Old Changsha Summer Scenery

Bamboo mats in the shop ■ Cattail fan mosquito net ■ Well water splashing on the floor ■ Childhood songs and games during the cool down ■ Vegetables, cantaloupes and watermelons ■ Fireflies and crickets ■ Milky way shooting stars and dewy flowers and plants in the morning, making pots of tea ■ tossing popsicle sticks and listening to ghost stories... It turns out that electric fans and air conditioners have made us lose more than just summer ■ and the abundant coolness of summer

□Bamboo shop and bamboo board

There is no air conditioning, so the bamboo shop is full of coolness on summer nights. In the summer of that year, it would be a good thing if a bamboo shop was indispensable in every household. Unfortunately, many people did not have a bamboo shop with four legs and a bed in their homes. Most people have one or several bamboo boards. The bottom of the bamboo board must be supported by a bench. In the 1980s, more and more people used iron grasshopper legs to support the bamboo board. Compared with bamboo shops, the biggest disadvantage of bamboo boards is that when we were children, when we were playing on them, they would often fall to the ground together with the bamboo boards.

According to chats with neighbors, in the 1950s and 1960s, many families didn’t even have bamboo boards, and some people just propped up the door panels and slept outside. The most peculiar bamboo bed is that someone used two bamboo poles as a bed and slept peacefully until daylight. At that time, my fifth uncle worked in Changsha Chemical Reagent Factory. He said that there was a young worker in his unit who slept on a pallet truck in the factory at night. A colleague was bored at night, so he dragged this cart and threw him next to the Xiangjiang Bridge. When he woke up the next day, he was startled and thought he was sleepwalking. He had to drag the cart back to the factory early in the morning. This is also an interesting thing to do to cool off in summer.

In the past, we used to cool off outside. After 11 o'clock in the evening, people sleeping in the open air called their children to go home and go to bed. At that time, the midnight and early morning hours of summer in Changsha were so cool that it was chilly. Often when I wake up early in the morning, I see young and middle-aged men still sleeping on bamboo shops on the street, often wrapped tightly in blankets and huddled up in a ball.

□Folding fans, palm leaf fans and human-powered fans

There are no electric fans, but there are various fans such as folding fans, palm leaf fans, etc. Some people shake the feather fans, which makes us young I couldn't help but think of Kong Ming.

I remember that when summer came, I was in the fourth grade of elementary school in Xiwenmiaoping, and it was time for summer vacation. Many students brought fans, including paper folding fans from "Three Heroes Fighting Lu Bu". Four lines of doggerel were written crookedly on the folding fan:

The weather is hot in June, so I can’t borrow a fan.

If you insist on borrowing, wait until December.

Large fans made of rice dumpling leaves often have words written on them to avoid loss and confusion. According to the old man, some of the words were smoked out with kerosene lamps. Using the smoke from a kerosene lamp, I painstakingly smoked out the four words "Bless me with the breeze".

When we were sensible, it was in the late 1970s. At that time, there were ceiling fans in Changsha. I heard from adults that before there were ceiling fans, the fans in the barber shop were just hung with a few cloth blankets and hired apprentices. Or a blind man pulls it to produce a cool breeze.

Film actor Wang Renmei said in her memoir "My Fame and Misfortune": When she was a child, her family lived in Changsha. She said, "There is one thing that impressed me deeply... My father taught them (Wang Renmei’s little brother and sister) made a clay fan, using many long strips of cloth, tied to a wooden stick, and hung up. The wooden stick was connected with a rope. When the rope was pulled, the cloth strips swayed back and forth, and there was a cool breeze. ..."

□Water wells become natural refrigerators

In the era without refrigerators, the summer diet of Changsha residents was "meal after meal, meal after meal." Meals arrived in the evening. Usually you will have to eat until there is nothing left. Otherwise, it would be a pity if it goes rancid the next day.

According to Zhu Yunhong's article "Ten Streets of Industry and Commerce in Changsha": "At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Rao Daosheng, the eldest daughter of the family of Rao Daosheng Slaughterhouse in Qingshiqiao, Changsha (now the intersection of Cai'e South Road, Jiefang West Road), "Girl", not only is she capable and courageous in doing things, she can chop meat accurately, but she is also thoughtful.

The summer was very hot, and sometimes there was not enough pork to sell, so she thought of a hanging well behind the house, so she hung the leftover meat in the well for shade and sold it the next day, with the meat still showing a new color. Later, this method was popularized by colleagues in Changsha. "Of course, in hot weather, the effect of the air conditioner in Shuijing is actually very limited.

□A pot of tea is very thirst-quenching

Changsha people often use large earthenware pots or porcelain pots in the summer Making tea with "old mother's leaves" is commonly known as "bao pot tea". Almost every family must have a pot. When it is cool, you can drink the tea brewed from "old mother's leaves" best for quenching summer thirst. There is often crushed old ginger in the pot of tea, which is said to dispel cold.

Some people also make some licorice tea to relieve the heat. "Ren Zhong Huang" tea is used to relieve summer heat.

In the past, Changsha Siyitang, Zhonghua Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau, and Changkang Pharmacy all had herbal tea at the entrance of their stores in summer, and they cost less money. Drink the bitter yet sweet tea, and buy herbal tea bags.

According to Peng Ruiqiang’s article "Hunan Commercial Pharmacy and Guo Houkun": "Hunan Commercial Pharmacy was founded in the early years of the Republic of China. , in response to urgent needs, the scope of free services has been continuously expanded. In summer, herbal tea and summer medicine are provided, and in summer and autumn, epidemic medicine is given as a gift... Without taking any money, there are many rescuers, and they are widely praised by the society. ”

According to the old man’s account, during the Republic of China, the larger pharmacies in Changsha did not charge for herbal tea supply in the summer. The working class who ran around in the summer were often “sweating in the sun” and they could get free herbal tea. Herbal tea can also be regarded as one of the social relief measures

□ Use wet grass to smoke mosquitoes

During the Republic of China, mosquito coils were available in Changsha, and Liuhe'an mosquito coils were the most famous.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a shortage of materials. In the 1960s, mosquito fumigation was carried out in Changsha. According to the memories of old neighbors, people usually filled a jar with wet grass mixed with a small amount of hay and lit it to smoke the mosquitoes.

Of course, there were still mosquitoes harassing the young children while they were cooling off by the bamboo shop. At this time, the amiable mother patted the children and hummed lullabies while shaking the fan to drive away the mosquitoes.

There are usually some mosquitoes staying in the mosquito nets. Due to unstable electricity at that time, every family still had a kerosene lamp. At this time, parents would light a small kerosene lamp and use the glass cover of the kerosene lamp to get close to the mosquitoes. Kill mosquitoes,

□Watermelon, muskmelon and vegetable melon

According to Yang Xinmei'ao from No. 32 Zuoju Street, in the 1960s, there were not many watermelons on the Changsha market, and there were ups and downs. On that day, every household would line up to buy watermelons. Although they were exposed to the sun, mothers often ignored them as to whether they were buying white melons, red melons, or yellow melons that were not seen today. It is delicious for the whole family, especially for children. In the late 1970s, watermelons became more and more popular. In the 1980s, watermelons became a summer sun protection benefit in some units. At that time, watermelons were round and rarely round. Oval-shaped melons rarely taste like chemical fertilizers.

Melons are small but delicious. Children also enjoy eating them, including tomatoes and cucumbers. Children think it is best to eat it raw, but adults often eat it cooked.

It is said that children much older than us tried to make jelly and jelly in the past. It has the coolness of mint, but adults think that this kind of jelly is not clean and is not allowed to be eaten by children. Today, people know that most of it is just shaved jelly that is different from jelly.

"Changsha City Chronicle" records: According to an old custom, "On the first day of the seventh lunar month in the ancient calendar, before dawn, you would hear people calling out in the streets and alleys for selling sesame candy. This is a unique summer festival food in Changsha. "When we were sensible, there were no sesame candies in Changsha, only Dingding cocoa candies exchanged for toothpaste peels in autumn and winter.

Sour plum soup was not only available in Hongmei, but also in the Red Star Cold Drink Shop on Jiefang West Road in the past. Dad. I have an educated youth friend, Wei Lizun, who lives in that shop. She would often refill the sour soup I had just finished without anyone noticing. Wow, it's so cool and refreshing.

□ Prickly heat powder, toilet water and Liuyi powder

Due to restrictions in diet and heatstroke prevention conditions, children in those days were very poisonous and often developed sandy prickly heat and large boils.

Every evening after bathing, I see children with prickly heat powder all over their foreheads and bodies, which looks like "pink winter melon". Even later, many people watched Qizhi Dingbing's "Double Act", and the look on "Ha Chong You"'s face still made many people very friendly.

Toilet water has both spicy and refreshing taste, as well as fragrance. Girls feel as happy as wearing perfume. Later, Liushen toilet water became popular throughout the city in the late 1980s.

Liuyi Powder can be used as a toner or mixed with water. But boys back then often folded paper into jet-shaped objects, packed Liuyi in bulk, and squeezed it while spraying it into their mouths to flavor it.

flavor. It is common to hear people selling popsicles in wooden or foam boxes in the market shouting, "popsicles, the best mung bean popsicles." In the early 1980s, I remember that there were three types of popsicles: 3-cent sugar popsicles, 5-cent mung bean popsicles, and 8-cent or 10-cent cream ice cream. Many large factories in Changsha have ice factories, and employees are given popsicle tickets. This is a benefit that those of us from the business sector are envious of.

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These are the most distinctive ones in Changsha

The poster can choose one of them at his discretion. I think it is definitely worth the charm.