January 14, 2013

Last night it was -3 degrees in Santa Fe. This
is a picture of our side yard a couple of years
ago when the ground was covered in snow.

I had a flashback last night to childhood times at my paternal grandparents' house in Bryan, TX. At some point they added on to the back of their smallish house that was built in the early 1940s by my grandfather and great-grandfather. The result was a big room with storage and a washing machine at one end and "the sleeping porch" on the other end. This is where my grandparents slept in twin beds. The top half of the walls had louvered windows that were cranked open during the summer and closed tight (or should it be tightly?) during the winter. When we would go to visit, my older brother and I took turns sleeping on the porch on a roll-away bed. In the sumer, the sounds crickets and owls were very soothing, and the freshly washed sheets that had dried on the outdoor clothesline smelled so fresh. In the winter, the sheets were flannel and my grandmother would get up several times during the night to pile quilts on me. By the morning it was almost impossible to move because there were so many quilts on top of me. That's how I felt last night. It was cold outside and in the house, but the bed was cozy and warm because I had hand-me-down quilts on top of me, just as when I was young and on my grandparents' sleeping porch.

My grandfather always got up at dawn so he could work in the vegetable garden or do other chores before work. Lots of times when he got up I'd move to my grandmother's bed to snuggle. It was wonderful in cold weather because she slept under an electric blanket. Remember those? She always pin curled the bottom of her hair before going to bed and put on a hair net. Remember those? When my grandfather was finished with the garden or other chores, he would come back in the house through the sleeping porch door and say, "Mama, it's time to get up." That was her clue to make breakfast while he showered and got dressed for work. Everyone in the house had to get up for breakfast, after which he read from the Bible and said a prayer. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I admire the simple life they enjoyed together!

Today I'm creating a clean kitchen. I loaded the dishwasher yesterday while I was cooking. I'm really good about cleaning as I cook. But as I was cooking yesterday, I noticed that it's time to clean the glass front cabinets. That's my project for this afternoon.