[Childhood Evenings] The Dam

When I was little, my family lived at the south end of the village. After our big family split up, my family and my uncles' families lived in the same small courtyard, while my grandparents lived in a mud-brick house built in front of our small courtyard. In front of my grandparents' house was a small river ditch, which could hardly be called a river, just a ditch in the countryside with a drop of about two meters.\Playing in our own yard was not very fun because my parents and uncles and aunts were all busy with farm work and had no time to pay attention to us little kids.\Grandparents, being old and loving us because of the close relationship between generations, still liked us visiting their house very much. At night, they would tell us stories, talk about the trivial matters in the village, and about the hardships they had endured in the past.\What attracted us even more was that little ditch in front of their yard.\Normally, it was nothing special, but once it rained, the ditch would fill with water and become quite turbulent. At that time, we didn't dare to go down to play because we were afraid of being swept away. When the rain stopped and the flow slowed down but water was still coming from upstream, that was the happiest time for us.\To hold back some water for daily use, mainly for washing clothes and faces, and for fetching water for animals—don't say it wasn't clean—conditions in the countryside were poor, and back then there wasn't much pollution anyway. My uncles and grandpa usually blocked the ditch with soil to retain a certain amount of water. But when it rained and the upstream water increased, this earthen dam couldn't withstand the test and would usually collapse when the water inside was almost full. At that time, we weren't afraid of heavy rain. Usually, we would stand on the side with umbrellas or rain gear (umbrellas were rare back then, most of the time we just used plastic bags to avoid getting wet), watching the thrilling spectacle of the dam breaking.\We would often play like this with my brother and younger brother, and sometimes close friends from the neighboring families would come too.We first dig some mud on the side and put it aside. The mud we choose is not too watery because if it's too watery, it won't stick together, and if it's too dry, it also won't stick together. Moreover, we wouldn't be able to handle it. So we pick the soft kind. We dig a little and block the dam bit by bit. Gradually, the dam begins to take shape, and the water is trapped, except for the central part that hasn't been closed, where the water continues to flow down. At this point, because the upstream water is still flowing down, the water pressure grows stronger and stronger, and the flow in the central unclosed part is very strong. To successfully stop it all at once, usually in the end, we prepare a large chunk of mud. When it's too heavy for one person, two people lift it together and place it in the area that hasn't been blocked yet. Sometimes, if we use too much force, water will splash all over us, but no one feels upset about it. Even if we go home and get scolded by our parents, we still look at each other and laugh silly together.

After the water is blocked, the remaining work is some patching. There are still a few places that haven't been sealed tightly where water keeps flowing down. We dig more mud and repair bit by bit until the water stops flowing.

However, another problem arises because the upstream water is still flowing constantly, and the water in the ditch keeps rising. Seeing that it is about to overflow, we have no choice but to continue raising our dam. The dam gets higher, but its width is fixed, and its ability to withstand pressure is limited. Sometimes due to carelessness, without thinking of alternative methods, we might spend half a day working only to fail, which results in a dam breach. Sometimes, when well-prepared, we dig more mud and set it aside. As the dam gets higher, we continuously reinforce the side of the dam not in contact with water. We cannot widen it all because we don't have that much mud. Usually, we make a large piece of mud into a pillar shape to support the dam and strengthen its load-bearing capacity.

Sometimes, however, if the upstream flow is too strong, no matter how well-prepared we are, we still cannot resist the power of nature.Sometimes, the uncles from the neighboring houses would come out and stop us from digging mud, because the south side of the ditch was their farmland, and digging too much mud would affect the area of their crops. Our two families had had some disagreements for certain reasons, and grandparents, parents, and uncles all warned us not to cause trouble. So when the neighbors' uncles spoke up, we just stopped digging and gave up that game. Even though it was very unfortunate, there was nothing that could be done. This year when I went home, I walked to that ditch and looked at it; it no longer had its former charm. The small ditch that used to have a two-meter drop had now become a low-lying area, with the ground on both sides no more than half a meter away. A sense of loss surged over my heart again.