TODAY'S MEMORY TEST

Do you know what a rag bag is?

I used the term recently to describe my mind, which seems to accumulate ideas, images, and questions as easily as a rag bag accumulates its fabric contents.



My house gets to this point before I clean.

And one of the ideas that came to me was this--how many of the things we did in our younger years have become obsolete? Run an eye over this list and see if you can remember when you last did one or more of these:


My favorite - Man Ironing

• Ironed a garment or household item
• Cooked a meal from scratch
• Washed the car @ home; cleaned it out
• Shoveled snow; mowed grass
• Cleaned the house
• Canned garden produce

I confess that only three of these are normal in my household. I press clothing, cloth napkins, tablecloths, and placemats--cook most meals from scratch, mainly because I like to cook--and I clean my own house (though I'd much rather hire someone else to do it!).


Looks fun, right?

 

Every fall I help my daughter home can produce from her garden. She grows it, picks it, and has it all ready for us to work on when I arrive at her house. All the work takes place in her kitchen, using her hot water canner or pressure canner. I'm there mainly for company--her husband hates to work in the food preservation department, and I'm an expert on washing jars, sterilizing lids, and tightening the metal rings. At the end of the day I go home, hot, tired, and talked out, but with a few jars of something yummy for my pantry (more will come my way at Christmas time). The joy of it all is,we've done a lot of work, put up all kinds of delicious things for winter consumption, and I didn't have to grow one iota of it! No back-breaking weeding, no swatting mosquitoes while I pick cucumbers in the early morning, no yelling at the dogs to quit eating the tomatoes.

Sometimes, this aging thing works in our favor--we get all the perks and don't have to do so much of the grunt work. I like that equation. A lot.

Back to the rag bag--it was a collection of clothing or household items like towels and old sheets, all of which has become too ragged, stained, or otherwise unsuitable for use as clothing or in the house.

I recall my mother and mother-in-law cut off buttons to be used later in mending and removed zippers that might find their way into some other garment.

The rag bag provided cloths for cleaning floors and furniture; washing the car, or the dog, or windows; wiping up oil spills, wiping hands that had grease on them from outdoor work with engines. In short, anything you needed to wipe up or clean up.

Does anybody have one now? (I do.) I couldn't find an illustration for a rag bag--they're all cutesy fashion totes to carry around--made out of rags, of course! My rag bag is a simple plastic shopping bag, hanging in a utility closet, stuffed with old towels, etc. Mostly etc. But they work as mentioned earlier. That's the main thing.

As for the other activities on my list, I confess: I pay somebody else to shovel snow, mow the grass, fertilize the lawn, and clean the car. I like to think I'm providing jobs for folks. As good an excuse as any, eh?

I NEVER have a smile on my face while cleaning the car.