When Saturday dawned at home on the farm, we didn’t even have to ask what was on the agenda for the day.
Cartoons? No. I really don’t remember watching cartoons at all. In fact, at one time my siblings and I could pick one half hour of television to watch in the day. 30 minutes. That’s all. Do you remember Sunday night’s Disney Family Movies? We watched the first half hour of those movies and then taped (as on VHS) the rest to watch in half hour segments the rest of the week. We had a library of VHS tapes of movies with the first 30 minutes missing.
. . . I’m laughing right now . . .
. . . we really did that . . .
Okay, back to Saturday’s agenda . . .
Sleeping in? Did you read Day 6: Chores in the Dark? Chores done by 8 a.m. Every day. Even Saturdays.
Friends over? Possibly. When chores were done. Often, I think our friends showed up to help just so we could get done faster. I remember friends helping pick, clean, and freeze beans one day. They had come to swim, but we weren’t done with beans. We finally made it to the pool after an entire morning and afternoon spent in the garden. Wow! I was blessed with good friends.
House cleaning? Absolutely!
Every Saturday, the house was cleaned top to bottom. It was a chore we didn’t worry about during the week, but on Saturday it was all hands on deck, except for my dad and later my brother and sometimes me. If Dad asked for help outside I was out the door before my mom could yell, “After she cleans the house!”
We dusted . . . everything. We swept, vacuumed and mopped floors. Mopped them because Swiffers had not been invented yet. Can you imagine? Swiffer wasn’t even part of our cleaning vocabulary. How would I keep my wood floors clean without a Swiffer?!
We picked up, sorted farm magazines, emptied trash cans, rearranged shelves, did laundry and ironed.
And we did this all to a soundtrack. Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Loggins & Messina, Michael Jackson Thriller, Huey Lewis & the News. Mom controlled the record player. (Yes, I said record player. Remember this is the age of no Swiffer!)
With the music properly blaring throughout the house, we’d get to work. My sister and I swapped bathroom and backroom duty. Both rooms were the worst to clean. The bathroom because it was the bathroom and the backroom because that was the entrance to the house. Where we’d stomp our muddy, manure-y boots, shed dusty coveralls and shake dirt from our gloves and hats. Cleaning that one room, equaled cleaning two rooms in the house.
This morning, my fairy farm princess has Kidz Bop blaring on her karaoke machine with Swiffer firmly in hand and is twirling around the kitchen. The washing machine is rumbling, one bathroom is already sparkling and a pile of ironing is waiting.
Saturday’s are for housecleaning. I’d better get back to it.
Read more 30 Days of Farm Girl Memories
- Kick-off
- Day 1: Surprise Kittens
- Day 2: The Men in My Life
- Day 3: Small Town Saturday Night
- Day 4: “Fall”ing in Love
- Day 5: A Bag of Caramels
- Day 6: Chores in the Dark
- Day 7: Things My Mother Said
- Day 8: Munchy Cheese
And find other 30 Day bloggers starting with the one who got us into this – Holly Spangler from My Generation.
I am just loving reading your memories! Thanks for sharing these special reflections. Happy cleaning!
Thank you! We managed to clean the downstairs and finish the laundry. I’ll take that.
This is how our house was too – Saturday mornings were for cleaning! Brings a smile to my face just reading this, because it sounds quite familiar 🙂