People in the mountains, generally before the sky is completely dark, have already finished dinner, washed up, and when night comes, it is already refreshing. This may also be a habit passed down from our ancestors, and even now, many people in the mountains are like this.

My grandmother has said more than once that when she was a child, there were tigers, leopards, jackals, poaching poultry, and attacking mountain people, so people in the mountains did not go out easily at night.

Eating early and resting early can also save fuel for oil lamps. At that time, unlike now, every household lit kerosene lamps, paid attention to the light, there was a lampstand and a lampshade, and the simple ones were poured, and a small bowl with a gap was poured into kerosene, and a wick was twisted out and put in, and the bean-sized flame could only illuminate the surroundings, and a little farther away, it was dark and could not be seen.

When I was about six or seven years old, there was electricity in the village, and before that, kerosene lamps were used for lighting at night, and my family used kerosene lamps with lampstands and lampshades, while my neighbor's "eldest sister" used a small bowl with a gap.

The kerosene lamp is also very particular about the production, the lampstand made of iron sheets, four along the lotus shape, the middle holds kerosene, there is a special wick made of cotton wool penetrated, and there is a twist next to it, turning the twist, which can control the size of the flame, so as to adjust the brightness and darkness.

The lampshade is specially made of glass, which is specially bent by a wide range, and the two ends pass through the middle drum, which can just be buckled on the lampstand, compared with the small bowl with a gap, it can be windproof, can be moved, and is more convenient to use.

After the village was electrified, kerosene lamps still existed for a long time, because the power supply was not stable enough at that time, the rural wires were erected for a long distance, through the forest and through the road, and there were often broken lines and short circuits, so it was necessary to re-use kerosene lamps or use candles.

After getting used to the light brought by the electric light, the most feared thing is the power outage, and then with the TV, I am even more afraid of the power outage, so I may miss the series, at that time it is not like now that it can be played back, and if I miss it, I will never see it again.

But it is so easy to lose power, and once the power goes out, it is impossible to eliminate the fault within a few hours, sometimes even days.

In the surrounding villages, the power supply transformer is located next to my house, and whenever there is a power outage, I can always see adults busy around the transformer.

In my memory, my father used to be a transformer administrator, and a power distribution room was built next to the transformer, in which the electricity meters of each production team were placed, and the switch was also placed, a huge clip made of ceramic, and a particularly thick fuse was connected to both ends.

The production team has a large electricity meter, and each household has a small electricity meter to measure the electricity consumption. I don't know who found out about it, or where I learned it, but there is often electricity theft in rural areas, and once it is discovered by the administrator, it will be punished by the power station.

When I was a child, it was not uncommon for me to be found to have stolen electricity, or to find that there was a suspicion of stealing electricity, and there was a quarrel and quarrel. Electricity is indeed easy to use, but it requires electricity, and the electricity bill is not cheap, which is a large expense in the countryside at that time.

Therefore, the awareness of electricity saving in rural families is very strong, and the lights can be turned on as much as possible without turning on the lights, and the lights must be turned off as soon as people leave.

Some families buy the smallest power bulb for this purpose, generally 15 watts, the image of rural people is called "15 lights", there are also 30 watts, 100 watts, called "30 lights, 100 lights", ordinary people rarely use, especially "100 lights" bulbs, only in the brigade auditorium and other public places have been seen.

When I was in junior high school, I came into contact with physics, and when I thought of stealing electricity in the countryside, I asked my father out of curiosity, and he explained that it was the simplest application of the "short circuit" principle.

In order to prevent electricity theft, power stations generally installed the electricity meters of rural households on higher ground, and later added seals. Now it has become an iron box, and it is no longer possible to connect thin wires to steal electricity.

When I sat idle, the kerosene lamps in the house were all extinguished, and it was an old house, deep and quiet in the dark. People who sit idle, sometimes family members, sometimes neighbors, there are elderly people, there are middle-aged couples, tobacco flickers and flickers with sucking, talking about plans, talking about daily livelihoods, talking about current affairs, and telling some interesting anecdotes outside the mountains.

The mind is as open as the mountains, the eyes are as dark as the mountains, and the expression is as quiet as the mountains, as if they are afraid of breaking the silence of the mountains.

In the dead of night, when they were about to go to bed, they blew all the ashes and knocked them off, and the dry tobacco pouches were wound around their pipes a few times, and they packed up their belongings and went into the houses, some of them would light kerosene lamps, and some would simply touch the dark.

Then the sound of "creaking" closing the gate sounded, and the quiet night could penetrate the mountains and forests and float far away. Then plug in the door bar and lie down in the sky. If you go to bed early and wake up earlier, as soon as the sky is bright, you can already see the smoke rising, and you can already see the busyness inside and outside.

In the mountains, the gates are very heavy, and the thresholds hewn out of granite are relatively high, which can prevent wild beasts from invading and insects and snakes from crawling in. Therefore, the door tie of the plug door is also very large, and some use wooden bars, which are directly stuck behind the door, which is more solid.

In midsummer, it is common to enjoy the cool at night, in the cold winter, it is common to warm up under the sun, in the early spring to work in the fields for leisure, and in late autumn to rest after the harvest, there is a dry smoke accompanied, how many thoughts have been ignited, how many years have been burned, how many wind and rain have been witnessed, how many stories have been swallowed, and as the smoke dissipates time and space, the mountains and forests are lonely.