My Childhood - Part II

There was a river in front of my house, my friends and I used to swim in it in the autumn. I loved to swim in the clear and cool natural water. We climbed up high trees or bridges and then jumped down the river, making it unforgettable moments. In that river, we also loved to catch fish, crabs, shrimps, snails and every edible creature. However, I was afraid of the leech, they were disgusting creatures that I have ever known.

My family was poor, so when I was 7 years old, I had to work as a yarn spinner, my brother and sister did, too. just to collect 2 thousand dong a day for each so as to help my parents to make both ends meet. Life was so hard at that time, rarely did we have free time for playing. We were jealous with the nearby children, sometimes.

It’s was time for me to go to school, and the first school I enrolled was the village school, about 3km from home. It was a really old and small school with only 6 classes. It was difficult time for me to start learning how to read and write, I might not have sharp mind, and not as an excellent pupil, I rarely got 10 marks. In contrast, my brother, who was studying class 3, my sister, class 5, got 10 marks everyday. I remembered once my mother encouraged us that if any of us got 10 marks, she would immediately give 2 hundred dong as motive. Nevertheless, time after time, she could not afford to pay for my brother and sister for they got so many 10 marks in a semester. Poor me, rarely be the case and I was so upset and jealous about that.

At that time, the season I liked most is spring for there came the Tet holiday when I could be well dressed and fed. We loved to visit relatives and neighbors so as to receive lucky money and/or cakes, sweets or just compliments. We loved the firecrackers at the mid of the dark 3oth night. We did not buy firecracker, but make it our own. Now I dare not making firecrackers for it was so dangerous and forbidden by the government.