Jennifer’s Photo Stories (14) 曾錚的圖片故事(14)
My Peking University Swimming Pool Pass 我的北大游泳證
Once upon a time, you needed a “certificate”, or a permit, or a “special ticket” to buy virtually everything in China, such as meat, sugar, flour, rice, cooking oil, cloth fabric, etc. Today I saw this “ticket” for the swimming pool in Peking University. As it is so old, I guess we can treat it as a historical relic now. That’s why I posted it here.
曾幾何時，中國是個什麼都要票、都要證的年代。北大游泳池的游泳票，您見過嗎？哈哈，長這樣哈。我幾乎把它忘了，今天看到，也覺得挺好玩的，曬出來給大夥瞧瞧。
The handwritten number “36/417” on the card could have been a secret in my university days; but it wouldn’t matter now, so I could “generously” reveal it today: It means that I lived at Room 417, №36 Student Dormitory Building. In those days you couldn’t tell just anybody where you lived; otherwise, you could bring troubles to yourself.
What troubles? Some silly boys might want to stop or follow you when you were about to enter or leave the building, or made some embarrassing noises outside your window.
游泳票上寫著的「36/417」是什麼意思？在學生年代，這就是密祕，不能說的。現在說說就無妨了，是我的宿舍號，我當時住北大36樓417房間。當時我們門口有副對聯，橫批是「芳草萋萋」其他的忘了。(又：一名去過我們宿舍的老同學說，應該是「天涯芳草」，不是「芳草萋萋」，因無法回到過去去驗證哪個對，就把兩個都寫在這裏吧。）
