My four brothers have little difference in age, and they were all very naughty when they were young. What bothers my mother most is that our shoes are very useless. Within a few days of wearing a new pair of shoes, we will either make a triangular opening or be as dirty as the old shoes. So my mother often says: wearing shoes is worse than eating shoes.
In those days, the countryside depended on work for a living, and my father worked in a school far away from home and did not often come back, so the family depended on his mother alone. When I went to work in the fields during the day, I had to hurry up to cook for us and let my brother and I go to school. When the two brothers were left unattended, my mother took them to the fields, the big ones played on the ground, the small ones sat in the cage, and let him cry with dirt all over his face. covered with shit and urine, smelly, flies flying everywhere. After work, my mother washed and changed clothes for her younger brother, and then cooked. After settling us down one by one, it was very late. Mother either sat in front of the spinning wheel spinning cotton thread or sat on the bed to make shoes for us.
In those difficult days, it was really difficult for my mother to wear shoes, and it was common when we couldn't put on shoes. Sometimes in the tenth winter, we still wear shoes that show our feet, and we don't have socks, so we wrap our feet with rags or something, so we can avoid freezing our feet.
Shoes are nervous, the family is poor, there is no money to buy, even the cloth fabric for shoes can not afford to buy, naturally, there are a lot of ridiculous things about wearing shoes.
It was winter when I was in the first grade of primary school. it snowed, the earth was white, and the snow on the road was more than a foot thick. The teacher asked us to do good deeds like Lei Feng and clear the snow on the road. I took a spade and worked with other children. After cleaning the snow on the campus road, the cotton-padded shoes on my feet had already been soaked by the melted snow, so I could not help it, so I went home to change my shoes, but we always had only one pair of shoes and there was no replacement at all. What should we do?
I looked here and there, but I didn't. At this time, I saw a pair of plastic sandals on the roof and thought, aren't plastic shoes just for snow? why not try them on?
So I tried my best to get the sandals off and wipe them off with a rag. Although they were a little rotten, they could still be worn, so I hurriedly put them on, but it was a little big, so I found some rags to wrap my feet tightly and tied them tightly with the hemp rope my mother used on her shoes.
(because I had never worn sandals and walked barefoot in summer, I really didn't know what season the sandals were worn, so I thought they were plastic and could step on the snow, so I put them on. I just put on my sandals, but I didn't know that my feet were cold. I didn't feel cool until I got to school. Standing in front of the classroom, hesitating, suddenly a student found, just like Columbus discovered the new world, surprised: come and have a look! Jia Yuping wore a pair of sandals! I didn't know what was wrong, and there was no reaction, so after a while, I became a news figure in the school. Students, large and small, gathered around me and looked at my plastic sandals with a strange look.
I had never seen this scene before, and I didn't understand why they were so interested in these shoes. Standing in the middle of the crowd, I was at a loss what to do.
There were more and more students, and even the teacher could not bear to be lonely. He came over, took a look at the crowd, and immediately stopped. Then, a teacher asked me if my feet were frozen, and I said, "it's a little cold." Just then, my brother, who was studying in the fifth grade, also came to watch the hustle and bustle. When he saw that it was me, he was furious and felt that I had lost someone to him. He even beat and scolded me and drove me back.
When I got home, my mother just came back from outside and saw me wearing a pair of old sandals. I couldn't keep my mouth shut. While she took off my shoes, lit some firewood and asked me to roast my feet, she took the cotton shoes soaked in snow water to bake them and said to me: silly child, sandals are worn on hot days, whose children wear sandals now. You are really careless. Mother's eyes were red and wet, and she seemed to be thinking about something.
Soon, my mother made me a pair of new cotton-padded shoes and specially added a layer of plastic soles. I appreciate my mother's hard work, so I cherish it especially when I wear it, for fear of breaking it. Later, the feet grew up, but these shoes were still intact, so I gave them to my younger brother. My mother also said that I was sensible and knew to cherish things.
This incident has been going on for decades, but it is still so clear in my mind when I think about it, as if it had just happened.
I will never forget the old sandals that embarrassed me, and I will never forget the cotton shoes with plastic soles that my mother specially made for me.
Before coming to Xinjiang this time, my mother was not in good health, but she still insisted on making a pair of thickened cotton shoes for me, saying that it was very cold in the northwest, and the leather shoes were not as good as those of cotton shoes. I took the shoes my mother made for me with both hands. My heart was hot and my eyes were wet.
Now, in the cold days of Tacheng, I wear my mother's cotton shoes, my heart is very comfortable, my feet are also very warm.
Author: Xiiping
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