For me, this is probably the most flavorful picture of all. The taste of toon sprouts is really strong. You could say those who love it love it deeply, and those who hate it hate it fiercely~ Haha, I belong to the love-it-deeply camp. Scrambled eggs with Chinese toon is probably the best scrambled egg dish I've ever eaten~~ Ah, sorry, let me wipe my drool again~~~

Fiddlehead fern

My deepest memory of fiddlehead fern is this: that year, my little brother and I went to the hillside and picked fiddleheads all morning. We picked so many, so very many. How many exactly? Hmm~~ anyway, it was a lot. That day the weather happened to be especially nice, and Grandma said to take them up to the roof to dry into dried fiddleheads. After we finished drying them, we went to play at Grandpa's house in the neighboring village for a few days. When we came home, Grandma pointed at a tiny little pile of dried fiddleheads and said to us, "These are your fiddleheads." My little brother and I looked at each other, both totally baffled, speechless for a moment~~~ Honestly, for a long time after that, I was convinced that Grandma had secretly stir-fried our fiddleheads or sold them while we were away~~

Pagoda candy

This was probably the tastiest medicine of all. It was an early kind of deworming medicine, for roundworms. As a kid I ate it like candy and thought it tasted pretty good.

Spicy strips

As a kid there were all kinds of spicy strips. Whenever class ended, if I had money, I'd rush to the little stall at the school gate to grab some. Once I got a pack, I'd tear it open, take just a few sticks for myself, then hand it to my friends and let them fight over it. After finishing, I'd lick my fingers and hurry back to the classroom.

This one, I don't even know what to call it. Pop-ice?

Thinking about it now, this was basically a counterfeit, shoddy product, but back then, I absolutely loved it. Anyway, I'm still alive and well, aren't I~~~

Alright, I'll just put up these pictures for now. Memories never run out. Honestly, give me time and I could chat with you until the Trisolarans besiege Earth~~

Finally, a few more rambling words~

As a 90s kid, in an era of rapid urbanization, I've always considered myself among the luckiest.

On one hand, compared with my parents' generation and even many rural kids my age, I never experienced the hardships of rural life, at least never felt what it's like to be hungry with nothing to eat. On the other hand, compared with kids who grew up entirely in the city, I have an extra stretch of beautiful rural childhood that they never experienced and can never experience again (uh, that sentence seems a bit grammatically off, I don't know if you get it, anyway, I just really love the countryside~~).

It's not that the countryside is all that great. Countryside or city, no place is an ideal paradise. It's not about what the world is like, but about what the world looks like in your eyes (uh, I don't even know why I said that~).

Maybe it's just because my experience was a bit unusual.

I was born in the countryside. When I was very little, my parents went out to work, so I lived with my grandparents. Later, once I started school, I followed my parents to a city on the eastern coast. Then after finishing fourth grade, I went back to my rural hometown. After fifth grade in the countryside, I went to school in our local city, and from then on I've always been in the city, only occasionally going back to the countryside during winter and summer breaks.

So although I was born in the countryside, I spent more of my growing-up years in the city. And most of the rural memories I listed above, plus many, many more I haven't mentioned, come from that short stretch of just over a year when I went to fifth grade in the countryside.

One year, exactly one cycle of the four seasons, and that short year left me with the best memories I have to this day (hmm, just how good and unforgettable was it? Forgive my limited ability to convey it well~).

Looking back now, the reason I have such feelings about the countryside is, on one hand, that the countryside is closer to nature than the city, and I happen to love nature. On the other hand, it's the freedom of the rural way of life. I remember back then in the countryside, except for sleeping at night, I basically never stayed cooped up at home. I was always running all over the village.

And more importantly, in my view, it's because that was the best age...

That was an age when you knew a lot and thought you knew everything, yet couldn't hear what was meant between the lines, couldn't see the knife hidden in a smile, didn't sense the ways of the world, didn't feel the scheming and maneuvering; an age when joy, anger, sorrow and happiness needed no reason at all and showed completely on your face; an age when you didn't understand philosophy or talk about worldviews; an age when you didn't overthink the meaning of life and were happy every day; an age when you didn't consider the future or reminisce about the past; an age when you could lie in bed, close your eyes and fall asleep, sleeping straight through to dawn; an age when liking was just liking, with nothing to do with life or sex; an age when...

Even though I still go back to the countryside now, that feeling from back then is gone forever~~~

Sigh, writing this, I don't even know what I'm saying. Whatever, we're just rambling anyway~~

Alright, let's stop here for now. I won't say anything about subscribing, saving, liking or sharing~~