CLEANING THE HOUSE

Today as Mike and I cleaned the farmhouse, I couldn’t help but think of Mother and Daddy. They followed me around all day as I dusted, washed windows, did some baking.

Always about this time in July, Mother, Daddy, and I would come to the farm and spend the day cleaning in preparation for a reunion / picnic in honor of Papa Portfors’ birthday, which was July 31. Regardless of the temperature outside, Daddy would start a fire in the old wood cook stove and draw water from the cistern to be heated. Since there was no electricity here, cleaning was a matter of dusting, sweeping, mopping, cleaning windows, perhaps washing some knick-knacks. We would make the beds look comfortable and hang clean curtains. I followed Mother around doing what she told me to do. Daddy mopped the kitchen floor, handled changes of water, and cleaned the porches. We carried drinking water and lunch from home and sat at the old table in the kitchen to eat it.

I say we “always” did that. It seemed like a regular thing every year – and it was -- but it just couldn’t have gone on for as many years as it seems like it did. I suppose it started in the late ‘50s and continued through the ‘60s, even though the excuse – Papa’s birthday – went away with his declining health.

If only we could vacuum,” Mother would say, and finally she insisted on having a gas generator. That proved to be handy, though the noise was a bit overbearing.

Sometimes it still thrills me to walk over to the sink and turn on the water – or to turn on a light as twilight approaches. We take so much for granted.

We arrived here at the farm about 8:30 this morning. The day is cool for July – about 72. A great day to make zucchini bread with the zucchini I picked at the town house. A sad thing – in the process of pack, unpack, re-pack, I left the camera in town. But – I have the cell phone.

[Since I forgot the camera, I illustrated this blog with some country photos not yet shown. The top photo is of a toad resting under a strawberry plant. As you can see, I finished painting the gnome. And the last photo is of a robin's nest just outside the sunroom door, basically above the clothesline. The photo was taken in June, but the family was still there last week.] KW