On a frozen forest road, standing upright on a high hillock, stood a UAZ “loaf” of classic green color. Two people, putting an old blanket on them, were fiddling around under the bottom of the car in the area of the rear left wheel, two other passengers stood at the open side door, periodically pouring good moonshine into faceted glasses, snacking on tomatoes and basil, and had a pleasant conversation about cop topics. From under the bottom, hammer blows, quiet negotiations and louder swearing were periodically heard, when something that had previously been stubbornly pushed into place for ten minutes fell out with a roar.
— Maybe we can help? – Mishka asked Danilych hesitantly, as if timidly and worried that he seemed to be the youngest, but now he was doing nothing.
— Well, you can always help, but do they really need it? – Denis Danilovich answered philosophically, drawn out and thoughtfully, placing the fatty sprat on a piece of black bread. “They might be annoyed now that they are like this, and we are like that.” But if we think logically, then neither you nor I understand technology. I’m a complete humanitarian, the most I can do is change a light bulb if it burns out. That’s why I never drive my Niva so far into the forest. Of course, it is passable, but if something suddenly breaks, I start to panic. I remember it stopped starting, and I went about twenty kilometers from the village to pick mushrooms. That’s it, I’m panicking, I’m getting on my nerves. I called my cousin, fortunately he had just arrived from his shift for a month. He got on the motorcycle and came to me, opened the hood, looked, and said that I would have to give him a false call. It turned out that the terminal had come loose from the battery. So I don’t know anything about cars at all and I don’t want to know. That’s where to look for ancient villages in our area, it’s me, and if you go under the car with the key, I’m of less use there than that old blanket.
How it all started? Robert Yurievich called Danilych and said that they were preparing to come to the frost to close the season. But it’s not easy to come, but it will be possible to check the farthest points that were put on the map as possible and promising places for a cop. Because they will arrive on a “loaf”. So, at work, Robert had a friend who was inspired by stories about instrument search and wanted to go with him for company. Moreover, Robert promised to give him his old Deus, which was lying at home as a second device. And in response, Rinat, that was the guy’s name, promised to ask his father for a loose and pumped “loaf.” Rinat’s father is an avid fisherman on the topic of wild reservoirs, and therefore fifteen years ago he bought a decommissioned UAZ and then for five years he invested not only his soul into it, but also a significant part of the family budget. In general, the son managed to persuade his father, and now they were somewhere in the middle of the forest, forty kilometers from a nearby settlement, trying to put the shock absorber in place.
— Well, that’s it! – Robert’s satisfied voice came and he, throwing out the tool, got out first, shaking off his slightly soiled jacket. – It will last until the car service center, and then they will fix it properly. – Robert looked with undisguised condemnation at the relaxed comrades, who now needed only the crimson sunset over the blue watery distance and the chirping of evening birds for complete relaxation. – Pour it. – Robert said briefly to Danilych.
— So you’re driving.
— So we’re not going home yet, nothing will disappear before the evening, especially since there’s lard and boiled eggs, so it’s fine, let’s go.
Danilych poured a drink for Robert, and Rinat, who had risen from under the car, drank, ate, collected the instrument and looked around. In general, this was the plan for the trip. We planned to get to a distant forest lake, which, judging by the map, was clearly of meteorite origin. The meteorites themselves were of little interest, but finding some kind of medieval settlement there was very likely. And besides, there was a kulak farm there somewhere. But it was not interesting to go straight away, so we agreed that along the way we would stop and inspect nice, clean clearings and forest clearings for signs of economic activity. The fact is that when potatoes became the main agricultural crop in these places, they began to plant them in all suitable places, including convenient forest areas. Local peasants sold their potatoes profitably to the Master’s Alcohol Factory. So in such clearings you can safely find imperial coins, a very enviable forest conservation.
In general, they drive, see a pleasant pine forest, stop, turn on the devices and disperse, fifteen minutes is enough to understand that it’s empty, they gather at the car, a hundred grams of good double-purified moonshine, and drive on. Robert, however, as he said, drank once, then he was firm in his refusal, but no one offered it to him. Gradually, the expedition moved from the desire to dig into the category of friendly, free and wonderful communication.
— Denis Danilych. — Mishka turned to his older comrade, rocking steadily on the bumps of the forest road. – I remember in the summer, you clearly explained why we were digging so many vodka caps in the field. It was a good story. However, it seems to me that the topic has not been fully explored. – From drinking and from the well-functioning heater of the car, Mishka became flushed, sweat appeared on his forehead, which is why he pulled his hat down to the back of his head and unbuttoned his warm brand jacket to his stomach.
— And what did I miss there? – Danilych was surprised, — Ask clarifying questions.
— This is what I thought about, and now I just remembered it on topic. I’m wondering where there is so much aluminum wire in the field ? Moreover, it should be noted that, according to my observations, in some fields there is too much of it, in others it is there, but not so much. But in the forest there is none at all, although, just like in a field in the forest, you can dig up two dozen plugs from one clearing. That is, in the field there are traffic jams and wire, but in the forest there are only traffic jams. As far as I can understand, there is no logical relationship between these types of garbage at all?
— Good question Mikhail. – Danilych noticed that Robert and Rinat, who were sitting in front, also decided to listen to the answer to such a difficult question. And even for this they turned down the music in the radio almost completely. “Where should I begin to answer you to this?” Danilych paused, scratched his itchy ear and said. – Here’s Mishka, you’re a young guy, so I want to ask if you know that there was no scotch tape in the USSR?
Mishka paused in thought for a moment, then answered hesitantly. – Of course, I can’t know such trifles of Soviet life, but it seems like there was electrical tape, but I don’t know about adhesive tape. And this is not the most important thing, no matter how I tried to trace the relationship between the tape and the aluminum wire, but even with my good imagination it somehow didn’t work out.
— And there was also an adhesive plaster – Without turning around, Robert said loudly. I remember well that every year my grandmother used to put posters and calendars on adhesive tape in the kitchen. First it was Kobzon, then Marianna from the series, and already in the 2000s — Kamenskaya.
— And here it is true, there was electrical tape, both rag and PVC, and there was adhesive plaster. But not about that now, but about the fact that during the Soviet era, aluminum wire was the most universal means of connecting two solid objects. In general, everything was attached to everything with wire. Boards to an iron pipe, chain-link mesh to pipes, hoses to a fence, birdhouse to a tree, dog collar to a chain, cables to poles, what can I say — Any tractor driver held half of his equipment on twisted aluminum wires. And in production, wire replaced bolts, tightened conveyor belts, and was generally part of any repair kit. If something needed to be fixed quickly, but there was no desire to look for the right bolt, they twisted it onto a wire. Moreover, in rural areas it was difficult to get rope material. Well, for example, to tie bags of potatoes. Imagine we flew into space, conquered the Arctic and Antarctic, and there was nothing to tie bags of potatoes with. That’s why they were tied with aluminum wire. Tie, tie, pull, attach, seal and hang, all this was done using aluminum wire.
And here, in fairness, it should be noted that dressing twine, or in common parlance twine, was sold in hardware stores, just as you could buy hemp or synthetic rope for various needs. But the main thing in this clarification is the word buy. No, it’s not that it was a pity for the money, although saving plays an important role here. It’s just that it wasn’t always possible to buy it everywhere. But the wire was always, everywhere and at hand. I remember in the mid-80s we changed electric poles from wood to concrete. So the repairmen collected the old wires into large skeins and left them in the alley off the alley. It’s hard to imagine now, but several tons of aluminum lay unguarded like garbage and no one took it away. People came up with wire cutters, cut off as many as they needed for housework, and carried them to the yard. And only at the beginning of the 90s, when the first non-ferrous metal collection point opened in the regional center, did this wire disappear from its place overnight. Yes, at that time it was not only such wire that was disappearing. I remember they announced a storm warning, it was like they were expecting a tornado. So the power grid cut off electricity in the area for an hour. An hour later they turned it on, but half the area was without power. It turned out that someone stole a couple of kilometers of high-voltage wires.
In general, collecting non-ferrous scrap metal and using it for recycling was not economically profitable in the USSR. The fact is that the production of the same aluminum was much cheaper then than it is today. The reason for this is almost a penny, and why almost ? The cost of electricity is really a penny. Ferrous metal was still somehow collected, and then to a greater extent, by the forces of irrepressible pioneers. I also remember how activists from the city, Komsomol members, several loud, cheerful pioneer leaders came to our village, including a beautiful girl like from the cover of Pioneer magazine. We then wrote letters to her as a whole class. They invited me to visit, but she answered only once and then in general phrases of a carbon-copy letter. Well, here we are, and let us talk about how many locomotives the workers will be able to assemble thanks to us. As a result, our whole school collected scrap metal from all over the area for twenty locomotives in a week. So this metal then lay for another fifteen years in a vacant lot near the school, until in the 90s, by agreement with the school director, our local businessman removed it. And the school was given a photocopier for this.
But let’s return to aluminum wire. As I said, it was the main means of attaching everything to everything. Any tractor driver in the field or in a brigade always had a heavy coil of wire hanging in a visible place. But, however, it was not agricultural machinery or bags of potatoes that were the main supplier of wire to the fields. Remember that field halfway to the tar mill? – The people nodded affirmatively. — Mishka constantly complains there that every two hours he needs to empty out his bag of garbage on the side of the road. The field itself is notable for its finds, but there is wire and other debris up to the pimply top. And now a question for you, Mikhail. You are a sharp and attentive guy. There is still a lot of stuff on that field, unlike other fields?
Misha thought for a moment and remembered very quickly. – So there are still a lot of traffic jams from vaccines, or whatever they correctly called these bubbles?
— These are the bubble plugs. And here we can already trace the relationship. The plugs and the bubbles themselves ended up on the field with manure. And manure is naturally from dairy farms. Naturally, with the same manure, hundreds of kilograms of aluminum wire were brought to the field. Because, as I have already said, at that time half of all equipment was held on wire, and this was the main strapping material. Everything that was brought to the farms. For example, the same cuttings for shovels were tied with wire. Tubes, light bulbs, bale boxes, boxes with the same vaccines, everything was tied up with wire. Minor repairs in the premises themselves, tie, tie, tighten, everything with wire. As soon as the old wire was removed, they threw it at their feet in the same dung. Then onto a tractor cart and in heaps in the field. This is such a simple story about the wire in our fields. This is now, there is a lot of electrical tape, special zip ties, PVC twines, and bolts and nuts in any store. And then even in my bag with the keys on my bicycle I always had a coil of aluminum wire in reserve.
Then the day was interesting, the comrades did get to the lake, but it was already late in the evening, so they didn’t have time to find the farm, but they very effectively dug for early tips and vodka caps at the hunters’ favorite campsites. And, of course, there were, among other things, large pieces of aluminum wire.
