The storm came and went, but she left behind evergreen branches, pine needles, and wind swept rhododendron bushes. I was glad I had hired a landscaping company! It will be up to them to clean up the mess. It wasn’t always like that though. My husband and myself cleaned up our one-half acre no matter what storm damage did to our yard. After he died and years were added, I decided to take a hunk of my money and have these men clean up my yard. The only problem I have is looking at the mess for nearly two weeks because that is when they are scheduled to come!

I was thinking about how cleaning used to be when I was a little girl. The whole family was involved whether we wanted to be or not. The oder of full strength lysol I can still smell when I think of cleaning week at home. But like so many oldsters, the mundane memories are good for me. Why? Because we were a family doing what families do best. We worked side by side toward a common goal. Whether it be spring cleaning, or surviving the great depression, we did it together.

I remember spring cleaning, a time when Mom was a sort of boss. She took quiet pride in her ability to manage all the jobs that must be done and keep the family comfortable and well fed at the same time. The worst job in spring was taking down the wood burning stoves. They had to be taken down in order to take the carpets out to the clothesline to be spanked, and spanked they were. I remember that was one of the jobs my brother and I had. But first the whole family was involved in taking the wood stove down. Father carefully took the stove pipe down. No matter how careful he was some of the dirty, black soot landed on all of us! Oh, how we hated that, but our work wasn’t finished yet. We had to carry that big stove outside where it was polished until it looked like new. That was Mom’s orders!

After we had oiled the woodwork and vinegared the windows the cleaning was done. We stood in the middle of the living room and looked around. It looked like a new room, even with the old furniture and curtains and we were all proud because we had done all the work together. Then Dad would wind up the phonograph and we enjoyed the music as we munched on popcorn.

Some things don’t change. I was happy to see that this past weekend when my daughter took me to the Washington State Fair. I almost waited to see Jeanne Crain and Dick Haymes come walking down the fairway and the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein drifting through the air. “State Fair”has always been one of my favorite movies and though it depicts a period long gone from today, the Washington State fair is not much different from that movie.

I was there to watch my youngest grandchild, Megan, and her dog, Cargo, try to win
Grand Champion in the state 4H competition. They had won the Champion award at the Clark County Fair recently. There were three groups of kids in the Intermediate class trying for the top award in the state and many were ready to go into the Junior class. Megan was only ten years old and didn’t win but she said, “Just wait until next year!” I was proud of her and I’m sure she will be back.

There were the usual livestock competitions going on. I didn’t see any big pigs like the ones Pa had in the movie. I did see the Woman’s jars and jars of canned produce and their needlework much like Ma’s entries in”State Fair” though.

Then there were the rides. The ones in the movie were much tamer than the ones I saw that day. Whew! I wouldn’t want to ride on any of them. I think the rides have become almost horror chambers. Who in the world would want to get in any of them! But there seemed to be riders in all of them! Maybe I’m just getting old.

There is one thing that was very different in the movie. The sun was shining or the moon was casting a glow upon young lovers there. It wasn’t like that in my visit to the State fair. We had several cloud bursts of rain when we got very wet. But then the sun would come out and the crowds came out too. During the rain people stayed inside the competition rooms as much as they could.

I was glad that Megan was showing her showmanship at the fair that day because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gone otherwise. It was good to see state fairs haven’t changed from the 50’s when the movie State Fair was new. Everything else seems to have changed. In this day of high technology kids are having a hard time lifting their heads from the games they are playing on their tablets or the TV. Thank God for 4H where kids are taught things like how to train their livestock, crochet of knit or even how to can their foods. I think all kids should join 4H, don’t you? I’m glad Megan did