从随小分队下农村体验生活后没几个月，大家就面临人生的一个非常重要的转折点：毕业后去哪里？干什么？当时虽已属于上山下乡后期，但还是有一部分高中毕业生要下乡去的，很多是去国营农场，条件比早期知青下乡时要好的多。也有直接去农村插队的。当时政府的政策是家里多子女的有一个要下乡。比如老大下了乡，老二就可以留城。临近毕业时在学校对面的围墙上出现了大幅标语（每个字可能有一人高）列出了毕业班中三位准备带头下乡同学的名字，都是我很熟悉的同学，其中一位两个月前和我一起去农村体验生活的，还有一位是篮球队的好朋友，第三位是邻居！我也有点心动了。一则想有机会和这些同学一起工作，生活也很有意思，二则我如果下了乡，弟弟将来可以留城了。
不过我知道这事比较重大，未敢擅自决定。所以就准备去和父母商量。当时他们在一个交通不便利的农村小镇。要在运河里坐将近三个小时的轮船才能到。现在很难找到这种轮船的图片。下图是只拖船。但和我们当时坐的客轮大小，形状都差不多。柴油驱动的。印象中的客轮还要小一点，一船坐满可能也就四五十人吧。
满怀希望与父母会面，自然是弄点好吃的。当时父亲在供销社工作，母亲在中学工作。记得轮船是傍晚到的，镇不大，上岸走几步就到父母住处了。吃过晚饭聊了一晚上，第二天就回城了。父母毕竟是过来之人。他们建议我先留城工作。弟弟要六年以后再高中毕业，到时候情况也许就不一样了。这样我就没有报名下农村去，而留在城里准备参加工作分配。（当时是没有上大学的机会的。）这个决定现在看来是人生中最重要的决定之一。这以后的事另篇再写吧。
Decision by High School Graduation
Shortly after we spent two weeks in the countryside to experience farming and to learn how is life in the countryside, we were all facing a major life decision. What to do and where to go after high school? At the time, the movement of middle-school and high-school graduates going to the countryside for farming was towards its ending. But still a portion of the graduates would have to become farmers, either to the state-owned (thus supported) collective farms, or to the countryside where farmers were self-supported by collective groups in villages. The city government had the policy at the time that for families with multiple children, at least one of them would have to go farming (whichever form), the other could stay in the city for possible jobs. For example, if the elder brother or sister would go farming, then their younger siblings could stay in the city after high school. By the time close to our graduation, big-character posters appeared on the wall across my high school. These characters were as high as a person! The posters showed the names of three graduates in my class who announced that they’d go to the countryside! I know all three very well. One was on my team to the countryside a few weeks ago; one was a good friend in our basketball team; the third was my neighbor. I was actively thinking that I’d do what they planed to do, to go to the countryside and become a farmer. I thought there were two good reasons. One was that it’d be very good to work and live with these good friends. The other was that my younger brother would be able to stay in the city if I’d go to the countryside.
I knew this would be a very important decision. I wasn’t dare to make a decision without consulting with my parents. So I thought I’d visit them. At the time, they were in a tiny town many miles away from the city with no easy transportation. The way to go is to ride with some motor passenger boat in the Yun River for about three hours. I couldn’t find an exact image of the type of boats I was riding. The following is a tow-boat of similar size and shape. I think the kind of passenger boat we rode at the time would be a bit smaller than this one, with about 40-50 passenger capacity.
I was very happy to have an excuse to visit my parents. Dad was working in the office that manages the commerce in the town, mom was teaching in the middle school. I remember the passenger boat arrived at the town late in the afternoon. It was a small town, so it was just a few steps away from where the boat anchored to where my parents lived. We had a good dinner. We chatted all evening, as this was a major live decision. My parents convinced me that I should choose to stay in the city, not to volunteer to go to farming. The main reason was that my younger brother would not graduate from high school in another six years. By then, the situation or the policy may be very different. So I took their advice and I didn’t announce that I’d volunteer to go to the countryside. Looking back, this was one of the critical decisions in life. I would then stay in the city and look for jobs. (There was no opportunity to go to college at the time yet.) I’ll write in separate stories about the life in the a few years after high school graduation.
Leave a Reply