我们几个孩子在父母下乡期间在舅外婆家住了好几年。有不少事值得写写。
舅外婆是妈妈的舅妈。她一直和我们住在一起，照料孩子和家务，就像我们亲外婆一样。她有小学文化。在她那个时代的妇女中是比较有文化的了。
舅外婆家是在一个典型的老式房子里。四家人家合住。有两进天井。一进大门是“大天井”，可能有40-50平方米大。大天井旁边有个挺大的院子，里面可以种些菜，还有一口井。四家人都要走过一扇共用的大门。这个门也是第一家邻居A家的厨房兼吃饭间的门。穿过这个吃饭间有一个“小天井”，可能有20平方米左右。小天井两面是两家邻居的厢房。穿过小天井就是第二进的一个厅，三家人公用。我们家在此烧饭和吃饭。邻居B在这里烧饭（他们在自己房间吃饭，因为都在这里吃就太拥挤了）。邻居C在这里吃饭。他们在另一个烧饭间烧饭。这个烧饭间应该就是这栋老屋以前的烧饭间。里面有个烧草的灶头。邻居C大部分时间是用炉子烧饭的。逢年过节人多偶尔会用草灶烧东西。我有时好玩，会去帮她们烧灶头（过节一般要烧很多东西的时候），也因此学会了用灶头烧饭，菜。
这四家人中有三位老人，邻居B没有老人，两位中年夫妇都是同一工厂的工人，他们家两个男孩，大的和我弟弟同年，小的再小几岁。邻居A也是一对中年工人夫妇。他们两个男孩，大的和我差不多，小的好像小2-3岁。他们的爷爷当时有70多岁了。邻居C家人多一点。她们家有位老太，是舅外婆的大姐。当时应该也有60多70岁左右了。她们家有四个女孩，最大的比我大一点，最小的和弟弟同年。她们妈妈在当地学校做老师，爸爸在外地一个单位工作，逢年过节或周末才回来。
四家人住在一栋房子里，很亲热。互相关照，互相帮忙，和一家人一样。烧菜少个油盐酱醋都是临时“借用”一下。有个什么东西坏了，帮助修补一下。我印像很深的有两类事。邻居A在工厂是机器保健工，动手修理东西的能力很强。当时开始流行日光灯，我们家的两只日光灯都是他来给我们装的。还有就是他经常帮我调理我的自行车。他经常来帮我给自行车链加油，给车子其他地方加油（如轴承），调整钢圈（这个活很费事）。在他的指导下，后来我也学会了一些基本的自行车维护。
他们家老爷爷每天早上要出门去和老朋友坐在玄妙观聊天，然后吃一碗面再回家，我对此印象非常深刻。
Living with Grandma (1)
We lived with our grandma for a few years when my parents were in the countryside. Those days left me with many good memories.
Grandma is mom’s aunt. She lived with us until her passing in her late 80s. She took care of the children and household chores including cooking. She was just like our true grandma. I think she had an education at the elementary school level. This was a decent level of education during her time for women.
Grandma’s home was a typical Chinese style old house. Four families shared the house. There were two “sky wells,” essentially very small scale “court-yard.” Upon entrance to the building, there was a “large sky well,” probably 40-50 square meters in size. There was a relatively large yard next to the sky well, there was a well in it. At times we planted some vegetables. All four families would need to go through a common door to their own individual home rooms. This door is also the door of the kitchen and dinning room for our neighbor A. Passing neighbor A’s kitchen you would see a “small sky well,” about 20 square meters or so. The two sides of this small sky well were the living room or bedroom of the two neighbors. The other side of this small sky well was a room shared by three families. We cooked and dinned there. Neighbor B cooked here but they often would eat in their own bedroom as it would be too crowded for three families eat in this room. Neighbor C would eat here in this room, but they cooked in a separate old style kitchen. This kitchen was most likely the original kitchen for this entire house, as it had a old style stove burning dried rice stem or small tree branches, or the like. Neighbor C had a coal stove in this kitchen which they used most of the time. They’d occasionally use the old style stove during holidays when there were large number of people for meal. At such occasions, I’d sometimes go to their kitchen and help operate the old style stove for fun. Because of this, I learned how to cook meal using this type of stove (at least the basics.)
There were three elderly in these four families. Neighbor B didn’t have one. The mid-age couple worked in the same factory. They had two boys, the older one is the same age as my brother, the younger one is a few years junior. The couple in neighbor B was in a similar situation, they both worked in factories. They had two boys, the older one is about the same age as I am, the younger one is 2-3 years junior. Their grandpa was living with them. He must be in his 70s at the time. Neighbor C was the most people in the household. They had four girls, the oldest is a couple years older than I am, while the youngest is the same age as my brother. Their mom was a school teacher in a near-by school, they dad worked in a different city. He’d come home during the holidays or some weekends. Their grandma was probably in her late 60s or early 70s. She was the elder sister of grandma.
The four families lived in one house, under the same roof, we were like one family. We helped and cared for each other. If something was missing, such as cooking ingredients, we’d just ask and take from other neighbors. If something was broker, we’d help each other to fix it, mostly was done by the neighbor who worked in the factories. I remembered two types of things our neighbor A helped us a number of times. The first was the fluorescent lights. It was just getting popular for families to install this type more efficient, “white light” type of lights. he helped us install it in our bedroom, including some wiring. The second was that he helped me to adjust our bicycle in a number of occasions. He’d oil the chain and other parts, he’d adjust the wheel spokes (this is time consuming and very technical work). Under his guidance, I learned some of the basics that some of the work I could do it myself later.
It left me with a very deep impression that their grandpa would go out to the city temple and chat with his elderly friends every morning. He’d then eat a bow of noodles in a restaurant before coming home.
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