Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang — Read

The heat of summer had begun in earnest. At noon the sun scorched overhead, and the familiar slow drone of the popsicle man noated in through the open windows, accompanied by the rhythmic clap of a wooden block on a box: "Ice-cold popsicles. Green bean popsicles. Red bean popsicles. Ice- cold popsicles." My hands sweated so much holding the wool that i could not knit. Instead, I worked on embroidering a pillow sham as I waited for the coo! of the evening. In the distance i could hear the sound of drums and gongs.

There was a tension in the air that even we children felt. The newspapers and radio were full of the campaign to "Destroy the Four Olds." The campaign had been expanded to eliminate personal possessions. "If we do not completely eliminate the roots, the plant will grow back," we heard. "We must eradicate these relics of the past.… We must not allow the reactionary forces to hoard their treasures.