Family photos of my grandma, my father, me, and my 2 older brothers. This was taken by my father’s friend in middle 1970s (1976?). It appears both my 2nd brother and myself did not start school yet, as we did not have the red collars on our necks: a bit like boy scouts and girl scouts here. It was in the courtyard of our family home in Xiaomeng, Ningbo, Zhejiang province. I stayed and studied in the village elementary school until the very beginning of grade 5. My grandma passed away when I was in the senior year of high school (late 1988). My mom was not in the picture because she was working. Photography was a luxury at the time as China was an impoverished nation at that time. Bicycle, sewing machine and watch were the 3 luxury items young couple like to have when they getting married at that time. Now it’s the house (apartment, which is unaffordable in Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities). I am guessing I was 5 at that time, my brothers were 7 and 9 years old. Now I am probably more than 15 years older than my father on the picture.
I think the first picture is 1976 (they are one picture, I snapped the original picture using my iPhone a few years ago when I visited my childhood home). I added another picture which is June 1961: I saw my uncle there (mom’s big brother, he passed away 2 years ago, he was 87 years old). I found that picture online (https://www.sohu.com/a/243472385_467312) when I searched for my uncle’s name and the school he was the head (Baifeng middle schoo. He was 30 years old in that picture).
My uncle / my mom’s big brother, Hu Jinyu 胡金雨, is shown in the second row (counting from left, the fourth person, I can see some resemblance with my mom / maternal grandma). He is the first head of Baifeng Middle School.
A kind of funny episode involves my uncle and me
说说这个典故：高考前那个晚上，我失眠了。我可能是半夜醒来，就睡不回去了。我知道大舅🈶葡萄酒🍷，我就打开他的葡萄酒喝了不少，想着帮助睡眠，实际上没啥用。这事我外婆知道，因为她过来做我高考的后勤保障（烧饭），平时她一般是跟小舅住的。后来，我大舅当然发现了。他倒不是心疼他的葡萄酒：我现在想想他应该是有点后怕 – 因为万一我因为喝酒高考考砸了呢？因为我是农村户口的，我两个哥哥已经考出农们了。后来，我每次去大舅家，只要有其它亲戚在，他都会说说我”偷喝酒”的事 🙂
Below English was translated by Google translate
Let me tell you this story: The night before the college entrance examination, I couldn’t sleep. I might wake up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep. I knew that my eldest uncle 🈶 drank wine🍷, so I opened his wine and drank a lot of it, thinking it would help me sleep, but it actually didn’t work. My grandmother knew about this because she came over to provide logistical support (cooking) for my college entrance examination, and she usually lives with my younger uncle. Later, of course, my eldest uncle found out. It’s not that he felt sorry for his wine: now I think he should be a little scared – because what if I failed the college entrance examination because of drinking? Because I have a rural household registration, my two brothers have already passed the examination to become farmers. Later, every time I went to my eldest uncle’s house, as long as other relatives were there, he would talk about my “secret drinking”.