These brick buildings have been more than half a century, overgrown with weeds and moss, old and worn out. Sycamore, poplar and pine trees planted by the miners are still verdant, but their branches and leaves are shriveled, revealing their old age, which indicates the existence of life and the prosperity of the coal mine in those years. In the center of the production area is a vertical mine shaft. Coal mine just off the horse, the mouth of the well has not been sealed, standing at the edge of the well looking down toward the bottom of the well: the mine shaft deep dark, bottomless, emitting a creepy cool air, eerie, see you will be scared, so people dare not look at more also dare not stay. This dry well, witnessed the miners labor figure, there have been miners in the shaft in the line of duty or paid the life, spilled their blood, buried their souls. At this time, the building is empty, the entire mining area is like an old empty city, seems to be forgotten; and like a late old man, old and lonely.
A railroad --- two rails are already rusty, lying on the sleepers from the coal building drilled out from the north to the south of the lonely extension out. More than ten years, no more coal train wheels ran over it. No train passing, it is reduced to scrap iron. Weed erosion of the railroad tracks, did not pass the calf, occasionally insects jumped up, birds swept over, everything seems so lonely, desolate, broken.
Wangjiahe coal mine is located in the Guanzhong hilly area --- Tongchuan Wangyi District Wangjiahe street office of the southern end. East and west around the mountains, a small river along the side of the highway meandering south, nourishing the trees and crops on both sides of the river. In spring, summer and fall, the grass and trees are green, and the mountains are full of green; in winter, the grass and trees are withered and full of depression.
The coal mine is divided into production area and family area. Production area in the first well, the family area is distributed in the production area around the highway and railroad tracks on both sides, the hillside, as well as the first well towards the south about three miles away from the (old) Ministry of Mines, about six miles away from the bridge (inclined shaft) public housing. The family area is distributed with department stores, medical clinics, schools, kindergartens, grain stations, vegetable companies ...... Wangjiahe Coal Mine, is a common coal mine, the mine is the hometown where I was born and raised, where there are my folks, brothers and sisters, neighbors and classmates. Regardless of the end of the world, she is always as kind as a family member, bringing me nostalgia ......
The mine was once full of vigor and vitality. In 1957, more than 2,000 miners from all over the world came here to build her. They married, had children and settled down here. During the day, machines roared in the production area, and the miners were busy, some going down the shaft to dig coal, some working together on the shaft to transport coal by mine cars. Children attend classes and play in the school and kindergarten. Sometimes, "oooh---ooh---" a few times, came the deafening hissing, the steam train like a The steam train sped by like a black iron dragon, as if announcing that it was grumpy and had business to attend to, reminding children and adults to get out of the way. Then, breathing heavily and exhaling white smoke, it stops and rests, waiting to be loaded with coal. Every morning, noon, afternoon, students go to school, miners on the way to and from work, the mine's loudspeaker will broadcast the production progress, leadership speeches, advanced people and deeds and other news, and then broadcast good music, songs, and opera, comedy and other musical programs. Smoke rose from the chimneys of the families, the sound of chopping vegetables on the kitchen board, the stir-frying sound of the spatula stirring the iron pot, the stumbling sound of pots and pans, and the aroma of different meals wafted out from the kitchens. Each family has its own story to tell, some of which intersect and touch in space and time ......
A few hundred meters away from the mouth of the mine, as a young child, I saw: miners wearing rattan helmets equipped with miner's lamps, bulky cotton shirts and pants, long black rubber shoes, and charging boxes of sulphuric acid hanging from belts on their waists, standing in the cages and going up and down. I stood in the cage going up and down. When I grew up, I realized that it was cold and wet at the bottom of the well. At that time, I was curious and wanted to go down the well to have a look. Silly me did not know, at that time the mechanization is not developed era, the coal mine underground digging coal, is a high-risk occupation, death is always coveting the life of miners. Under the mine, the gas concentration is high, encounter detonator blasting blast coal, crisis; belt, gears, railroad tracks on the mine car in operation, individual miners accidentally fell on these cold and merciless machinery and equipment, will lose arms, legs, and even life, leaving themselves a lesson in blood or a lifetime of painful memories.
It's getting dark, and the mine is all lit up. Every light tells the life of every miner; behind every curtain hides the secret of every family. At night, people enter the dreamland, the miners on the night shift are still laboring. The black and crystalline coal lay on the belt, constantly transported from the deep and dark mine to the coal processing building, and then poured into the train car in a sparse manner. The miners were off duty and walked wearily toward the bathhouse. Their entire bodies, except for their teeth, which are white, have become one with the coal. In an hour or two, they can blacken the full, steaming, clear pool of bath water, and in five or six hours they can cool it.
Sometimes, I hate these black ghosts beyond measure, because digging it, miners have to go down the shaft every day to sweat, will suffer from silicosis, asthma, rhinitis and other occupational diseases. My father suffered from arthritis, has not yet healed, they suffer from the pain of occupational diseases to death, and individual miners due to work-related injuries caused by lifelong disability. Whenever I see my father and some old miners walking with a limp, my heart aches. Sometimes when I think back at night, my eyes overflow with tears. More often than not, I am grateful to these cold ores, because with it, families can boil water to drink, cook the meal; with it to generate electricity, at night, the city, the countryside can light up the lights, drive away the darkness; with it, in winter, thousands of families can light up the fire, warm the cold; with it, the mines can pay wages to the miners, a family of old and young people can fill the stomach... ...Miners are like farmers, and coal is like the food that feeds the miners. Down the mine to dig coal, is the era and society created, in order to live, in order to support their families, miners have no choice, must listen to the fate of the arrangement.
In the eighties, the coal under the mine was gradually dug out, and most of the miners were transferred one after another to Chenjiashan, the next stone section, Dongpo and other coal mines. Eventually, the coal mine was dismantled, the name has been changed to "left behind", "comprehensive factory". The "food factory", "cement factory", "construction company" and other enterprises were built one after another. The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
The old miners retired one after another, and the middle-aged miners were either shunted to other units or bought out of their seniority, and the "Wangjiahe Coal Mine" ceased to exist. The community was established in the Ministry of Mines. Most of the shantytowns where miners lived in the No.1 shaft and the mines were demolished because they had become dilapidated. The mines built neighborhoods and dozens of apartment buildings, and almost all miners were given new houses. The mine gradually gathered popularity. In the past, there are only a few dozen families left in the No. 1 well, which has become cold and quiet.
On sunny days, the old miners would walk in the neighborhood, sunbathing and chatting, drying clothes and bedding, picking up and dropping off their grandchildren. Some old miners play mahjong, poker and chess in the "Retired Employee Recreation Room". In the evening, some of the older women and small daughters-in-law gathered together in the neighborhood on an open space to play music, square dancing.
Although it is said that the leaves return to their roots, but the old miners almost did not return home, they stayed in the Wangjiahe district to spend the rest of their lives. They paid their youth for this coal mine, where they left their footprints, sweat, have their ordinary life and little by little memories, have their simple and warm home, have their workmates, have their sorrows and joys, glorious or embarrassing past, the mine shafts, plants, railroad tracks, mountains, water, grass and trees are melted into their lives. Their children and even grandchildren were born and grew up here. Wangjiahe Coal Mine has become their second hometown and home of their life, even though they have suffered from pain and sorrow here, this land has made them unable to leave.
Spring and fall, the years go by like a shuttle, the production area of the No. 1 shaft office building and workshop plant experienced the wind and sun, rain and snow, still quietly guarding the deep dark mine. These abandoned walls and ruins as a monument, engraved with the past of the coal mine, with the soul of the miners killed in the shaft. Thousands of meters away from the mine community, the old miners seem to be silently guarding the mine. They sometimes gaze towards the No.1 shaft production area, reminiscing about their youthful days when they went down the shaft to dig coal. This kind of gazing and reminiscing will be until they have gray hair, old eyes, hobbling steps, until the last moment of their lives ......