Monday, February 15, 2010

Floor cleaning

So listen, I was mopping the floor on Saturday, I don't usually wash the floor every week to be honest, and this is the month of George Washington, the "I can't tell a lie" President (which many have said was never uttered by him), so I don't want to give you a false impression that I am Mrs. Clean. But, I had a lot more traffic on the kitchen floor at SSon's party last week, so I thought I should clean it again this week. OK,OK, some people would have done it sooner than a week later, but..., as we know, I am not the norm.
So, anyway, it reminded me that when I was a kid the ladies in the neighborhood, my family included washed the kitchen floors on Saturday-every Saturday. Then, when it dried, they waxed it, then when it dried, they placed newspapers in a layer along the walking path to protect it-probably so it would look good on Sunday. Now, if you rushed these steps and wait times, not good. The floor would be slippery when you went to put the wax on if it was still wet, and Heaven forbid if you did not wait for the wax to dry completely before you put down the newspaper buffer!! Can you figure it out? Yep, the newspaper would adhere with the floor while it was drying, the newsprint would get embedded in the wax layer and rip when you lifted up the newspaper, and here's the bad part, the newspaper would rip and leave hard-waxed pieces on the floor. So the end product could look worse than the beginning. Sometimes, the process could be repaired, but sometimes it had to be done again. And in those days, no one worth their salt even owned a kitchen mop! It was wooden scrub brushes, soap cake in the bucket,or if you were a hoity-toity, you had some powdered spic and span soap, real wax because no-wax flooring was not invented. And when all was said and done-your hands were also washed and waxed! And all this was done while kids were running everywhere. God Bless the ladies who toiled then! I hope Heaven does not have floors, just clouds that can be blown away when they get dirty!

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