SPRING CLEANING?

   

Over the years I had many ways to describe my Mom and Grandmother - one word fit both of them - they were very "clean".  And each year this time we took a weekend off of playing baseball with the South Millville Boys to help them.  For many this would have been a dreaded chore, but for me it was really fun because Mom and Nanny made fun.

    I think about them and a memory flow in my mind...and then I'm 7 and back in Millville and it spring once again.

    I must make this perfectly clear or as Dickens says - nothing good (or funny) will come from this tale.  Both Nanny and Mom were obsessed with cleaning (housework my grandmother labeled it) and she work at everyday - and Mom on her weekends off from the glass factory. I think I'm that way too!  I still clean my small apartment on Saturdays even though I am "off" every day.  One could have brain surgery on our bathroom floor.  And honestly unlike my bathroom, I never saw an overflowing waste basket!  Okay so where's the fun part I know you are thinking so here's one of them.

    Each spring my grandmother to every rug big and small and hung them over our trusty universal clothes line that I'm sure was made of steel fibers inside the white plastic strand.  Rug beating was always the first. 

    Nanny had this iron thing which was about three feet from it's well worn wooden handle.  She told me it was handed down from her grandmother to her mother (Nellie) to her.  Like many things we grew up with it's gone with the wind.  But I bet I could get a couple hundred for it on E   eBay today.  (My grandmother tossed out a full service of Carnival Glass because she said it was "old fashion"

    But I digress - after wacked the living room rug for about 10 minutes as I waited patiently she finally handed me the rug weapon and it was my turn.  Nanny was exhausted but I was ready to go.  My job was to beat the day lights out of the smaller "throw-rugs" were by the way never dusty because Nanny shook them out the back door once a week!  But I took out my kid frustrations on them anyway until I ready to drop.  Nanny would always say, "Calvin, you get better at this each year!"  I never thought I did but I guess I was getting better at everything. 

    My next helper task was window washing.  My Mother attack this like a hunter spotting a bear.  You may wonder what could be fun about this endeavor?  Well, Mom made it a game.  Our house was a low to the ground cottage and I could reach every window except two over the counter in our kitchen.  Mom was the inside person and I was the outside washer.  Manned with my bunch of newspaper, (try it they are as good if not better for getting the streaks off) a real sponge from the deep of the gulf and a spray bottle of Windex - the miracle cleaner and the only cleaner outside of Lifebuoy soap and water.  The soap that actually playing grime and a layer of my skin after each day of play.

    The game consisted of the following - Mom would put her sponge somewhere on the window.  I would place mine over it on the glass then I had to follow her every move and she had many uncanny variations.  I got a point if I followed her precisely however, I never did learn how to turn in my points for something?  We did 15 windows in record time this year as my mother made a note of our timing.

    My memories fades because I forced to remember that I haven't clean a window in years.  But rain does a fairly good job and I can see out as much as want to.

Moral: Think of work as play and it will make your day (shorter).