A sewing machine is a machine used by people to make clothes. But in the rural areas of northern Anhui before the reform and opening up, such machines were very rare. Being able to own a sewing machine has been our family's dream for many years. And it has indeed brought tangible benefits to our family. In the eyes of our whole family, it is no longer a simple object. It is an important complex in my mother's memory, and it also records the tremendous changes that have occurred in my family.
In the 1960s and 1970s, there were many siblings in our family. Although my father had a monthly salary of several tens of yuan, he still lived a relatively difficult life. For the sake of the whole family's clothing, she often participates in the labor of the production team during the day and even flies needles and thread at night, causing her body to deteriorate due to fatigue. To alleviate the burden on our mother, we always go to our uncle's house to have our aunt do the clothes because he has a sewing machine.
But my aunt is also a rural person and has a lot of household chores to do. We are also embarrassed to trouble her often. Moreover, we have a long way to go to my aunt's house, and it is not convenient to go to her house every time we make clothes. How the whole family hopes to have a sewing machine. However, my father's salary is already barely enough to sustain the basic livelihood of the whole family, so there is still extra money to buy sewing machines? So, despite having a strong desire to buy a machine, the whole family still helplessly sighed at the "machine"!
It wasn't until the late 1970s that my father's salary slightly increased and the whole family's life slightly improved. At my mother's repeated demands, my father spent more than 100 yuan to buy a Shanghai made Bee brand sewing machine from the county town.
I remember the day the sewing machine was pulled home, and our family was as happy as a holiday. We looked and touched around it, filled with excitement and anticipation.
In that era, bicycles, sewing machines, radios, and watches were collectively referred to as the "four major items" of weddings. If anyone had these items in that era, it was a symbol of wealth. How could the arrival of sewing machines not make the whole family happy and excited.
Since having a sewing machine, my mother's burden has been greatly reduced. The labor-intensive and time-consuming task of making clothes has also become much easier. With the help of a sewing machine, many household chores such as major renovations and old renovations can be easily completed. From then on, my mother started making her own clothes, which not only saved money but also fitted and looked good.
I am the second in the family, originally wearing the old clothes worn by my older brother. It turns out that every time I wear my older brother's old clothes, I always feel embarrassed. Now, a tattered piece of clothing was altered by her with a sewing machine and turned into a beautiful new one. I wore it to school and felt a hint of pride. Neighbors often come to ask their mother for help with manual work when they see that my family has a sewing machine.
Every day, after finishing the household chores during the day, my mother puts on reading glasses and hunches in front of the sewing machine, stitching and patching clothes under the bean like light. It's often when I wake up and my mother is still working. I saw my mother sitting in front of the sewing machine, splicing the damaged clothes together with a patch in her left hand. She stretched them flat and pushed them towards the needle, while her right hand pulled them forward. Her feet kept pressing on the pedal, and her movements were very skilled, effortless, and not impatient. The arms stretched and stretched freely like a bow, and in the busy singing of the sewing machine "da, da, da...", each piece of damaged clothes was sewn together. Whenever I see my mother's gray hair, tears unconsciously fill my eyes.
I enjoy watching every move my mother makes while sewing clothes, and I also enjoy listening to the sound of the sewing machine making clothes. The sound flows like a beautiful song in my heart. This beautiful song, sung from dawn to late night, and from late night to dawn, has led me to sleep and awakened me from it. In the singing, I learned the truth of being a person, and in the singing, I grew up day by day.
For thirty years, my mother has been singing this song and walking this path. With a pair of rough, cracked, and vigorous hands and this sewing machine, my mother maintained the clothing of the family during those difficult and impoverished years, weaving one beautiful dream after another in the hearts of her children
Time flies, time flies. Nowadays, the sewing machine has multiple peeling and damaged edges, and my mother is already covered in white hair. Her clothes are both fashionable and durable, and she no longer has the strength to pedal the sewing machine. Sometimes, my mother caresses the sewing machine with infinite affection, as if recalling the passionate years of my youth.
Nowadays, in addition to industrial sewing machines used in factories, sewing machines, which used to hold an important position in families, have gradually faded out of people's lives. The mother's sewing machine is now placed in the corner of the wall, with a mottled rusty iron frame that is shrinking like an old ox that has worked hard. The figure of my mother hunched over and lying on the sewing machine table day and night, as well as the "click" sound of stepping on the pedal, became a memory of vicissitudes.