The full bloom of Spring crept up on us this weekend. After several days of dreary rain and cold, we got three glorious days of full sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s.
This forced even the reluctant trees to bud out. Oaks and hickories are showing life where only 96 hours ago, branches were bare and shivering. It's high time to fire up the lawn mower, but the threat of dust and pollen blowing into my nearly healed eyes made me think twice. The first mow is a tedious task. Raking and clearing so the lawn can spring forth in health makes a long day of yard work.
I did five loads of laundry yesterday. I was told by Mom to take it easy for a few days after surgery. Fine. That's advice I'll take every time. But the daily chores, like time and tide wait for no man and I was down to two pairs of socks and two pair of skivvies to make the week. Something had to give.
Doing laundry is not one of the chores I dread like shovellibng the driveway or mowing the lawn. I understand that laundry was once an all day affair involving wash tubs, scrub boards, bars of Fels Naptha soap and a hand turned wringer. Those days have been gone for quite a while. Except at Uncle Alex's house.
Uncle Alex was the prototypical Scotsman. Those with generous souls would have called him 'thrifty', Others would cut to the chase and call him cheap. When he died in 2001, Pop and I went to his house to clean up and discover any last will and testament he might have squirreled away. I found his tuxedo collection. Alex was a big wheel in every Masonic organization known and as such he had to wear a tuxedo regularly. I found the pockets of the jackets and trousers stuffed with packets of artificial sweetener, butterscotch candies, saltine crackers and paper napkins.
Alex had bought a new washing machine for his wife, my Aunt Helen. This was when Helen was 93 years old. Of course Alex bought a brand new wringer washing machine. He had plastic clad cables strung along the ceiling joists in his basement to serve as drying lines during inclement weather.
And a ninety plus year old woman served as a washer woman for him.
Thrifty? Nah! Alex was just cheap.
