Dishes in the past

Yeah, still flashing back here. Mike sez this:

April,

Formerly little sis. One of the things I miss from the days when Lizzie and I were both at home with mom was the way mom would occasionally bow into pressure and let us help. I remember very well, the first time mom let us help her do the dishes. She said to me, “Michael. I am going to run the water in the sink and when the water gets high enough, you turn off the water.” Of course, I didn’t know what “high enough” meant, but I soon found out. Mom had to let a little of that water out, but there was still plenty left. In fact, I discovered if you drop a dirty dish into the dishwater, the soap suds can achieve a pretty good velocity and distance. After mom noticed how good a job I was doing putting the dirty dishes into the soapy water, she asked me to stop and help Lizzie find something to do.

I opened up two of the cabinet doors by the sink. In one cabinet there were big stainless steel pots and pans and in the other cabinet were containers of cleaners. Well, the choice was obvious. The cleaning containers were much more colourful and attractive to someone Lizzie’s age. Stainless steel can be so dull and gray. I pulled out a nice yellow cleaner and said to Lizzie, “What colour is this Lizzie? It’s yellow. Can you say, ‘yellow’?” Lizzie was too little to notice the colours, but mom wasn’t.

She told Lizzie to play with the stainless steel pots and pans. Then she said to me, “Why don’t you help me by drying the dishes? That way I can keep a closer eye on you.” Mom would wash the dish, rinse the dish, and put it in the dish drainer to the left of the sink. I would stand on a stool and dry the dishes and put the dry ones to the left side of the dish drainer. I dried until I got one towel completely wet. Then I dried until I got another towel completely wet. Then I was out of towels, so I decided to use my shirt and pants instead. I was doing great until mom noticed me using my shirt and pants to dry the dishes. She started shrieking about it, and just about that time Lizzie discovered that if she were to slam together 2 lids of 2 stainless steel pans, it would make a pretty loud noise. Mom jumped at the sound of this, lost her footing on the wet floor, and then crashed her head into a cabinet. It was great fun. Lizzie shrieked and I said, “Again!”

However, mom just laid there with her eyes wide open. It wasn't until later that I learned that this is called “shock”, even though there was no electricity involved. I was having such a good time I said, “Can we do the dishes together again sometime, Ma?”

It was a long time before I ever did dishes again. That’s another of those things that made that first time with mom doing dishes so special.

Love,
Michael Patterson

At least it's Friday, foax. MayB we'll have only one more day of flashbackery. But it's hard 2 say. Tho I can say I M glad I wasn't around in those moldy, old days Mike has been telling us abt, eh?

Apes