Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[wenzili]

A thanksgiving stir is always pestering in my mind, which was resulted from an experience in Dashahu (a lake with wide sand beach ) in my childhood.
About seven kilometers� away from my hometown, Dashahu lake was the south boundary of Po Yang Hu, the No. 1 inner lake in China.
In 1960�s Dashahu was a vast water area in spring and summer. In autumn and winter, however, it came to be a broad marsh covered by endless reed jungles.
The same as my story, nowadays, it became a historic relic. The boundless swamp became fertile former land.
As a lake, Dashahu had completely disappeared now, only an empty name left being the sign of an immigration settlement. In this case, I prefer calling this peace as an elegiac address rather than a memory.

(1) A Village Trip
It was half century ago, when I going to be a middle school student. I didn�t grow up well and my figure was as tall as that of 10-year-old boy.
Unfortunately, the famine spread out at that time.
I was in such hungry state that even a cup of pure rise became my craving dream.
My parents worried about me very much. They had done their best, but still
failed to satisfy my desire.
One day in early June of 1961, one of my neighbors was arranging her two sons to hometown, known as Tongcun village for stomach feeding.
She told my Mum, immediately behind the village there was an immense lake, known as Dashahu, it was flooded in the first half of each year and it�s getting dry in the second half. Then, the village leaders let the farmers to cultivate the marsh and plant rise. With vast silt, the soil was so fertile that nothing else needed to be done after the rise-seed transplanting. Needless to say, the harvest in autumn must be mostly exiting.
This cleaver creation brought local farmer significant benefit, therefore, no famine happened there at all.
The neighbor�s words enlightened my mum greatly. A sudden impulse came to her mind：�Why doesn�t my poor son accompany them to visit his cousin sister who happened to live in same village ?�
_________________
Practice made every effort perfect