OK, you know what we're doing here. And today, we are down to
59. I remember these chores growing up:
Dishes was an early one. Drying while Mama washed was an enjoyable activity, as I explained in Modern Conveniences, Modern Losses.
And I talked about the trouble I used to get into around my chores here.
Mostly I did girl chores -- dishes (which, eventually came to mean cleaning the kitchen as well), sweeping the porch, taking out the garbage and waste baskets, cleaning the bathrooms, and occasionally washing windows or helping to put the clean laundry away. Very rarely Daddy would have me clean out his tool box or other organizing thing, which I always enjoyed. Once Forrest and I picked up small rocks from the lawn so they wouldn't get in the lawn mower -- I remember hating that one.
Actually, considering the hoo-raw around chores at our house, it is really amazing how few things I was asked to do.
My favorite, very favorite story of a chore-like thing happened one day when Colleen was about four, which made Forry nine and me 14. We were in the back seat and Daddy was driving us back from some trip out of town. Colleen was fussing and kicking Forry and carrying on and Daddy told me to entertain her. "Teach her something" was the command. So, I started teaching her the sounds letters make. This didn't hold her interest until I remembered the Ipana toothpaste commercial with the Ipana spokes animal, Bucky Beaver. So, I started doing alphabet variations, which Forry and Colleen then sang after me.Bucky Beaver
Cucky Ceaver
Ducky Deaver
at which point, Daddy suddenly focused at what was happening in the back seat and said, very firmly and sternly, "That will be enough of that!"
It was only several years later that I understood what the problem had almost been.
5 comments:
HA! You and Forrest would have been horrified, I'm sure. Colleen might not have known the word, and let it go right on by...
Of course your grandfather didn't say anything else about it, being interested only in stopping it fast, I couldn't figure out what I had done to get in trouble! I was teaching her something, wasn't I? That was what he had asked me to do, wasn't it?
That made me laugh out loud!
I do some similar things with Mr. P, where we play sound games with words while sort of singing them. Quite the few times I have had to alter the logical course to avoid a disaster!
That's so funny! I had a similar experience where I had heard the word and came home to ask my mom what it meant. She was mortified. She pretended (I think) to look it up in the dictionary and gave me some dopey sounding definition that made no sense at all. It was, however, made very clear to me that I was not to utter that word ever again.
Bucky Beaver...what memories...."Brusha, brusha, brusha...." You gave me a good laugh J....thanks once again. Often your explanations in your comments are just as funny dear lady.
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