My Father's Childhood Memory

By Kevin Pang

My Father’s Childhood Memory

     Today, a story born in San Francisco connects China. We hear from my father’s memory. Almost forty years ago, my father was an innocent kid.

    “The politics and the situation of my country were unstable and there was a shortage of resources in China at that time.” My father told me about the milieu when he was a child. Circa 1970s, he lived in a mountainous mine area nearby Guilin, Guangxi Province, People’s Republic of China. There were four other members in his family, his parents and two brothers. He told me it was a planned economy at that time in China. It is a policy of economy on the foundation of the terrible condition of a nation. It limited people to buy living resources. Consequently, the planned economy created some specific stuff, for instance, food coupons, cloth coupons, cooking oil coupons, and coal coupons. It meant even if you had a lot of money; you were not allowed to get a permission to buy goods without the coupons.

     Besides that, my father considered life to be carefree. There was not pressure. If there was, they could not feel that only adults were responsible. He had a few meaningful experiences in his childhood. When he talked about these experiences, he always smiled and had pride. He told me he did climbed hills to strike rocks with others. They transferred them to trade and exchange money. Following this further, they used that money to buy books. My father liked to catch leaches in farmlands and rivers. Additionally, they played hoodless and slingshots together so vividly.

     “You could say that, I am dying for that.” My father said. I asked him if there was an opportunity for him, whether he chose to go back to childhood or not. He wanted to verify some secrets. However, he would not change it any more. It was unique and fabulous. That surprised me. Additionally, there was not abundant food at that time. He still remembered he ate scrambled eggs noodles and rice. He considered they were more delicious than any current delicacies. At his elementary school, he studied several subjects including Chinese, Mathematics, and General knowledge of life, physical training, and music. How free it was!

     In conclusion, he had something to state about the differences between previous and current childhood on his opinion. He said there was no family planning before, so every family has a great amount of children. Adults could not take good care of them all. They also had tough work to do. Currently, per family only had one child or two children, parents concentrated their focus on them totally.  But most of kids did not have a complete childhood. The major element was adults placed their whole wish and future to their kids which they did not complete when they were children.

     I noticed there were some resplendent stars in his eyes. I inferred this topic of interview aroused his deep memory about the good times in childhood.