It’s so hot at night in summer, so how did you spend time in the countryside in the past?
When I was a kid born in the 80s, I used to sleep on the roof of the building in the summer, using bamboo mats as my bottom, or sleeping on a bench with the door open. Two benches put together became a bed. It was never so hot before, mom. There is a low iron fan in the dowry, but it is only used during the day. At night, the whole family sleeps on the roof, sometimes with friends, which is very lively.
My parents are an employee of a third-tier unit. I got the first ceiling fan at home after I was 8 years old. My impression in the past summer was that the best temperature was about 30 degrees, and more than 20 degrees at night. The windows and doors at home were open. If it gets hot again, rinse the cement floor with water and sleep on the ground at night, or sleep on a bamboo bed under the tree at the door. Try not to go out during the day and go swimming in the river in the evening. It's 35 to 38 degrees now and it's really hard to live without air conditioning. .
In that era, people had a very strong ability to endure hardship and were also very resistant to heat, because at that time it was a large collective of the people's commune. No matter how hot the weather was, the captain of the production team would lead everyone to do farm work in the fields. Farmers wear straw hats and towels, and some carry banana fans. Sometimes, to prevent heat stroke, the production team gives each person a few bowls of mung bean soup, and some fill bottles with well water to drink. At home, I mainly rely on banana fans to keep me cool. In summer, it’s hot at night, so I can’t sleep in the house, so I sleep on a mat in the yard. Some even climbed up to the roof (flat-roofed house) to sleep. In the summer at that time, it was common for both children and adults to suffer from prickly heat, sunburn, and even heatstroke.
When summer arrived in the 1960s and 1970s, people would set up bamboo beds and couches in advance in the evening and go to a large place to enjoy the cool air. When I was a child, I loved to listen to ancient fighting stories. They were all neighbors. They were friendly to each other, and the storytellers talked about it with relish. Everyone listened calmly and did not feel the heat. The weather would be cooler after ten o'clock. Some people slept under hanging mosquito nets until dawn. People at that time were all kind of people. Friendly, neighbors are willing to help anyone who is in need. Most people nowadays are selfish, and it is difficult to regain the sophistication of the 1960s and 1970s.
Use a fan to fan. It’s too hot at night, so sleep outside. It was a very hard time, but my thoughts were simple and I didn’t have the money consciousness we have now. In such a big environment, we were enthusiastic about work and life. Everyone had a spirit of selfless dedication in building the country. They talked and laughed in life and had a strong sense of the world. Therefore, At that time, everyone's living standards were the same, there was no pressure, and we didn't feel any pain. Now that our living standards have improved, when we look back and think about it, it was indeed hard in the past.
When I was a child, I would take out a mat and lay it beside the road in the summer evenings and play on it with the children. A lot of people will gather at the door, talking about family affairs. There will also be older grandfathers telling stories about the past. I remember there was a grandfather who could tell stories, although he was not professional enough, but he also performed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the Three Kingdoms. It was from that time that I first came into contact with it. Even though everyone was poor at that time, I could feel the sincere happiness.
At that time, everyone lived in wooden houses with air leakage from all sides. A few houses with blue bricks and large tiles had large spaces, so the wind in the halls would blow, so they would not get hot. How is it like now, with the standard 3-meter-high floor, the house is built like a cage, and it doesn’t need tiles. It has a concrete roof. If there is sunlight, it becomes a steamer. The city has a heat island effect, no electricity, no air conditioning. The people in the city have long been killed by the heat.
People in the 1970s were really very simple. Neighbors helped each other. In summer evenings, every household put a wooden board or bed made of bamboo at the door, and everyone slept at the door. Never a thief. When I got married in 1992, we only had a fan, and Murakami and I didn't have air conditioning. Although we had no money, we felt that our life was easy and happy at that time. Now we are under too much pressure and very tired.
Another very important point is that people at that time were relatively simple and simple. At that time, there were small rivers and big trees everywhere in and outside the village. Now there are no more. The surface temperature is indeed higher than before. Moreover, at that time, men all It's a pair of big pants, and women also wear very loose undershirts, which are normal, but now, others will say that you have no quality or something.
Most of the mosquitoes at that time were long gray mosquitoes. They did not bite during the day but only bit at eight or nine o'clock at night. They were not very poisonous. Today's small mosquitoes were brought from African forests through cargo transportation and flights in the past 20 to 30 years. They have spread to more than 100 countries around the world. They chase people day and night and bite people, and they are extremely poisonous. When enjoying the cool night in rural areas, lighting a cigarette handle made of wheat straw can basically repel mosquitoes. People in the 1960s and 1970s and before worked a lot and had rough skin, unlike people today who have fine skin and tender flesh! If there were so many mosquitoes in the past, I believe people would not dare to enjoy the shade under the trees.