On New Year's Eve in 1985, even ordinary people's homes were not so harmonious, and differences in thinking and concepts abounded.
Taking Courtyard No. 2 of Shan'er Hutong as an example, almost every household has a generation gap problem between two generations.
In the Mi family, mother and daughter are mainly angry.
The reason was the panic buying in the first two years. In addition to a large amount of chemical fiber cloth, Aunt Mi also brought home two boxes of Lighthouse brand soap.
Although the cloth was later disposed of through Ning Weimin's sales channels.
But Aunt Soap Rice didn't sell it, she kept it at home and used it frugally.
This is because soap was still available on a ticket basis at that time and was an absolutely in short supply.
There was even a time when soap was so scarce that even bathhouses had to dry the soap to the point where no lather could be produced by rubbing it in, and then cut it into triangles for use.
And in order to prevent people from stealing soap, bathhouses in the capital also set up special bonuses for catching soap.
But who could have imagined that the development of daily-use products has been rapid in recent years, and industrial coupons will soon be abolished.
With the trend of a large increase in residents' income, obvious changes have occurred regardless of the consumption areas, consumption varieties and consumption levels of daily necessities.
Take detergents as an example. In the past, residents almost always used soap and nothing else to wash their hands, face, hair, or bathe.
But in the past two years, imported, joint venture, and domestic soaps of various brands and different fragrances have been put on the counter, and more and more residents are using soap.
There are also several types of shampoos for washing your hair, such as Wella's Bee Flower brand from Germany. In addition to shampoos, there are even conditioners.
Although the price is more expensive, it is also favored by young ladies.
In terms of laundry, as urban households began to widely use washing machines, traditional washtubs and washboards were gradually phased out, and various brands of laundry detergents also replaced soap.
All in all, all of this has led to a sharp decline in the use of soap.
So Mi's soap could no longer be used. After cleaning before the Spring Festival, Aunt Mi once again counted the number of soaps in the house and saw that there was still a box full of soap, and she became anxious.
On New Year's Eve, she made new rules for her family for the coming year, saying she was no longer allowed to buy soap.
Old soap must be used up before you can buy it. People should "cherish blessings and be content" and avoid waste.
Master Mi doesn't care, but how can Mi Xiaohui agree?
A girl who has just entered the first grade of high school is the most beautiful time.
In particular, she secretly ordered the soap she had hoarded at home and discovered that at the current rate of consuming one bar per month, it would take at least eight and a half years, which is the length of the "War of Resistance Against Japan."
When these soaps run out, Mi Xiaohui might become a mother herself. How scary this would be.
As a result, the second young lady of the Mi family turned over and said that whoever likes to use soap should use it, but she didn't use it anyway.
She only uses Green Baby soap, and also buys fragrant Macazin and Pechoin.
Yes, now the mother and daughter got into a fight and got angry.
On New Year's Eve, the family didn't even have a good lunch, and the mother and daughter bickered from morning to afternoon.
In the end, Aunt Mi even resorted to taking financial sanctions and wanted to cut off Mi Xiaohui's pocket money.
Unexpectedly, Mi Xiaohui was not afraid. The little girl had a very strong waist.
She claimed that her sister had sent her a lot of money in the past few years, and she had saved enough US$200 for her to go to college.
So Aunt Mi was completely at a loss and began to complain again, pointing at Mi Xiaoran who was far away in a foreign country, saying that the eldest daughter was the culprit who spoiled the second daughter.
He even turned his face around and became picky about the things he sent back from the United States with Mi Xiaoran, and even looked down on foreign goods.
She pointed to a box of cookies in an iron bucket and asked Mi Xiaohui, "Is this really from the United States? They Americans are so weird. Why do the cookies look so bad? They are so curved that they look like a cat."
It’s like shit. Can they really eat it when they look like this? Aren’t they disgusting?”
Then he pointed at the jacket that was also sent back this time.
"And your sister bought you that dress. What the heck? It's a ridiculous amount of money. It actually cost forty-five dollars, and there's a pig's face printed on the back. No matter how easy it is for Americans to make money, they can't be so stupid.
Flowers..."
Although Mi Xiaohui knew that Aunt Mi was making use of the topic, she couldn't help but laugh.
"Mom, you are so stupid. I bought this from Disneyland. Where is the pig printed on the back? That's Mickey Mouse."
But Aunt Mi doesn’t hesitate to do that.
"It doesn't matter where he bought it, he can't ask for arbitrary prices! Besides, what's so good about a mouse in a rice bag? It's nothing more than a pig with a printed head. At least the fat pig arch is auspicious to wear during the Chinese New Year."
In short, the thinking consciousness of mother and daughter began to diverge in life.
And from then on, they gradually drifted apart, until they reached a point where they completely didn't understand each other's worlds.
Compared with the Mi family, the disagreements in the Bian family occur between mother and son.
And it's not these trivial matters, but how to prepare for Bian Jiangong's marriage.
Yes, in the emotional war between parents and children, parents have always been the weakest party.
Especially when it comes to the marriage of children, beating a mandarin duck is always counterproductive. The more parents try to stop it, the harder it is to stop it.
In the end, because Bian Jiangong insisted on going his own way, he was determined to become "Yang Zongbao" rather than marry "Mu Guiying".
Especially when the Polar Bear Dormitory Building is built, two-income earners can basically allocate a unit.
For this reason, Aunt Bian had no choice but to comply with her son's wishes, and reluctantly made the reckless Mu Yueying her daughter-in-law, and married a paralytic.
However, such a compromise also made Aunt Bian feel that her son had suffered a loss, and she increasingly hoped to take the initiative in organizing the wedding.
It should be said that the woman's attitude is still very gratifying.
Except for a color TV and the requirement to bring her mother to live with her, the woman made no demands to the Bian family and left everything else up to the man.
But Aunt Bian's ideas are all rejected by her biological son Bian Jiangong.
She believes that times have changed and her ideas are outdated.
First let’s talk about the furniture issue.
In the past, when everyone got married, they would find their own wood and hire a carpenter to build it.
When Bian Jiangong's brother Bian Jianjun got married, this was how the young couple arranged their large cabinet and sofa.
So for her second son's marriage, Aunt Bian was running around all over the place recently, and finally managed to find ash for making furniture through several self-employed people who often came to the sewing club to approve goods.
But what I never expected was that Bian Jiangong didn't want it.
This kid was so attracted to the new modular cabinets in the furniture store that he insisted on spending more than a thousand yuan to buy a ready-made set.
Aunt Bian tried her best to persuade her son, but she couldn't stop her.
After final thought, this guy is spending his own salary anyway, so just buy it.
But even for the wedding banquet, Bian Jiangong insisted on holding it in the workplace canteen. Such a show was something that Aunt Bian really didn't expect.
According to Aunt Bian's idea, the wedding banquet should be held at home. At most, the neighbors and close relatives can be invited to make it a happy occasion.
There is no need to prepare too much food. Three or four tables of flowing mats are enough. There are two meals at noon and evening, so people can eat separately.
All you need to do is ask a serious chef who is a chef in a serious restaurant to bring someone over to set up a tent to cook a few dishes, and finally wrap up a red envelope worth twenty or thirty yuan.
With this kind of full calculation, the total pick-up fee will not exceed three to four hundred yuan.
Isn't this how common people's family's happy events are always done? It's economical and cost-effective.
But Bian Jiangong said that he had to invite many leaders and colleagues in his unit, so he insisted on doing something grand in the polar bear's cafeteria.
He also calculated the account for Aunt Bian and said that a table cost sixty yuan, and the dishes were six cold, eight hot, and one soup.
Even relatives, friends and neighbors were invited, and there were almost twelve tables.
In addition, the factory promises to supply each table with two bottles of "Shuanggou" liquor, four bottles of Jingcheng white brand beer, and all sodas at cost prices.
If the liquor is not enough, prepare some more.
The key is to do it outside, which saves face and saves trouble.
Don't worry about anything. Just wipe your mouth and leave after eating.
If you do it at home, you have to hire a cook, set up a greenhouse, and have the whole family working together. You can't open more than one table at a time, and you have to work all day long.
Just this idea really frightened the old lady for several days.
You know, Aunt Bian and Uncle Bian, an old couple, have never been out of restaurants many times in their lives.
I simply don’t think that working outside is something ordinary people like me can afford.
And although it’s not expensive to watch a table alone, it doesn’t seem to cost much more than doing it at home.
But there are twelve tables at once, which is an astonishing number.
In other words, including drinks, cigarettes and candies, it will cost at least eight or nine hundred, which is a person's annual salary.
It's more than doubled than Aunt Bian's initial budget.
So the old couple were naturally dizzy when they heard their son's idea. They both felt that such a wedding banquet was a bit too extravagant, and they couldn't help but feel distressed.
However, Bian Jiangong believes that being in society depends on friends, and communication is more important than anything else. The economic accounts of the past are no longer applicable, and all aspects must be taken care of to be harmonious.
Even if his parents don't agree, it doesn't matter if they don't pay. Bian Jiangong claimed that Ning Weimin had already told him that he would sponsor his wedding banquet for free, and in the worst case, he would just go to Tan Palace to host it.
In this way, Aunt Bian was put on the back foot by her son, for fear that she would not be able to repay such a huge favor.
I could only hold my nose and agree with Bian Jiangong's idea.
But having said that, the old lady thought about it. Over the years, her eldest daughter-in-law and her second son Bian Jiangong have been selling Ning Weimin's off-product clothing in their respective factories. They have made a lot of money. They should have saved up to 80,000 yuan each.
A thousand.
Especially because she manages the sewing club and earns a generous monthly salary of 200 yuan. After all, her family is much richer than before, so there is nothing wrong with being extravagant.
So I wasn't too entangled in this matter.
But the problem is that even so, it can only be done once and never again. In the end, the mother and son of the Bian family still stumbled over one thing and couldn't communicate anymore.
That is, Aunt Bian insists on following the old etiquette. On the day of the wedding banquet, all relatives of the woman can come, but only the mother-in-law cannot come to the wedding.
Bian Jiangong believed that this old custom was the residue of feudalism and should be changed.
What's more, the woman's family had few relatives, so how could he bear to let his mother-in-law, who was paralyzed in bed, stay home alone and not see the lively scene of his own daughter getting married.
That's it, mother and son are at odds with each other, and no one can convince the other.
Even on New Year's Eve, everyone was still talking about this matter and getting angry with each other.
This cannot but be said to be a result of hard work and a side effect of the changing times.
Finally, there is the Luo family, which has similar conflicts to the Bian family.
But the difference is that the two parties involved in the conflict are not mother and daughter or mother and son, but mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
The focus of the conflict is not the marriage of the children, but the education of the third generation.
The eldest grandson of the Luo family, Robin, nicknamed "Pan'er", is four years old. Luo Guangsheng and Miao Yujuan go to work on weekdays, and Aunt Luo always takes care of them personally.
Now that all the children of the same age are attending kindergarten, Miao Yujuan also wants to find a kindergarten for her son.
On New Year's Eve, she brought it up.
But I didn't expect Aunt Luo to be extremely reluctant to let go, and would not agree to send the child away, life or death.
The old lady's reasons sounded ridiculous.
"What kind of place is a kindergarten? A kindergarten is a place where children are kept. I have seen children kept in small cages and raised with ropes. They were tied up with ropes when they came out to play, and they were tethered to each other and walked on the street. They wore the same clothes.
If it's the same, I can't tell who is from whom, they are all cut neatly like cakes, and there is no freedom to run in and out of the courtyard. I can't bear to send our children away. Isn't this just spending money to find trouble?"
But the problem is, the destructive power of these words cannot be underestimated, and it directly scares the children who have no ability to distinguish.
Who wants to be put in a small cage?
So the four-year-old Pan'er lay in Aunt Luo's arms and shouted, "Grandma, if I don't go into the small cage, I won't go to the kindergarten!"
Well, all the ideological work Miao Yujuan had done for the child in advance was in vain.
Miao Yujuan quickly coaxed her son, "Didn't we all agree last night? We don't want to change our minds."
Pan'er said, "You only said there are slides, swivel chairs, and swings, but you didn't say there were cages."
Miao Yujuan said, "Of course there is no cage. Grandma is lying to you."
Aunt Luo refused to admit it, "I didn't lie. I have never lied to children before. The children in Dongkou Kindergarten sleep in cages."
Miao Yujuan couldn't laugh or cry, "Why is it a cage? It's obviously a small bed with railings. Mom, the Bian family's grandson is one year younger than our Pan'er, and they have to send it to the kindergarten..."
However, Aunt Luo, who had always been easy-going, was extremely stubborn when it came to her grandson and refused to give in.
"The Bian family is the Bian family, and our family is our family. No matter what happens, my grandson is not allowed to be sent to kindergarten. Otherwise, I will be wasting my manpower by sitting idle at home."
Seeing his wife in trouble, Luo Guangsheng couldn't help but help.
"Mom, if you send your children to kindergarten, they can receive formal education and understand the truth in the future."
Unexpectedly, the old lady slapped him back with just one sentence, "None of the three children in our Lao Luo family has ever been to kindergarten. Including you, who doesn't understand the truth?"
Luo Guangsheng was choked so much that he opened his mouth for a long time and rolled his eyes for a long time before he could find words again.
"Mom, times have changed, and people's way of living must also change. The old way of living is not necessarily scientific..."
But Aunt Luo didn't know why today, she was so possessed by Wenquxing that she even used words from history books.
"Since Pangu created the world and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the present day, which dynasty has had a kindergarten? Which emperor was trained in a kindergarten? I don't believe it. Otherwise, if we don't go to a kindergarten or engage in the Westernization Movement, our children will have no future?"
A dish of roasted chicken made the eldest son completely speechless and had no choice but to shut up.
Miao Yujuan had no choice but to tell the truth.
"Mom, if you leave your child at home, the parents will inevitably spoil you..."
Of course this was not heard, and Aunt Luo's face changed a bit.
"What are you talking about? Didn't you just watch our Luo family's son strive for success before marrying into our family? The old Luo family is such a tutor and has never pampered his children. Besides, I can't live without my children.
, the children can’t live without me. Do you have to make us old and young sad..."
Well, now that we have reached this point, we naturally cannot continue.
Seeing their son coquettishly coquettishly in Aunt Luo's arms, and the old and the young affectionate, Miao Yujuan and Luo Guangsheng could only look at each other, speechless.