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[wenzili]

 （1）

My grandma was horror-stricken to die when Japanese bombers dived and bombed to a group of Chinese refuges in 1940.

Therefore, none of my brothers nor my sisters had ever seen her, only an empty concept of �grandma� left in our minds, which was associated to some of the furniture she left.

Even they were so old, clunky and eroded by history, mum and dad kept emphasizing, �Be careful! These are grandma�s dowries.�

Therefore, the concept of �grandma� was constantly refreshed in this way.

It has been said grandma�s parents were not rich at all at that time when she was married, however, to honorably celebrate dear daughter�s wedding, they spared no effort even borrowed from others and managed to compose a set of furniture, such as cupboard, dressing table, chairs etc as her wedding dowries.

Unfortunately, most of them were burned by damnable Japanese army in 1940.
Only 2 small items, a tin kettle and a blast-box left ever since.

Therefore, when my parents talked about �grandma�s dowries�, we all fully understood they were referred to the kettle and box.

Ever since we were brought up, these 2 items still played very important roles in our daily life.

(To be continued)
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Practice made every effort perfect

[wenzili]

（2）

The wooden blast box was placed beside our kitchen range.

At that time, as sort of domestic fuels, the gas even coal hadn�t been introduced to our kitchen yet. The firewood was rare.

All year around, parents not only worried about the food inside the pan, but also the fuels under the pan.

Children were always been asked to collect any materials that were possibly used for fuel.

After classes, my sisters and I, holding large bamboo combs, always hurried up to Dong Shan Hill to collect dry leaves, dead tree twigs and pine cones. Or down street to sweep up those littered chaff beside rice workshop, sawdust around lumber-mill.

With heavy smoke, those miscellaneous fuels could hardly be burned out without extra air supply.

Therefore, one of my grandma�s dowries, the blast box, had been doing a great favor to my mum who was busy at cooking around the kitchen range.
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Besides, to fully apply the valuable resources, mum put a pottery jar into the range. After her meal preparation, the water in the jar had been boiled.

With a huge iron fork, she carefully took the jar out from the hearth for tea making.

Year after year, responding to the slowly chugging sound generated by the blast blades, the glinting flame from the hearth had been shining on my mum and sisters� faces and created a most harmonic and affecting concerto in the world.
_________________
Practice made every effort perfect

[wenzili]

（3）

Grandma�s another dowry was a tin vessel, known as �warm kettle�, which was placed on the left corner of our guest hall and next to the door.

With a classical Chinese curve and dark gray color, it reflected more than 100 years� historic vicissitudes of my family.

One crane-shape head plus two movable rings made the kettle look like a flying crane.
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There was a little cover rotating around its axis to protect the kettle mouth from dust or insects.

When water was poured out, the cover, serving as a flow-control valve, would be flushed to open to avoid children�s burning during their harsh maloperation.

Why the vessel was known as �warm kettle�, simply because it was placed in a special wooden bucket and covered by straw and batt.

Therefore, it could keep the tea inside warm all day long.
To pour out the tea easier, the bucket was installed on a stout wooden platform with a pivot in the middle.

In this way, even a little child would be able to help itself for a cup of tea.

Holding a cup in left hand, he or she gently forced the bucket ear with right hand.

With a squeaky sound, the bucket was slowly inclined and the warm tea was trickling out.

To avoid its over balance, there was a stop device formed as a rictal dragon on the platform.

When the bucket was leant against a certain angle, the moving of the dragon mouth would be stopped by a ball, which was sculpted on the top of a supporting foot in front.

The squeak beside our door had been lasted for half a century.

The hot tea had been warming up our minds for several generations and hosted countless guests without arresting our any attention; until in 1958, when my parents contributed the kettle to society, since they were agitated by an ambitious slogan for �Devote yourselves for over taking UK in 10 years and catching up USA within 15 years!�
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The tin kettle was melted and the doorway became silent ever since��.

It was extremely cold in the winter of 1958.

With both physical and psychological threat, the wind was howling and penetrating into our house through any gaps.

At this exact moment, after several chills, I fully realized the real value of my grandma�s dowry, when a cup of icy tea came to my stomach where an energy crisis was spreading out owning to insufficient food supply.

Extracted from my blog: http://wenzili.my.24en.com
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Practice made every effort perfect