Worse than turning into our parents

[Walt34]

Many many decades ago as a young lad of perhaps 14, I remember my grandmother, who was partially disabled because of diabetes, complaining that she wasn't able to keep the house as clean as she would like. My grandfather did step up to the plate and help, but his efforts did not meet her standards. (I always thought the place was immaculate by any standard but what did I know.) And chief among Grandma's complaints was "He doesn't even see it!"

Today I made one of my signature salads that has lots of ingredients and since it's a lot of work (by my standards for food prep anyway) I make a lot of it and put it in one of those giant-size Tupperware bowls, the biggest one they sell, and we can eat off it for about a week. Then of course I cleaned up, or so I thought.

Later I hear the canister vacuum going for a longish time (I hate that thing because it's so noisy) and then later asked her what was she was vacuuming so diligently. Her response was the kitchen floor, cleaning up bits of celery, carrots, and whatnot from the salad-making. I honestly didn't see anything on the floor. Granted I didn't get on my hands and knees with a magnifying glass and closely inspect every square inch.

Then it occurred to me.

OMG! We're turning into our grandparents!

 

[Montecfo]

Hands and knees? Of course not, why would you?

And if you later saw some you had missed you would probably then pick that up too. Just common sense.

When I am cooking, which I do a lot of, DW notices I prepare some foods differently than she does or perhaps would prefer. I do not have a "dice" setting, I just "chop".

I just say I am making "cowboy" stew for example. Because you know, who has time to cut everything up into tiny pieces "out here"?

But I do appreciate DWs meticulous cleaning. If it were left to me, the house would slowly begin to look like a barn I'm afraid, especially since the sound of vacuum hurts my ears also.

 

[aja8888]

Our dog takes care of what hits the floor food-wise.

 

[Ronstar]

I was looking at my hands a few days ago thinking how much they looked like my grandfather's when I was a kid. Crepey skin, age spots, etc. Then I realized that I'm at the age now that my grandfather was then. So I guess that it makes sense.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I was looking at my hands a few days ago thinking how much they looked like my grandfather's when I was a kid. Crepey skin, age spots, etc. Then I realized that I'm at the age now that my grandfather was then. So I guess that it makes sense.

I’ve had that exact thought about my hands looking like my dads. For some reason that has reminded me of growing older and looking like my parents as much as anything. Well, that and growing hair in my ears and nostrils.

 

[Amethyst]

Regularly applying lemon juice fades the hand spots. My Mom taught me that, decades before I ever needed it - she got it from some beauty book, and it works. Men can do it too. Just rub a cut lemon on the spots and you can almost watch them fade. Do it once a week.

 

[MBAustin]

Get her one of these Shark Ion F80. Quiet, cordless, gets under the cabinets easily. Makes vacuuming almost fun. Highly recommended.

 

[WyomingLife]

This is a sweet and endearing thread. It makes me melancholy, maybe even blue. @Walt34, thank you for starting it.

So I'm from a long line of dirt farmers essentially, all of whom would easily have surpassed me by all relevant measures (personal, social, professional, economic, you name it). So while I'm hopeful I'm morphing into my parents and grandparents, truth is I'm letting them down. I'd have made a really crummy dirt farmer in the day.

Anyway, I quite enjoy aging. It doesn't bother me in the least.

My parents are deceased, along with everybody in their generation. I'm alone. I'm next up on the bubble of existence and mortality in my lineage, if you will.

I do remember Mom saying the following though: "It isn't fun getting old, but if you had the chance to live your life all over again, would you?" The context to that quote is reliving all of the challenging times of life: middle school, the first job, trying to find a life partner, surviving in the work force, job loss, death, you name it. Mom was a survivor of the Great Depression and WWII. That generation lived through a lot of hardship.

So I think I'd rather age than magically live my life all over again.

That always stuck with me.

 

[jollystomper]

Hands and knees? Of course not, why would you?

This gave me a chuckle because I what I just completed. A couple of days ago I was rearranging our "cleaning supplies" area to make room for new wipes we bought and found an old bottle of "Awesome" cleaner (one of those "as seen on TV" items). I have no idea how long we had it, probably at least 10 years. From grins, to see if it was any good, I tested in our our finished basement floor with a scrub brush... and the result was embarrassing -I had forgotten how light the floor was when we installed it . It did a much better job than the Swiffer we used to clean the floor.

So... over the next several days, a couple of hours at a time, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. I never knew my grandparents, but I saw both my parents do this, so I have turned into them .

But... it is good to see the results of one's labor. Any embarrassment over turning into my parents is outweighed by seeing the now shiny, clean floor.

 

[Amethyst]

I've been scrubbing floors on hands and knees since my first house! It never occurred to me that this was something only ancestors did

Depending on Swiffers to keep the floor clean (and never scrubbing) is about like bathing with baby wipes and never taking a shower

It did a much better job than the Swiffer we used to clean the floor.

So... over the next several days, a couple of hours at a time, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. .

 

[Amethyst]

I've often thought about living my life again, knowing what I know now. About the only thing I could have done better, given the identical circumstances, would have been to throw my small savings into the market early in life (e.g. buying Microsoft and Apple). And remember, when you were a kid there wasn't any Internet, and you'd have to go back to going to the library, Yellow Pages, calling a broker etc. every time you wanted something.

This is a sweet and endearing thread. It makes me melancholy, maybe even blue. @Walt34, thank you for starting it.

So I'm from a long line of dirt farmers essentially, all of whom would easily have surpassed me by all relevant measures (personal, social, professional, economic, you name it). So while I'm hopeful I'm morphing into my parents and grandparents, truth is I'm letting them down. I'd have made a really crummy dirt farmer in the day.

Anyway, I quite enjoy aging. It doesn't bother me in the least.

My parents are deceased, along with everybody in their generation. I'm alone. I'm next up on the bubble of existence and mortality in my lineage, if you will.

I do remember Mom saying the following though: "It isn't fun getting old, but if you had the chance to live your life all over again, would you?" The context to that quote is reliving all of the challenging times of life: middle school, the first job, trying to find a life partner, surviving in the work force, job loss, death, you name it. Mom was a survivor of the Great Depression and WWII. That generation lived through a lot of hardship.

So I think I'd rather age than magically live my life all over again.

That always stuck with me.

 

[Amethyst]

Lemon Juice questions

I've gotten a couple questions about lemon juice, but my inbox was full and I could not send my replies.

1. I use the lemon on my hands and husband's hands once a week. Citric acid is a mild bleach that fades the surface spots. The underlying sun damage is still there, and will re-emerge, especially if you don't use sunscreen on your hands.

2. I imagine it can fade freckles anywhere on the body or face, although I've never used it anywhere but on the hands. I suspect my facial skin would be too sensitive, though.

3. Yes, lime juice should work, but aren't you supposed to save it to put in the coconut and drink them all together?

Regularly applying lemon juice fades the hand spots. My Mom taught me that, decades before I ever needed it - she got it from some beauty book, and it works. Men can do it too. Just rub a cut lemon on the spots and you can almost watch them fade. Do it once a week.

 

[CardsFan]

Our dog takes care of what hits the floor food-wise.

Same here. When ever one of us does food prep, the dog will sit there waiting for something to drop (and sometimes we will drop some on purpose)

 

[Nemo2]

We've been at our current location for 11 years, so if there's food on the floor we figure it's ours and pick it up and eat it.

 

[donheff]

People have different levels of tolerance to messes in their environment. I don't think it's fair for neat freaks to impose their obsessions on those around them although it seems fair to demand a modicum of cleanliness from your spouse or roommates. As long as the partner who has the highest standards simply follows up without hectoring like OP's spouse (and mine) all is well.

 

[jollystomper]

3. Yes, lime juice should work, but aren't you supposed to save it to put in the coconut and drink them all together?

At least then you feel better.

 

[spncity]

Forgot the name of the comedienne who said:

"I was told you can eat of off her floor! So, what's the big deal? You can eat off of my floor, too. There are dozens of choices!"

 

[Dtail]

We've been at our current location for 11 years, so if there's food on the floor we figure it's ours and pick it up and eat it.

Now there is a stretch of the 5 second rule.

 

[Nemo2]

Now there is a stretch of the 5 second rule.

“There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.”

― Martin Luther

 

[pacergal]

Yep, I look at my hands and see my Grandmas hands.

 

[Midpack]

Our dog takes care of what hits the floor food-wise.

Our dogs rarely let food even hit the floor, anything we dropped they’d catch midair, at least when they were adolescents.

 

[aja8888]

Our dogs rarely let food even hit the floor, anything we dropped they’d catch midair, at least when they were adolescents.

 

[OldShooter]

Our dog takes care of what hits the floor food-wise.

Yes. We have taught her a command for that: "Dog for cleanup!" When she hears that she comes barrelling at full speed. It is, unsuprisingly, not hard to teach as the reward is built in.

 

[GLM]

Takes me back to when I was a kid. One of the chores my Mom had me do was vacuum. I never did it to her liking. I would do it over and still miss spots she could see and I could not. I would get down on my hands and knees to see it and she got mad thinking I was being sassy. There was a lot of frustration and yelling.

When I got glasses at age 13 ( After finally convincing my Dad I needed them when I could not see the stars ) I finally vacuumed to my mom's satisfaction. When I pointed that out to Mom she said nothing.

My Math grades were all "A's" after that too. When I missed problems before glasses it was because I copied the work off the black board wrong. Right math wrong problem.....

 

[drcha]

I thought my parents were so strict. They were stricter than anyone's parents I knew. In high school, they would not let me stay out late and they always wanted to know where I was at all times, day and night. There were several places my friends were allowed to go that I was not. One example was the local ice skating rink, a notorious pick-up spot. As I got older, I probably went some places I did not tell them about. The funny thing is, if I had a young daughter right now, I probably would not let her do even half the things I was allowed to do then! So now, I believe they were not strict enough.

I was in my 20s before my parents told me the real story of how they met in the 1940s, not the cooked up one. They were at the same dance. My mom had come with some other man, but my dad asked her to dance, then enticed her away by telling her he had a bottle of booze in his car. So she blew off her date and went to sit in the parking lot in the car of this strange man, drinking! Truth is, that is something I never would have done--I know better! So they didn't practice what she preached, and probably did not think I needed to know all that until I was good and grown up. I was a little pissed off when I finally heard the story, but you can only get so mad when you realize that if all that had not happened that way, you wouldn't even exist