应该是在1973年4月左右，我们在高一（12）班（74届）。当时我们有12个高一班，都在靠近大操场的一栋平房教室里。有几个高二班（73届），在科学楼，教室条件好一些。学校准备庆祝54青年节。班上几个同学讨论了几次，决定做个船模。大家说干就干，完全是初生牛犊不怕虎的感觉！首先的问题是大家不知道怎么做，没有任何概念。另外的问题是没有工作场所。我就自告奋勇说去我们家做吧，至少有个地方（其实也就是一间30平方左右的客厅，三家邻居合用吃饭的地方）。几个同学凑了工具，下了课以后就去我家 （这个过程是多次的）。当时我住在我舅外婆家，在祖家桥，定慧寺巷底。离学校还是挺远的，步行要25分钟。（我们可能是骑自行车的？）

一开始大家不知道怎么做，凭想象，找了一块足够大的木头（可能有50厘米长，10多厘米宽，5-6厘米厚），准备拿刀具把当中挖空，可能看起来就像一条船了。但大家都是学生，没有动手做东西的经验，也没有任何防护措施，在手忙脚乱的过程中，一不小心，一块琢出的木絮飞到一位同学的眼里。他的眼球出血，有红肿。大家顿时慌了。决定暂停工程。

好像就在那一阵，我有一个姨外公正好从上海来我家玩。我完全不知道做船模是他的一个艺术爱好。他在家自己做的船模非常精致，还有用小马达作为动力的！在他的指导下，我们项目重新启动，买了整套船模的材料，包括马达，进展很顺利。做成了一个很像样的船模。

大家兴致勃勃，拿了做好的船模就到学校去试航了。我们把船模放到红楼前面（道山亭下）的池塘里（池塘的名字忘了)。这个池塘应该有30-40米长，20米宽。（年轻人无所畏惧，第一次试航就把船模放到这么大的池塘里去了：）我们让船模从东开到西。一切看起来都很好！大家高兴极了。不料船模突然停在池塘当中不动了！马达停止转动了！怎么办？怎样才能把船模从水中取回来呢？不记得具体的讨论了，我感觉可能各种方法都想过了。后来决定用小砖块”削水片“，产生一些浪花，让船模自己漂回来。

有些细节不太记得清楚了。但上面讲的几个情节基本是准确的。

*为尊重隐私，所有姓名都是虚拟的。

Making Model Boat in High School

It was around March or April of 1973, when I was in the first year of high school (Class of 1974, 1(12), meaning 1st grade in high school, 12th class). We had 12 classes (1-12) in our grade. We were all in a cluster of classrooms that was a single story building, next to the track and field (also as the soccer field). There were also a few classes of Class 1973. They were in the Science Building with better classrooms. The school was about to celebrate the Youth Day in May 4th. A few of us talked about what to do. After a few rounds of discussions, we decided to make a model boat (at a very small scale, a toy). We were very excited by this idea, without even thinking through how we might do it. The first problem was that no body knew how to make a model boat, we had no idea. The second problem was that we didn’t have any workplace to make such a thing, nor did we have any ready tools. I volunteered for our home, at least we had some space (really it was just in our dinning room that was shared among three families!) Some of us collected some tools (mostly tools for wood work.) We then headed to our home after classes. We made the trips many times as the model boat wasn’t an easy thing to make. At the time I was living with my grandma in ZuJia Qiao, at the end of the Ding Hui Si Lane. It was pretty far from the school. I think it would take 25-30 minutes of walking. Maybe we rode bikes? I don’t remember. The thing was that not every student had bike at the time. The bike was an expensive item.

At the beginning no body knew how to make a model boat. Just follow the imagination. We’d think we’d make the boat model out of a piece of wood. So we found a piece of wood that was large enough, probably 50 cm in length, 10 or so cm in width, and 5-6 cm in height. We were thinking about carving out the center, then cutting the corners to make a boat shape. But we had no experiences making anything, no protection gears. In the midst of the commotion, a small piece of wood chip flew out of cutting and hit the eye of a classmate. His one eye was instantly red. It seemed that his eye ball was a bit bleeding. Everyone was scared. We decided to stop making the model for now until we figured something out.

For some coincident reason(s), one of my grandpas (one of my mom’s uncles) came to visit us, not knowing making boat model was his hobby. He made a number of model boats himself in his home in Shanghai, each very elegant, some with motors that could actually drive the boat! Under his guidance, we restarted the model boat project. We bought the kits for a model boat with a battery motor. After some work, we made a very decent boat model. We painted it with sea blue, we painted the part that was below the water line some scarlet color, like a real boat.

We took the model to the school and tried to run it in water, feeling very excited! We put the boat in the pond that was in front of the Red Building (a 2-story classroom building with 5 classroom at each floor.) I forgot the name of the pond (if there is one.) The pond was probably 30-40 meters long and 20 meter wide. You can tell that the youth was afraid of nothing. We didn’t even have any second thoughts before putting the model boat in a real, sizable body of water! The model boat driven by the battery powered motor was able to sailing across the length of the pond. We were so excited! But all of sudden, the boat stopped in the middle of the pond. We didn’t know why it stopped. How to get the powerless boat back to the shore? I don’t remember what we discussed. We probably thought of many different ways. (The pond was too deep to walk into.) Eventually we settled on throwing many small pieces of rock to produce some “waves” to agitate the boat to move towards the bank. We succeeded retrieving the boat at the end.

While I don’t remember every piece of details, the basic story line is true.

*To protect privacy, all names are pseudonyms.