Memories, smells, sights, of one’s childhood years, and, it’s now, completely, GONE, due to the city expanding, people visiting the sights, but NOT taking their TRASH away, translated…
The Summer I Was Entering into Middle School, I’d Decided to Go on an Expedition with the Creeks All the Way into the Mountains on My Own. Although There Was a Mountain on the Opposite of the Creeks, with a Few Guava Trees on the Side of it, But it Was, Just, a Small Slope, with the Trees, Bananas, Papayas, and Oranges, and Other Produces Planted, It Wasn’t Enough to Keep Me, I’d Wanted to Explore the Mountains with the Possibilities of Monsters, Elves, and Deities Living on There………
There was no bodies of water in Nantou, and although the Sun-Moon Lake was called the Shui-She Seas, we all knew, that it wasn’t real, because it didn’t have that salt in the air, there wasn’t a long beach, without the crowds, swimming in the midst of the waves either, all it had were, the woods, the water surrounding it, the entanglements, becoming one. And because of it, although Nantou didn’t have any oceans, but it was, surrounded by a lot of mountains, various bodies of waters too, along with a ton of stories that’s connected to the land.
Growing up in Nantou, living there, day and night, with my inattentive looking out my windows, the mountains were, all that I see. Although the mountains are stationery, but they’d carried the multiple expressions, and it’d, roused up my curiosities often, and so, I’d often gazed up at them while I was growing up, even imagined about them, and so, the elves, the monsters, and deities, naturally were, linked to the mountains; but we were way too young, and couldn’t go off into the mountains alone on our own, let alone, gone on the adventures, and so, the creeks that flowed from the depth of the mountains became, an alternative method for us, to learn about nature, like, once we had the streams figured out, the mountains were, no longer, strange to us anymore.
When I was in the elementary years, I lived on the edge of the city, about a hundred meters south of my home, there was, a small creek, and, at the most distant foothill of the mountain, there was, an even larger river there. The creek that’s close to my childhood home had a suspended bridge over it, with the prickly bamboos on the sides, and there were a couple of square-shaped rocks by the creeks beneath the bamboo bushes that was where the local ladies go to do their laundries. Back then, I would often accompany my mother to the pass under the bridge, to do our laundry, because as she was cleaning up our clothes, I could play in the water, catch some fish, or frogs even, and when I’m lucky from time to time, I’d catch that fattened tilapia or a special kind of frog; in those times when life was generally hard, these were the only things that would add to our supper menus, also a way to make my mother pleased, and so when my mother wasn’t available, I’d volunteered to go do the laundry for her, and this behavior would often get me praises by the other ladies who were doing their laundry loads by the creek, and it’d allowed me to have a reason, to go for a swim in the waters.
what it looks like now…photo from online…
Back then, the fishes, the shrimp, the clams were abundant, when the water was full, we’d often gone with the dustpans, to fish, or chosen a place that’s shallow with the sands, to scoop up the shells, and the creek treated us really well, never let us down, and so, most of the memories I’d had about harvest came from the creeks. And, I’d remembered it clearly, that a the typhoons came, the rising water from the creek flooded into the tracks of the school close by, making it into a small lake, and yet, after the water receded, there were, the fishes that were carried from the river in the track fields of the school, they’d not, receded with the flood, and so, they’d gotten, stuck on the field, and, left for us, to pick, and so, for a long period of time, I’d, looked forward to the typhoons and loved flooding so very much.
In the dry days of winter, even as the water dried up and the riverbed showing, there would still be the watering holes, with the panicky fishes in them, with the muddy patches close by, we’d only have to dig, and, there would be, an abundance of fish there, and so, the creek that never let us down became like this huge refrigerator, with the never-ending resource of food.
How it was before, photo from online…
And as I got into the higher grades of elementary, the creek with the suspended bridge could, no longer satisfy our curiosities, and so, on weekends, a few of us classmates would go behind our parents, and went to the creeks at the foot of that more distant hill to explore. It had a wide riverbed, varieties of plants, the stacked up rocks, along with the crystal clear water, with an abundance of fishes and shrimps, everything there made us excited. So, after that, we’d made the spot a secret gathering place for us, and started hanging out and playing there regularly.
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Actually, childhood had, gone too far from me now, and I’m slowly, entering into the stage of midlife that’s not fitting, for going on explorations anymore, but I’d still felt that strong tie toward the sights in Nantou, and so, when I found the time, I’d made my way into the mountains repeatedly, to find the trees, or the frogs, or to visit the waterfalls, even for a simple swim, a picnic, so long as the location is safe, I’d loved taking my family or students there, because I believe it to be a good kind of sharing, and as we gone on these adventures, it’s a sort of passing on some form of heritage, because I hope, that in their lives, they have the opportunities, to be nourished by these waters, and these mountains too.
With the worsening of the natural environment, a lot of the beautiful memories no longer existed, the originally widened creek now became, forced into a ditch of sorts, the riverbed, with the flowers growing all over now became, a trash dump, as for that crystal clear water where the shrimps and fishes swam, no more, the frogs are slowly, extinct out of the area, and even the watering hole we used to take our dives in, filled up by the mud and the rocks. And so, all the better memories of the wilderness from my childhood days, I can only find in my mind, otherwise, I’d needed to, go deeper into the mountains, and find that former vision of beauty, in the untouched parts of the land.
what we did in our younger years, illustration from the papers…
So, everything is changed, with the population growths, people moving in, visitors on the weekends, and that just shows, how humans are destroying the habitat in nature, and, if we don’t become more environmentally aware, one day, all of these beauties in nature will be completely gone, and, what would we be left with then? SMOG in the air, form all the factories all around us, and, sights like this will only be in some of our memories, not the younger generations, because at this rate, by the time our children are born, there won’t BE any untouched worlds like this left anymore!