After seeing the old photos my father shared, I suddenly understood him
Father has been nearly 80 years old now. During the last two years, his physical condition has been declining, so his chewing of the past time also seems more delicate. He has poor control of his emotions, like a child of three or five, and, especially in old age, inclined to be sentimental when he had nothing to do, much like a sentimental woman. To change his life, I suggest that he write a book about his experiences. Although his education level is not enough to support him to become a professional writer, it is also quite good for him to find something he is interested in and settle down to do it.
In the days that followed, at times, he buried himself in writing. Of course, you can't ask him to write all the time. Let nature take its course. He can't get tired all at once. His mood was visibly happier, and I was gratified.
One day he posted some old photos from 40 to 65 years old, sharing his youth with me and the time when grandpa was still alive.
The picture below is his 1955 family photo. The one on the right is his 14-year-old father, the second on the right is his grandfather, the first on the left is his elder sister, the second on the left is his grandma holding his second uncle, and the child in the middle is his second sister. Father is the first child. From that face at that time, he should be the most favored child in the family. It was just not the same as my father I know. Two years later, my grandfather died and my grandmother changed her marriage. Then my father ever had a good time facing his stepfather. I can guesss that all the imperfections in his character are the scars of that time, so I can well understand why he lives so badly now.
Photo 1. 1955 Family photo
Figure 2 is a separate photo of my grandfather, who was a cavalry officer and went to the Northeast to fight Japan with general Song Zheyuan's army. Later encountered the Japanese prisoners, he and his team of soldiers were taken to build the railway coolie. Fortunately, my grandfather and a few soldiers escaped from the guns and knives of the Japanese butchers. Since then, they did not fight again, but became common people, doing some gold business. Finally, he married my young grandmother, leading common people's life. However, as we all know, during that period when the Japanese invaded China. It was not so easy to survive in the chaos of war.
Picture 2 A grandfather in 1955
Next, figure 3 shows four aspirant young people in their youth. The first one on the right is my father. The four of them were sent to Tangshan by the county to learn papermaking technology. However, after these people came back, the county did not arrange for them to work directly, and the plan to build a paper mill was put on hold so that all the skills they had learned became useless. Yeah, who hasn't been young! We cannot judge what lay ahead, but at that moment I believed they were the happiest and the most ambitious.
FIG. 3 Students of a paper mill in 1960
Behind each photo, there are countless moving memories and emotions, many of which we have never carefully interpreted from their point of view. If there are old people in our family who take out photos to share, we must try to look at them carefully, read them carefully, go deep into their hearts, and understand them. Otherwise, we are bound to assume, by our own standards, that they like to complain about life, are hysterical, and even have character flaws.