"The Landlord, Mamaw and Me" after reading and two short stories

When Qingyin co-living becomes one of the possibilities in the future, "The Landlord, Mammy and Me" provides a humorous imagination. The author Yabe Taro is a comedian who receives notices by profession. He used to live in an apartment and was used to living a life without interaction with other residents. Since moving to the second floor of a sky-high building, the 87-year-old landlord, who lives alone downstairs, has begun to find daily interest in the interaction with the old lady. No one around Taro ever used the outdated greeting of "Guian", but things long forgotten by the new generation became novelty. The various statements of the elderly about the things in life bring a new perspective to the life that the younger generation is accustomed to. The landlord's grandmother's perception of time and the passage of time is very keen, and Taro gradually perceives the changes of the seasons, the coming and going of festivals and the memory of wars. Maybe it's the way of the comedians. Every interesting story is often pointed to the end, but the laughter will spread unstoppably in the readers' hearts.

On the birthday of the landlord's grandmother, Taro gave him a pajama with roses printed on it. The landlord grandma was very happy and said that she will wear this next time she goes out! Taro asked the landlord, mama, where do you plan to travel? The landlord grandma replied:

"Speaking of the next expedition, it will be the Mitu River (the river that separates the world from the underworld in Japanese legend)!"

Taro: "It's too early!"

"Just kidding, hahaha!"

The unique feature of getting along with the elderly is that it is easy to emerge at a certain moment life insights that are usually not noticed. The physical function gradually weakens, and the pace of the heart and life must be adjusted accordingly, and sooner or later, a set of ways of looking at life and death must be developed. These are all paths that we will also walk on in the future. The sales copy of the book excerpts in each channel is clearly written. Finally, I want to share that reading this book reminds me of two stories I heard from an old lady in her 80s... Stories often call for more many stories.

1. Catch a Traitor in the Cinema

There is an elderly vitality station in the village. The members are all grandparents over 80 years old. The grandparents who can take care of themselves ride bicycles to class. Push, or ride a four-wheeled electric bike. The teachers of the Vitality Station take the whole class out for a walk from time to time. They say that it is a small community trip, but in fact it is only about 100 meters away from the Vitality Station, no more than 300 meters away. Although these locations are not far away, it is important to travel safely. Every time I go out, wheelchairs, electric vehicles, and crutches are all on the road. Looking at the backs of these old people, I think that when I get to a certain age, as long as I step out of the house, it is a journey.

It was a drizzly day in winter, and the teacher took everyone to see an old theater in the countryside that had long been abandoned.

Standing in front of the theater, the teacher asked everyone, do you have any memories of this theater? One of the grandmothers told her own story. Back then, after grandma got engaged, she and her husband went on a date in this theater. After marriage, her husband and her mistress went on a date in another theater. Grandma is talking about the time when she went to the theater to catch monkeys (rapists).

The husband and the woman were dating in the theater, the proprietress of the fruit stand next to the theater told her. She waited angrily to block people after the theater was over. The two of them beat him to death and refused to admit it, insisting that it was a coincidence. So, I can only secretly plan to catch it on the spot another day.

"At that time, I had to take care of five children, and there were so many household chores. It was difficult to walk away. I really didn't have time to catch monkeys," said Grandma.

One day, after finally settling down the child, I hurriedly rode a bicycle around the muddy mountain road, thinking about what my husband and Xiao San were doing now, and I was in a panic. In the dark night with fog, I couldn't see the road clearly, and I fell down. There happened to be an abandoned empty house next to it, which frightened the two people who were cheating on it.

"I'm not in the mood to see who's there at all, and I don't know the pain. I just want to go to the theater to catch someone, quickly grab a bicycle and continue riding."

They rushed into the cinema, caught them straight, and scolded each other outside the cinema on the spot. That little three is also a married woman!

The teacher asked, "What happened after that?"

"Husband and Mistress are all dead, I'm the only one alive, hehehe!"

Grandma suddenly came to a jumping ending. The sad past has now become a joke that can be told to everyone. The whole class cheered and applauded for the final victory of the eldest wife.

2. Porn was expensive back then

One day, the teacher asked in the class, "Has anyone seen porn?", about 80% of the grandparents in the class raised their hands. I saw a 96-year-old grandma also raise her hand, which really startled me. When the folk customs were simple, where did they see it?

Later, I interviewed an 83-year-old grandma, who was the proprietress of the abandoned theater. She revealed that in the 1960s, three theaters in the village would show A-movies from time to time, and the price was based on cost. Depending on the number of viewers, it can range from NT$500 to NT$1,000 per viewing.

The theater got an A-movie about more than 20,000 yuan, and the film was only 20 minutes long. It had to be reserved with the regional manager secretly. At that time, the cost of playing a popular first-round movie in a theater was only more than 10,000 yuan, and it could be shown for two consecutive days. The ticket price was about 40 yuan, and the cost of playing a three-round film was only 300 Taiwan dollars. In comparison, the cost of watching A movies is very high.

Because they were afraid of being caught by the police, they all found a place to play it secretly after the end of the final movie at night. Grandma said that this kind of thing can't be advertised, it can only be spread by word of mouth from people who know it, so it's usually a husband and wife team to watch it together. It was almost two o'clock in the morning when everyone went home.

I asked my grandmother if she had seen so many pornographic films, if she could make a summary.

"The American ones are more exciting, the action is more bold, and the stage films feel more familiar, so there is nothing to see."

"It's not as happy as you are now, and it doesn't cost money to look at it."

Warm, funny and a little sad story, I heard from time to time in the interaction with the elderly.