Cleaning Windows Grandma"s Way
We lived in a large one-story Craftsman in a small town in Oklahoma during the sixties. There were six of us including my mom and three brothers and my Grandma. It was better than the famed Mayberry you all watched on TV. Oh what a life that was!
My mom worked, my brothers and I went to school and Grandma ran the house. The rest of my life I have looked back and wondered how Grandma DID run the house in her dresses and apron because that was how I wanted my house to be. We had a home where everything was always clean, orderly, comfortable and friendly. Our chores were bed-making, taking out trash and supper dishes. There were always fresh cookies in the jar and clean rags in a bag on the basement door to quickly clean any mess that might happen. Breakfast at 7, sack lunches, supper at 5. Grandma kept up with eight soap operas during the day and could usually be found sitting in her upholstered rocker nursing a fresh cup of coffee.
Needless to say, the summers were sweltering and the winters a little brutal. The good news is that our house was never too hot nor too cold and had plenty of sunlight! That, of course, thanks to Grandma! Every fall and every spring the tall, double-hung windows got a good shining with vinegar water in a bucket, a squeegy and newspaper wads. Beautiful! I do not remember seeing any bottles of window cleaner in the house, just the vinegar. Our street was an arterial through the town and we received a lot of the road grime in addition to the dirt from an occasional dusty storm, but the recipe cut through it all - right down to the sparkle. At the same time, the interior and exterior window sills got the same treatment leaving them smooth and squeaky clean.
Then, the outer windows were switched out.
Now, the switching out was truly a job. There were screens for the summer and framed glass windows for the winter, which gave us an actual double window. These were one piece windows hung from the top, which also had to be cleaned yearly. I never saw her change them or even clean the windows. I never saw the ladder out or the bucket. She never hinted her plans, asked for help or complained of being tired. We were busy being teenagers. She did not know I was watching what she did when she was home alone.
She was about 60 during that time.
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My mom worked, my brothers and I went to school and Grandma ran the house. The rest of my life I have looked back and wondered how Grandma DID run the house in her dresses and apron because that was how I wanted my house to be. We had a home where everything was always clean, orderly, comfortable and friendly. Our chores were bed-making, taking out trash and supper dishes. There were always fresh cookies in the jar and clean rags in a bag on the basement door to quickly clean any mess that might happen. Breakfast at 7, sack lunches, supper at 5. Grandma kept up with eight soap operas during the day and could usually be found sitting in her upholstered rocker nursing a fresh cup of coffee.
Needless to say, the summers were sweltering and the winters a little brutal. The good news is that our house was never too hot nor too cold and had plenty of sunlight! That, of course, thanks to Grandma! Every fall and every spring the tall, double-hung windows got a good shining with vinegar water in a bucket, a squeegy and newspaper wads. Beautiful! I do not remember seeing any bottles of window cleaner in the house, just the vinegar. Our street was an arterial through the town and we received a lot of the road grime in addition to the dirt from an occasional dusty storm, but the recipe cut through it all - right down to the sparkle. At the same time, the interior and exterior window sills got the same treatment leaving them smooth and squeaky clean.
Then, the outer windows were switched out.
Now, the switching out was truly a job. There were screens for the summer and framed glass windows for the winter, which gave us an actual double window. These were one piece windows hung from the top, which also had to be cleaned yearly. I never saw her change them or even clean the windows. I never saw the ladder out or the bucket. She never hinted her plans, asked for help or complained of being tired. We were busy being teenagers. She did not know I was watching what she did when she was home alone.
She was about 60 during that time.
http://www.greencarpetcleaningspokane.com/common-questions
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