Life in the Forties

 

This was my second home away from home back in the 40's.

In the bottom apartment lived an old grouch and her husband.
We called her Mrs. McGlothern, and  he was MAC. Only the roles were reversed. They did not make noise.  I called her Mrs. McGrouch when she wasn't within earshot. Mac always carried a bottle of wine around in his pocket. They were very quiet, and since they were the owners and proprietors, they set the rules. Mary and Andy lived on the second floor, and they loved music, the louder the better. The Angels, known as Yours truly and husband lived on the top floor. Angels always rise to the top.  Nine PM was bedtime for everyone in the building, bar none. We could also take two baths a week. That's right, two of um!
When nine o'clock came the music didn't die down, and the broom on the first floor came out and the ceiling took a beating. Mac was assigned the broom job, and he enjoyed it. It was the only noise he was allowed to make. The next morning Mrs McGrouch would go stomping up the stairs and bang on Mary and Andy's door, and threaten an eviction notice, but it never became an actuality. Two or three nights later the scene would play over again. Another couple, Herb and Lorraine, lived there. We became life long friends with both couples, and had many fun times together. We all shared the same bathroom, and the same community sink in the hall way, and the same icebox, and I do mean ice box. It was also in the hallway. The iceman came two or three times a week to put a new block of ice in it. We each had a turn of emptying the water pan that caught the water from the ice. We also had a milkman that delivered milk. It was left on the front porch, and each neighbor would pick out what he had ordered. I believe I am the only survivor of that group.

The cows finally came home, but pigs still can’t fly.

 We have finally arrived, nothing left to invent or is there. Once upon a time the world was not so complicated; telephones had one purpose, to relay messages vocally. Now they do everything, but pick your teeth. Before phones there was only one way to let someone know where you were or to ask a question. Not so long ago I observed a lot of people shopping in the grocery store, and talking to themselves, until I learned about the hands free method of talking on a phone without a visible phone.  

 Party lines didn’t mean a line to a party. It meant your personal business was being shared by anyone that happened to be on your party line, such as the modern Facebook and many other ‘tell the world about it’ web sites.  If you wanted someone to know something you had to get out the stationary and a pen, and actually write it out and send it by mail.  Wouldn’t it be terrible if we had to go back to that?

My mother was born in 1905, and she once said the one invention that she appreciated the most was the electric washing machine. She was speaking of the first one invented with a wringer attached, and the wringer was not automatic, you had to guide the item through it while turning the handle.

 It wasn’t long until a way was made to make the wringer automatic, but you would still guide the item through it. Finally the spin method was made. Families had large families, mainly because a sure fire method of birth control had not been discovered, and that is very likely the reason I am here. One brother is only two years older. There were eight kids. The Mom of the family did a huge laundry each week with a washtub and scrub board, and then had to hang it on a line outside to dry. The electric dryer was another great invention.

I remember our first radio and how much we enjoyed it, and going from an ice box to a refrigerator. I thought the microwave was a fabulous invention. I would hate to live without one now.

Watching the evolution of the computer age is amazing. We probably haven’t seen anything yet.  I believe pigs will fly.

Similar to the one we had.

Save it for Last

Senior retirement homes should be called Half-Way houses because that is what they are, half of a house, half as many rooms, a bathroom in half the space, half a kitchen if any at all, a living room with enough room for a chair with a TV in front of it, half a closet. No front porch, patio, lawn, garage or flower bed. When you graduate from that, you go to The Senior Hotel. You have rooms and hallways, and valets and maids to turn your bed down at night. You even have maids to help with the bath. Meal time is fine dining with all your friends, served tomato soup with delicious cat food sandwiches. Who could ask for more?

Not many can afford this fine living, it is not cheap, it runs around $50000 or more a year. You work a lifetime to pay for a home so you will have something to bequeath to The Senior Hotel.

 That is the  long and short of it, but it isn't all gloom and doom.

Now for a few words about the teens.

Teens have a lingo all of their own,

and they always have.

Adults:                                          Teen:

Call or phone                                Text

Visit                                              Hang out

Aced it                                          Smacked it

Old or antique                              Teek

Good friend                                  We’re tight

Not going steady                           Single

Clean your room                          It’s not dirty

The Cleaning Fairy, Me.

This morning I went into a cleaning frenzy. It only takes one episode of ’Hoarders’ to do it.  There is no way in hell or any other place that I will allow piles of garbage and other wonderful collector items to stand between me and my table or bed. I even have a favorite chair and couch that fit into that category. I had to empty the canister on the vacuum cleaner. That is a challenge that boggles the mind (that is, if you have a mind). You cannot just set it back in there, it has to be adjusted with exact precision or it won’t work. It finally happened and by now the adrenaline is running in high gear so the job was a breeze. This included floor scrubbing and dusting furniture. Now I am exhausted and thirsty so I am having an ice cold can of aspartame, phosphorus, potassium benzoate, phenylketonurics, sometimes known as diet Pepsi.
It is a beautiful day on my little part of the globe. I think there is rain heading this way. It will first hit the coastal area and then we get the tail end of it. The weather prophet said there could be snow in the mountains. It’s summertime, when is it going to stop snowing?

The Way it Was

We had a well with a pump just outside the back door. We had a bucket that sat on a separate small table. A wash basin sat on the table also. Our drinking water was in the bucket and a dipper which everybody used. Nobody was afraid of a little germ. We had a cupboard that was not built in. It was a piece of furniture. We had two of those in our kitchen. I have no idea how we were able to keep all our dishes in those two cupboards. A large family meant a lot of dishes and they were all dirty after each meal. To do the dishes, you had to heat the water on a stove that had to be fed wood constantly. The water was heated in a large tea kettle. The dish pan and another one for rinsing was set on the other cupboard. There was no place to set a draining rack. I don’t think anyone had ever heard of a draining rack in the 1930’s. Well, nobody in my house anyway. Female’s washed dishes, men only did outside jobs. Women also did outside jobs, such as washing clothes and hanging them up on a clothes line to dry. Tending to a garden in the summer months. Gathering eggs and bringing in kindling and wood for the stoves was done by both female and male. That is just the way it was. I don’t believe anyone thought they were being treated unfairly. On a farm there was plenty of work for everybody. Men usually milked the cows, but many women also helped with the milking.  I often heard my mother say, “I never milked a cow in my life, and I ain’t going to either‘.  I thought that was a good rule so I never milked a cow in my life either and I ain’t going to.
In the winter months, the clothes washing procedure was moved to the back porch, which was screened in. It was just about as cold there as it was under the tree. It didn’t take nearly as long to do the laundry in the winter months as in the summer. At least you didn’t have to stand in the snow to wash the clothes. Everything was hung on the line to dry, freezing or not. They were frozen dry, and when you brought them in from the line it would be like bringing in the wood. Everything was frozen stiff. When they thawed out, they would dry rather quickly. Stuff was draped over everything in the house. It’s no wonder everybody was sick most of the time. Colds, and stomach ailments is what I remember the most. Of course if one person caught something, everybody would end up with it as well.
That is just some of the way it was.  Remember this, the next time the Pizza delivery man is running a little slow.

Walmart Event

Here is my list, go find it.

Not much to do except watch the snow melt. I went to Wal-Mart for a few things. One thing on the list was one light bulb for the front steps so the paper carrier doesn't break her neck and sue me. Just a simple light bulb is all I was in search of.  In the first place, finding something on that six acres the store covers is like searching for the Lock Ness Monster. I kept asking store clerks, and they were only posing as store clerks, they were vendor’s. Never ask a vendor where anything is, they don’t know. I’m not the only one that mistakes vendor’s for store clerks. I heard one couple ask one where the peanut butter was. They have more vendor's than store clerks. I finally found a genuine store clerk, and she knew exactly where they were. They have a billion different kinds, blue light bulbs, pink, mood, red and even a black bulb. What is the object of putting a light inside a black bulb? There must be a reason because they had some. I finally found an ordinary looking bulb, but they only come, four in a package.  I'm 84 years old, why do I need more than one. Not only that, they last for 9 years if used properly.  I now have a 36 year supply of light bulbs. They better bury those bulbs with me so when I get there I can light up the place. 

I can always milk something out of the Wal-Mart to blog about.

 

Is this a vendor or a store clerk?

War on Ants

I have had an invasion of sugar ants. I have scrubbed everything from top to bottom and have ant traps all over the place and they still come and bring all their relatives. They found my dishwasher.
 I started half-way washing the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Did that help? No, it did not. I am not going to wash my dishes with ants in there so I take the dishes out and run a cycle of hot water first. That gets rid of the little devils from the dishwasher, but they return. 
I think they are being resurrected from the dead. I tried a different brand of ant traps and no relief. If you can find the ant-highway, there is a product you can put on it so the little unsuspecting fools will take the bait back to mommy dearest and it is supposed to kill her off, and her whole clan. Well, dream on because I cannot find the highway or they can't find the bait. Where is the road map to the ant highway? It’s worse then getting rid of wild morning glory in your yard. Have you ever tried to get rid of that stuff? Nothing short of a nuclear bomb will do it. 
Why are all these pesky things picking on me. First it’s the rust streak in the toilet and now these ant creatures. Does anybody have a cheap anteater for sale? I think it’s time to sell the house and let it take over. I’m losing the war.

Rust and Other Important Stuff

Today was a sheety day for me. It was time to change the sheets. So it was a sheety sheet changing day. Say that real fast three times.


Anyway while I was in my cleaning phase. I decided to tackle the rust streak that has showed up in the toilet bowl.  It is not that I don't clean the toilet, it's because the toilet is 40 years old. I think that is the reason for it. 
First I googled it to see if I could find a good product for removing rust. I found a link and the person was selling a product and also left an option for people to leave comments, and comments they left.
 I found most of them rather humorous so I spent a lot of, toilet cleaning time, reading about everybody with the same problem. Poor Tiffany. They were picking on her.  
Click here

Issue of the Tissue (a rerun)

AS TO THE ISSUE OF THE TISSUE

Should it go over the roll?
Or should it go under the roll?
Or Should we take a poll?
It doesn’t really matter at all
Just pull it through the hole!