HAN-PING CHIN
438
created a spectacle for the local people who had never seen a mo–
tor vehicle. But the six trucks couldn't transport much coal alone.
Wheelbarrows were mobilized as the main method of transport.
The old longshoremen and the young coolies swarmed to the new
livelihood. Having no other opportunities for work, my father
joined their ranks.
The wheelbarrow was matched with a big bamboo basket
which could contain 400 to 600 pounds of coal. The single wheel
was a wooden disk trimmed with an iron stripe, lacking a tire to
absorb the shock. The shaft of the wheel was a round wooden bar
rolling in the holes of the supporting pieces. Since there was no
ball bearing, the friction was intense-in the early morning, the
creaking could be heard a half mile away. The carriers used a belt
to transfer the weight from the handlebeams to their shoulders.
They leaned their bodies forward and trudged along.
The five-kilometer hillside road had been paved with silty
sand and pebbles many years before. The soil was washed away and
ruts zigzagged through the uneven gaps among the pebbles. The
wheels bounced and bounced. The workers' shoulders and their
hands grasping the handles, all their nerves and bones were
violently shaken. Sometimes the wheel jammed in a ragged trough,
at other times it sank in the mud. Up the slopes, every inch
required great effort and sweat; the toilers often stopped to look
for ways to avoid a single pebble. Down the slopes, the wheel would
jump from one pit to another, and the heavy load was like an
unleashed bull dashing off, so that the workers had to use their
body weight and arm strength as a drag.
Father had worked in accounting for many years and did not
have the endurance or the muscles of a longshoreman. The first
day, he harnessed himself and went to the coal mine very early.
Mother had persuaded him to fill the basket only half way. He
staggered along, but tried to walk firmly, pushing the wheelbarrow
while holding it steady. He pulled over to the roadside many times,
and sat on one of the handlebeams to rest. His feet blistered in
their straw sandals, his legs felt weak and his calves were cramped.
He needed to regain his strength-after going only one third of
the distance, the coal in the basket looked like a mountain to him.
From the last hilltop, the carriers could see the houses of the
county center and hear the locomotive's whistle. At the foot of the
