我1974年高中毕业。当时学校毕业后工作（或下农村）都是政府统一安排。我因为没有选择下农村 （我们毕业那年可以有这样的选择），就希望能分个城里的工作。但我因为年龄还差一点，所以必须和下一届学生一起参加分配。所以这中间有一年的空闲时间。（75届学生还在校读书。）能在这一年里做些什么呢？不太记得详细怎么作的决定，应该是何父母讨论过的。自己一个人带了包常用东西，在九月底或十月初去北京旅行了一个多月。当时的火车很慢，可能坐了十多个小时。当时有个堂叔在北京城里工作，单位有宿舍，有食堂。但他家在郊区。父亲和堂叔联系好后，我就去了他工作的地方，一般早饭和晚饭和堂叔一起在食堂吃（周末除外，堂叔回家去了）。北京单位食堂多吃面条，馒头，和家乡饭菜不太一样。我是很习惯吃面食的，所以觉得很好。买了张公共汽车月票。白天我自己出去游玩。一个月里北京城里城外的主要景点都去过了，包括去香山看红叶。那时候照相机是非常珍贵的物品，我们是没有的，更不用谈现代化的手机了。我的印象是只在长城和天安门等几个特别出名的地方花钱照了几张照片。其他只能“尽收眼底”了！
从北京回到家好像是十月底，十一月初了。回家后具体做了些什么不太记得了。（那段时间和几个同学，朋友一起经常在外面打篮球。）但全家在春节前后一起随父亲去了他的老家！父亲年少时离开老家后就一直没有回去过。所以这次去老家他觉得特别激动。父亲的二哥和大姐当时还健在。我们住在二伯家。拜会了姑妈和姑父，还有我的几个叔伯兄弟姐妹。我们拜访了很多亲戚朋友。其中包括一家以前的邻居，好朋友。他们家是文革早期回老家去的。还有一家亲戚是在上山下乡运动中下放去的。我感觉全家在那过了十多天。大家非常高兴。结束时，父母带了弟弟回家了，他们要上班，弟弟要上学。我因为没有其他事可做，决定在大伯家住一阵（好像住了一个多月？）这是冬春之际的季节，大部分农活还没有开始，记得总有部分人参加修建水渠等比较大规模的工程，其他大部份人闲在家。我们有时聊天，有时打牌（用的牌是一种黑色的条形牌），有时跟堂兄堂姐去赶集。那时农村条件是相对困难的。交通很不方便。去镇上要步行或骑自行车。我记得大部份家住的是草顶泥墙的房子。砖房很少，是非常稀罕和珍贵的了。家里做个粉丝炖红烧肉已经是个上等菜了。有几次二伯还亲自上阵擀面条。大家吃得很高兴。我到现在还记得他擀面条的样子。我也是从那学怎么擀面条的。二伯一家亲情浓浓，邻居家也都时这样，日子过得非常愉快！
Waiting Time After High School
I graduated from high school in 1974. At the time, everything was done through the government, including getting jobs after graduation. The graduates were either going to work in some factories, or going to countryside to be a farmer. I chose not to go to the countryside (by our year of graduation, there was such a choice). I was hoping to get a job to work somewhere in the city. But by the policy, I was a couple months too young to be assigned a job. I had to join the next year’s graduates for job assignments (or to go to the countryside). I had an entire year of idling. What to do? I forgot how the decision was made, I must have discussed with my parents, that I was going to the city of Beijing to have a tour. I have a second-uncle who works in Beijing. His work unit was in the city of Beijing where he had an apartment and had access to the cafeteria. But his family lives in the suburb. He went home every weekend. So I lived with him in the apartment. Usually I’d have breakfast and dinner with him at the cafeteria. The cafeteria was a big one. They usually serve food of northern China style with bread or noodle, very different from what I used in my hometown. But I liked the food, so it wasn’t an issue. During the day I’d go out touring the city by myself while he was at work. I purchased a monthly bus pass that I could take bus anywhere in the city. I visited all over the city and most of its famous sight-seeing sites, including seeing the foliage in the west of the city. At the time, camera was a very expensive item that we didn’t have. There was certainly no smart phone that could take pictures. The point was that I had to pay for a few photos taken in a few very famous places such as The Forbidden City Gate and the Great Wall. The rest can only be remembered through my eyes.
It must have been end of October or beginning of November when I came home. I don’t remember exactly what I did in those days. I remember we played some competitive basketball games as a pick-up team with a few high school classmates and friends. But I do remember clearly that the family visited dad’s hometown during the Chinese new year’s holiday. Dad had not visited his hometown since he left young. So it was very exciting to pay such a visit. He still had one of his brother and a sister in or near the hometown village. We visited my uncle’s family (we stayed in their house) and my aunt’s family. We also visited some other people, including a good friend (and neighbor) and a relative whose family went to there during the cultural revolution. I think we stayed in my uncles home for about 10 days. Then dad and mom had to go back to work, so was my younger brother who had to go to school. But I was a free man at the time, there was nothing else to do. So I decided to stay behind (this must have been discussed and got permission from my parents). That was in the winter season. There wasn’t much farming work to do in the countryside. Some were joining the workforce to work on the irrigation systems for the public. Most stayed home just relaxing. We just spent time doing various things that were not very important, chatting, playing cards (a type of strip shaped black cards), or going Gang-Ji (going to farmer’s markets in various places). In the early 70s, the countryside were mostly poor, relatively speaking. There was no motorized transportation. We had either walking or biking to the town centers. Most houses were built with mud blocks and hey roofs. Houses with bricks were rare and very precious. A dish with pork and rice noodles was already very good and up-scale. I remember a few times my uncle was making the noodle himself for us for a treat (usually men don’t take part in cooking in the countryside). We were all very happy when he made noodles for us. I think I learned how to make noodles by hand at that time. My uncle’s family as well as the neighbors were very welcome and made me home. I was very happy I spent time with them.