Housework

Housework is something we have to do, unless we have Merry Maids come in each week.
Mom cleaned the rug with a Bissell carpet sweeper. Much later, when we had electricity she had a vaccum cleaner.
Last winter just before Christmas I was in Lowes and spotted small Bissell carpet sweepers and purchased one. It is great for cleaning up little messes. But the vaccum cleaner comes out for heavy stuff. Apparently either nostalgia or the idea of how handy the Bissell would be enticed a lot of people to buy one. I went back a couple days later and they were all gone.
Think of those women hanging their carpets on the clothesline and using a carpet beater on them.
Saturdays were dusting days for Dody and me. Mom had rags to dust with and furniture polish. "Don't forget the legs on the chairs" Mom would tell us. Or the windowsills, bottom shelves on stands, lift up stuff and dust underneath.
I should be an excellent housekeeper as I had good training but I'm like the girl in the picture at the top saying "My idea of housework is sweeping the room with a glance."
Laundry was another hard job. In those pre electricity days Mom had a wringer washer with a gas motor. Clothes were hung outside to dry. In winter they came in frozen stiff and we could have stood them in a corner if allowed.
Mom got a wooden drying rack when Dody was tiny. I can remember that rack near the cookstove drying diapers and other clothing.
Later, after they bought the farm, the rack straddled the register between the dining and living room.
Before the electric lines came up Sap Bush Road, the Brewers had a Delco generator in the cellar to provide them with electricity.
The cows were milked by machine that operated on another gas motor.
The school bus picked me up to take me to Chenango Forks. Bill Boughton was the bus driver. I missed going to the one room schools by about two years.
There was a one room school down near Cloverdale Road and another on Foster Hill by the creek. That building burned many years ago when it was being used as a home.
More another day. I have a lot of notes about the good old days.
Chris