musing on my childhood

Saturday’s at our house had a special routine. Only upset by the event of inclement weather.  Housework was not called chores, but work, and before you could go out and do anything you had to do your work. The jobs would alternate between my sister who was three years older and I.  The sister who was eight years older was out of the equation before I was in.  My sister and I would alternate weeks between who did the upstairs and who did the downstairs.  Of course the various seasons could add on more jobs, more work. Snow removal, leaf raking, garden planting.  There was also laundry; doing the wash, hanging the wash, and ironing. It’s no wonder decades later I still dislike “housework”. The upstairs had the bedrooms with the vacuuming, changing sheets,dusting and cleaning in general.  Lest I bore you, use your imaginations, housework is pretty much the same for everyone, everywhere..  Suffice it to say all the rooms got cleaned.  The one good thing about the inclement weather was we could then watch television in the afternoon.  I remember when there was no television, and when we finally bought one.  It was small and brown, with a black and white picture. My dad quickly gave it the nickname of “the idiot box”.  The idiot box had Saturday morning cartoons like Mighty Mouse.  Shows such a Fury which I loved because I was a tomboy and also horse crazy. I also loved Sky King .   We had a limit on how much we could watch and we always wanted to catch The Million Dollar Movie, so would forfit other time when it had a special movie we liked. Two of my favorites were Mighty Joe Young and King Kong. Stories of Giant Apes, tamed by woman. Looking back I pause at the symbolism there, *chuckle*. These were both amazing  pre 1950 movies .  My son found this little ape in the picture  and thought it would look good in our garden ,so here he sits and I smile and reminisce about my 1950’s childhood everytime I see him. Although we worked hard as children, it taught me not to fear hard work,and helped me face the life I’ve lived. Another memory I can see now as the gift of a lesson. in life.

• Posted in: about me ♦ bluesage
• Tagged: 1950, childhood, family, hardwork, housework, lessons, memory, movies, musing