Lunar New Year Day, I walked the streets of hometown Shima, looking for places and scenes in the memory.

In my memory, Masonry Street（打石街）was where it was most crowded on a Lunar New Year Day, with peddlers and shoppers lining the streets from north to south. All kinds of goods and toys catering to New Year and kids were on display. On such a Lunar New Year Day, we the kids followed our Third Uncle out onto the streets.  Cousin A Kui saw a wooden gun and asked his dad for it.  His dad bought it for his son, without asking or thinking if my brother of the same age might wish to have one too.  Uncle never asked.  Uncle never bought us any toys.  He never cared.  The night before, during the New Year Eve dinner, Mother had put four sets of dinnerware on the partially unfolded table whose one side could be rolled up because of rusty hinges.  “That set,” Mother told me and my brother, “is meant for your dad.” Ours was a family without a dad or husband, because the dad/husband perished for the revolution on the eve of liberation of Xiamen. So it fell on me the ten-year-old to try to make a gun out of wood for my little brother.  There were scrap planks, but no saw.  I tied a wire over a bent bamboo stick, used a kitchen knife to slit into the wire so that it could be used to saw.  It was no easy job.  Shallow cuts would not bite into woods while deeper cuts would break the wire into two.  I failed miserably.  Later, when I was attending school in Fuzhou, I wrote to my boyhood friend Hong Shuipo to ask him to complete my project. When I came back during winter vocation, I found the resemblance of a wooden gun amid flower pots in the courtyard.  Ah, that was the sorry state of a family without money and without a dad or able male!

When I went out on this Lunar New Year Day（大年初一）today, the streets were there, but not the crowds. I walked past the wire factory where my wife did temp once.  Memory came flashing back.  At the time, they made wire by pulling thicker pieces into slender ones, all by hand. It was a polluted job.  Dust and dirt would creep onto their faces and overalls.  My wife got that job as a favor from the factory heads, for the factory needed raw material from my wife’s oldest bother-in-law.  Two big flashbacks.  The day I brought our four-year-old Wei back from his grandma in Luoyang, I took him to the factory to meet his mother.  Seeing her, Wei hesitated and timidly addressed his mom as Auntie.  Tears rolled down my wife’s filthy face as she held Wei up in her arms.  Then, one afternoon, my wife came back in tears again.  She told me that the factory had just fired all temps.  As an “educated youth” staying in town with me, she was without residency registration.  When rice was government rationed, she was not included, nor were our two sons.  Price for unrationed rice was double or higher.

Fortunately, with Mao’s death, Cultural Revolution was over and I had just been summoned back to head the English department in the local high school which was also my Alma Mater.  English teachers were badly needed.  I took my wife to see the faculty administrator and got permission on the spot to recruit my wife to the faculty.  The next day, instead of soiled overalls, my wife was in clean dress, and rode on the back of my bicycle to temp in school.  Thanks to help and encouragement from my colleagues, she became a teacher after one week’s training and practice teaching.  Pupils liked her, and her class actually did better as compared with classes taught by one other senior teacher.

大年初一，我漫步石码街头，试图寻找消失的新年记忆。

记忆里，石码街上最热闹的地方是以打石街为中点，从上码到下码，两边排满摊贩的街道。卖的东西有“风雷”（竹筒做的，用绳子在空中转起来轰轰作响），“风吹”（迎风可吹动的纸制玩艺，不是风筝），木刀、木枪、面人，还有带赌注性质的转盘，用一分钱就可一试。中奖的有较大收获，没中的也有一小块糖块。大年初一我们一大群孩子跟在舅舅后面走。他的儿子仲魁看中一把木枪，舅舅买给他了。跟仲魁同龄的弟弟不敢吱声，舅舅也没有给弟弟什么或问弟弟想要什么。没有，舅舅从来没有。前一天晚上的年夜饭，妈妈在半圆形（因为另一半坏了掀不起来）的餐桌上摆了四副碗筷，声明一副是给爸爸的，尽管他已经在解放前夕为“新中国”献身了。于是，给弟弟搞根木枪成了十多岁的我的任务。碎木板有，但没有锯子。我把铁线绑在弯曲的竹片的两头，把铁线垫在石头上，用菜刀砸出小小的锯口。锯口小则锯不进木头，砸大了就把铁线砸成两节。我最终没能给弟弟做出一把木枪。后来，在福州读书的我曾写信央求我的童年朋友洪水波完成我的未遂工程。寒假回家，我在天井里的花坛中看到一把木头枪的粗胚。唉，那些家里没钱而且没有爸爸没有大男人的日子。

今天上街，街道还在，但不那么热闹不那么拥挤了。路过原来的铁线厂，想起丽卿在那个黑地方打工的经历。在那个地方打一天工，整个人成了黑人。那里的工序是把铝材一重一重的压榨，最后成为铝线。丽卿有那个工作，还因为大姐夫在省计委工作，掌有分配原材料的权。值得一提的有两件事。一是我从洛阳把四岁的庄伟带回来，在铁线厂门口跟他妈妈见面。又瘦又小的庄伟战战兢兢地喊了一声“阿姨”。“阿姨”把儿子抱了起来，晶莹的泪水在她的带黑灰的脸上划出了一条长长的细沟。二是有一天下午，丽卿又流着眼泪回来了。因为铁线厂刚刚宣布全部临时工辞退。那时丽卿和我们的两个儿子都是“黑户”，即没有户口，没有粮食供应的，因为丽卿的户口在乡下。有户口的一斤米是一毛八分钱。没户口的买黑市米，一斤米得四五毛钱。

那个时候，升任教育局长的老校长朱振民刚刚把我从白水中学高港泉的治下调到龙海一中当英语教研组组长。龙海一中是我中学六年的母校，上上下下，包括工友，都熟悉。四人帮刚刚倒台，英语大有用，我也如鱼得水了。我即决定带妻子去见一中的教导主任李水锦。她毫不犹豫地同意让丽卿第二天就到我的教研组当代课老师。于是，第二天，我用自行车把穿得体体面面的妻子带到学校。跟其他老师见面后，安排让她听课备课一星期，第二星期开始上课。接受她听课并辅导她上讲台的就是去年从澳大利亚来看我们的陈美玲老师。别看丽卿现在拼写和语法有时会出问题。当年她教的班级成绩比某个老教师的班还好，而且很受学生欢迎的。

再说那黑心的铁线厂领导小组成员们，辞退丽卿的当晚就集体来家访了。她们或许想听听我们的哀告，趁机诈我们和大姐夫一把，没想到鸭子已经飞了。听到她们手下的铁线工第二天就去龙海一中当老师，她们的惊讶和失望，全部写到那几张无奈的脸上。回顾这四十年前的故事，我们得感谢机遇，感谢给了我们机会的朱校长，洪涛校长，李水锦老师，和帮助过我们的陈美玲和其他老师们。

终于，人在美国的我有了自己的家，自己的工具间，和各色各样大小不一的手锯与电锯。