Siheyuan: He Yuzhu’s Sunshine Farm

Chapter 193 The salesman of the 80s

The snow fell heavier and heavier, soon covering the courtyard. At the same time, the heavy snow did not stop in the countryside. You must know that the winter of the 80s was much colder than now.

Light snow, heavy snow passes, the north wind howls, we call this kind of cold wind, knife wind, ear-cutting wind.

During a heavy snowfall, dripping water turned into ice. The handles of the yoyo rulers under the eaves were of varying thicknesses and lengths. In the low thatched house, the yoyos bumped into each other, the pots froze, and the water tanks froze and cracked.As soon as the sun came up, the snow melted.The snow is not cold but the snow is cold. It is so cold that it is hard to say.

It was so cold, so the adults hung their heads, sleeved their hands, and stood at the door of the house, lighting up the pod fire.

The flames were strong and crackling, and the elderly man used wooden sticks to stir the fire from time to time, trying his best to stay close to the fire to keep warm.At night, when it's not dark, I get into bed.

At that time, there were no electric blankets, no air conditioning, and no heaters. So, how did our rural children survive the winter?

In comparison, among the four seasons, our rural children like winter and snow even more. The heavier the snow, the happier we are.

Because, on freezing days, making snowmen and having snowball fights are the best winter activities for our rural children.Snowflakes have been floating all day and night, and the houses, trees, and ground have turned white. Everything is white, wrapped in silver, and the world is silver-white.

As soon as the heavy snow stopped, a group of children, armed with pickaxes and shovels, ran into the snow, shoveling and piling up the snowman. The children first piled up the body, and then made the snowman's head in the snow.

At this time, older children such as sisters and brothers would run over to help if they saw it. Dad found pot ashes and carrots, one to wipe his eyes and one to use as a nose. After the snowman was piled, the children would surround the snowman and shout. When the adults in the neighborhood see it, they will give thumbs up and praise it, which also satisfies the children's vanity.

Secondly, snowball fights are also one of the activities that children are most willing to participate in. Before each start, everyone distances themselves, and some run far away to find snowdrifts. You hit me, and I hit you. After a while, everyone’s There is snow on my head, face and body

Sometimes, while smashing and smashing, holding snow balls in both hands, chasing me, I chase you, I often fall down, fall into the snow, roll around in the snow, and get covered in slush!Even though the weather is cold in the snow, after playing for more than ten minutes, your head will be sweating and your body will be steaming.
Third, shuttlecock kicking is also one of everyone’s favorite projects.

First, tie the shuttlecock yourself.When I got home from school, I first rummaged through the boxes and cabinets to look for zhiqian (ancient coins).Then it's time to pluck the chicken feathers, but be sure to look for a big reed rooster with a colorful tail, black, white, red, and colorful.

It is not easy to pluck the rooster's feathers. As soon as the rooster saw our posture, he was so frightened that he climbed over the wall and fled in a hurry.But the children chased her and refused to stop until they achieved their goal. In this way, the whole yard was in a state of restlessness.

Whenever this happens, my parents come out to stop me and yell at me loudly.I turned a deaf ear to my parents' scoldings. I only had one thought in my mind, which was to catch the reed rooster, pluck the hair from its tail and use it to make a shuttlecock.

When kicking the shuttlecock, it is played by one person first, then two people kick it against each other, and then four people kick it together.The little toad was chubby and wearing cotton trousers. He couldn't even kick it twice before he went blind.And I'm like Monkey Sun, I'm more dexterous, I can kick high, I know how to kick, I can kick more than a dozen in a row without landing.When he got hot from kicking, he swung his cotton-padded jacket and threw it onto a tree branch.

My parents called me for dinner, and they kept yelling for a long time. The children were in the middle of playing and ignored me completely. When they found me, they would curse a few words and kick me in the butt without warning, kicking and cursing me at the same time. : "I told you to kick"!
Now, when winter comes, rural children feel like they have nothing to do. They spend most of their time hiding at home, playing with their mobile phones and watching computers, that's all.

In addition to making snowmen, having snowball fights, and kicking shuttlecocks, children in rural areas also play games such as smashing dead branches (dry sticks) on trees, pushing shoe uppers, and squeezing oil. But the most fun and exciting one is kicking. ball.

At that time, when winter came, the most fun thing for adults was to play football.

But they played leather balls. We kids didn’t have money and couldn’t afford it, so we played cloth balls.

The so-called cloth ball is to find some rotten cotton batting and cloth strips in your mother's sewing basket, put them into a piece of cloth, and then use fine hemp rope to make a left, right, front, back, vertical and horizontal line. , seven bundles and eight bundles, one into a round ball.

In the winter, when the ground was clear, the adults found a relatively open area as the court, and tied two straws at both ends as goals, so they played happily in it.

But our children play football without a goal, regardless of the venue, on the edge of the fields, at the entrance of the village, at any time, anywhere, as the friends shout: "It's time to kick the ball!"As a result, the children in the village became moved after hearing the sound and gathered together.

At that time, when everyone got hot from playing, they would throw their hats, throw their coats, and take off their shoes, and you would chase each other. The ball was small and difficult to kick. Some children would pick it up and run away. If the other party refused to accept it, they would fight. You Pushing and pulling are inseparable and adults cannot pull them apart.

The child's face changed faster than the weather in June. Before the tears dried, he ran to play football together again.

At this moment, a bicycle rode over in the distance, followed by the sound of rattles. People who were watching their children play football immediately realized that this was the salesman.

At that time, the rattle sellers were usually alone, holding a rattle in their hands. Some were jumping on their shoulders, and some were pushing bicycles through the streets.

Whether they are carrying burdens or riding bicycles, they will carry all kinds of colorful gadgets.

Many people must have been curious when they were young: How could their burdens or carts be so small without losing so many things?
In the past, around this time of year, rattle sellers began to visit villages frequently.

When the rattle seller walked to the entrance of the village, he only had to shake the rattle in his hand. When the people in the village heard the drum sound of "Put-Tong-Put-Tong-Put-Tong", they would know that they were coming. Adults and children would come to watch the excitement no matter what they had to do.

Although their mobile stall is small, they sell a wide range of items.

There are thimbles, needles and threads that women need, and smoke pots and lighters that men need. They even have things like pistol toys that boys like, and hairpins and hairpins that little girls like.

Moreover, the biggest feature of rattle sellers is their unique way of trading; they often not only collect money, but also accept barter.

For example, an egg can be exchanged for a certain amount of sugar, and a wine bottle can be exchanged for a certain amount of needles!

However, the trading method of the rattle seller is not popular with adults; because there are often children who secretly exchange household items for toys and other things with the rattle seller without telling their parents.

At that time, children stole things from home and made many jokes.

For example, a cousin of mine stole four duck eggs from his house in order to exchange them for a rough aluminum airplane model from a rattle seller, but the rattle seller still refused to exchange them for him.

The cousin wanted the airplane model very much, but when the salesman refused, he found that the salesman also collected duck feathers.

So my cousin got worried, took a few of us home, held down his two white ducks, plucked a lot of feathers and gave them to the salesman to change the planes.

Later, my cousin not only got a model airplane as he wished, but also ate several meals of meat in succession; first a meal of "fried meat with bamboo shoots", then some duck meat, a meal of "fried meat with bamboo shoots", and then some duck meat. !Because the two white ducks were too frightened when plucking their feathers, they both died within two days.

The second uncle and aunt felt sorry for the death of the two white ducks, so they beat their cousin and then ate some duck meat. After eating the duck meat, they felt sorry for the white ducks, so they beat them again.

Nowadays, with the advancement of science and technology, online shopping has become popular for everyone to buy things. Naturally, the rattle seller has disappeared in the long river of history.

It's just that those of us who have experienced that era sometimes still can't help but miss those times and those people.

After all, that was our childhood and youth.!

"The salesman is here. The salesman is here!"

When one person shouts, a group of disgraced children will immediately gather around the peddler's box. , I wanted to see what goods the salesman had. The salesman was a charming scene in the mountain village at that time: a simple and honest middle-aged man with a foreign accent. Two special salesman boxes were filled with all kinds of small goods. Department stores, shaking their rattles in their hands, would shout out an advertising slogan with a strong rhythm and a beautiful tune every once in a while.

Five-color candies, hairpins, buttons, colored silk threads, small leather balls, etc. are covered with a lid made of glass, allowing people to see them at a glance; on the other end is a bamboo basket, which contains some daily necessities and collected hair. Something like that.

In fact, every farm had a store called a consignment point at that time, but the trade of salesmen was quite popular.

The main reason is that the salesman prematurely brought modern sales concepts into remote and isolated rural areas, and opened up and invigorated them, which made them popular among the villagers.

The salesman's entry into the village reflects the modern business philosophy of "door-to-door delivery".At that time, the production team was relatively busy with farm work, and the team leader decided whether to start or finish work, and there were time limits. It was not as free as it is now.

So the vendors set up stalls in the village at noon and evening, shouting and selling, so as not to delay women and children from going to work and school.

What's more important is that the salesman will always bring some advice from the women last time, such as the needles and thread they urgently need. This method, which is equivalent to the current futures trading, is very popular with women and children.

I like the salesman because you can freely choose the goods from the salesman. Just like in today's supermarkets, you can choose the same kind of items. You can buy whichever one you like. It's not like a public store where the salesperson will do everything you buy. Whatever I get for you, you can buy it if you like it, or throw it away if you don’t want to buy it. You are not allowed to judge at all, let alone pick at will.

What's even more valuable is that if you don't have money to buy the goods from the salesman, you can take a look at them and feast your eyes on them.

For example, a colorful little leather ball was passed around among the hands of several of our young friends. Look, he touched it and couldn't put it down. He reluctantly returned it to him until the salesman packed it away.

At this time, the salesman would also say to us kindly: "Baby, I'm leaving! Go back and save your hair. When you have enough, my uncle will sell it to you at a cheap price."

After hearing this, we felt as sweet as eating a five-color candy.

The "cheapness" mentioned by the salesman is well-founded. I have seen many times that when the folks who were buying things could no longer afford a penny or two, the salesman would readily sell them the goods.

This is the first time that many people know that goods can be bargained for and are not fixed in price, and that you can’t buy goods in public stores for a penny less.

This approach of the salesman satisfies the psychological needs of the buyers and prematurely embodies the consumption concept of the modern market economy.

For example, when buying vegetables, the distance between the seller and the buyer is actually just the angle between a flat scale and a strong scale, and this angle is exactly a kind of psychological slope.

In fact, you only need to replace a small tomato with a slightly larger one, and the scale will rise. The raised scale beam will make the buyer full of joy.However, in reality, there will always be psychological thresholds of one kind or another. Whoever has a lower threshold will attract customers to occupy the market. This is why public stores disintegrate from their hometown towns overnight.

When the salesmen enter the village, they always shout, "I need to change my hair for needles, threads, and colors!"
This sentence itself is an attractive language, containing a business philosophy of fair dealing and everyone getting what they need.As a result, women and children flocked to exchange their hair for various things.

Once, I went to change colors with my mother. The seller's paints were packed in several glass bottles of the same size, each with a small spoonful inside.

The salesman used a small spoon to pick out colors for his mother. The small spoonful of color particles poured onto the paper and shone brightly, which was very beautiful. My mother used these blue and blue pigments to cook and dye our clothes for the four seasons.

"Old Qin, what good things did you bring here today?"

As soon as the salesman came over, a woman he knew looked at him and shouted.

The salesman smiled slightly: "Today I brought you a good thing." After saying this, the salesman took out a bath cover from his salesman's box and laughed: "Look, what is this?"

"what is this?"

The women took the bath cover from the salesman, and all showed surprised expressions, because they had never seen anything like this before. They were all talking about it, but no one knew about it. What exactly is a bath cover and what functions does it have?

Seeing everyone's strange but unaware look, Qin Merchant laughed and said, "This is a bath cover."

"Bath cover?"

Although the women knew the name of this thing, they still didn't know what a bath cover was. At this time, the salesman smiled and explained again: "A bath cover is a cover used for bathing in winter.

You must know that bathing in winter is very troublesome, but with this bath cover, as long as you wear it like this, there will be no problem taking a bath in it. Not only will it not be cold, but you will also feel very hot. "

"real or fake.?"

The salesman's introduction made all the women present show expressions of surprise. You must know that bathing in winter is really the biggest trouble. If there is something that can directly solve it, that would be a good thing.

The salesman laughed: "It's true, it's absolutely true. If you don't believe it, I can let you test it. As long as you test it, you will believe it."

(End of this chapter)