My childhood was spent in the dormitory area of the Guangzhou Paper Mill. I have three sisters, and in that era when having many children was seen as a heroic act, our number of sisters was considered small. My father can be said to be a pioneer at the Guangzhou Paper Mill, starting work there in the early days after the liberation.
At that time, every employee of the paper mill could be assigned a dormitory. There were single rooms, collective dormitories, and staff dormitories. Those with families could be assigned larger houses. Within the dormitory area, there were kindergartens, hospitals, canteens, primary schools, football fields, basketball courts, and clubs, with complete living facilities.
My family lived in the special B area, which was a two-story building with six rooms on each floor. The staff dormitories also had several areas like A, B, C, and D. Outside the factory and dormitory area were farmlands, growing rice seedlings, jasmine, and honeysuckle, as well as fish ponds. The Guangzhou Paper Mill Children's Primary School had a large garden area next to the school building, where the primary school students often played games and hide-and-seek.
When I was young, I attended kindergarten, and my teacher was Aunt Zheng, who is now over eighty and still alive. After that, I attended the Guangzhou Paper Mill Children's Primary School, where my first homeroom teacher was Ms. Bi Fengyi.
Later, my family moved to the C area, which was a row of eight rooms with roofs covered in Soviet tiles. There was a yard in front of our house.
My father laid a piece of wood across the branches of a big tree in the yard, then tied two ropes to it, attaching a wooden board to make a seesaw for us to play with.
Sometimes my father would move two benches, place a board on top, put two bricks on the board, and then lay a bamboo pole on the bricks. This became our ping pong table, and we played ping pong together.
When summer came, my father would take my brother or sister and me to swim at the Nanshitou Wharf on his bicycle. My father often said, "You can skip other sports, but you must learn to swim. It can save your life or someone else's when necessary." My father was our swimming coach.
After dinner, my father would usually set up the benches in the middle of the yard and wait for his work friends to come over to play chess. The pieces would be in a chaotic battle, difficult to distinguish. I often watched from the side, and over time, I learned a bit from observing.
Every night at nine o'clock, we would go to bed on time. The house we lived in was not spacious; it was just a small room separated by wooden boards, with a wooden bed inside. Under the bed, there was a basket of dried tree bark. That was used for cooking. It was the bark stripped from the wood used as raw materials for papermaking, allocated to the employees.
When we went to sleep, my father would always tell us stories. "Journey to the West," "The Flower in the Mirror," "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio," "1001 Nights," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Robinson Crusoe," "The Seven Friends of Snow Maiden," "The Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor," and many more; he had so many stories that he could never finish telling them. It continued every night. On nights when he didn't play chess, he would have us move a canvas chair to the middle of the yard and tell us stories. The neighbor's children would also gather around, listening intently.
Every Sunday, as long as the weather was good, my father would take one of us on his bike to the city for a ride, to help us get to know the roads in the city or buy some small trinkets to take home. At that time, the children in our dormitory area referred to the city (around Shangxiajiu and Beijing Road) as Guangzhou. Our living place felt like a rural area. My father rode a Raleigh brand bicycle made in England. Initially, he bought us a children's bike made from two wooden boards and two wheels, and later he bought a 24-inch small bike that was a bit special, with a foot brake. At that time, bicycles were considered high-end living necessities.
We, born in the 1950s, encountered three years of national economic difficulties after birth. Then, we faced the unprecedented Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Material life was quite poor. When we were in primary school, most children did not wear shoes, and it was not until middle school that we could wear shoes.
When school started, we would tuck our ping pong paddles behind our waists as we neared the end of class, waiting for the bell to ring, and then rush out of the classroom to seize the ping pong table. We played to seven points; whoever lost would step down. The next person would take their turn.
After school, we would walk home hand in hand with the neighbor's children. In the streets and alleys, we jumped rubber bands, played with big ropes, played hopscotch, and picked up stones... having a great time.
During the winter and summer vacations, we would form study groups under the guidance of our teachers. The classmates would complete their homework at one of their homes and then play together.
Childhood passed like this...
In childhood, our parents were our great friends, and the children from the neighbors were our little friends. Our childhood was happy, and our later years are blissful. Because we always had a group of friends who grew up together and caring relatives by our side.