Doing the dishes was a nightly task in my childhood home and one that my siblings and I argued over each evening. Who would clear the table? Who would wash the dishes? Rinse them? Dry them? Put them away?
I was the youngest of four children, so I likely was cut some slack. Still, I was eager to be like “the big kids” and help out. My siblings were eager to delegate the tasks — until I dropped a plate, and Mom would not-so-nicely blame it on them.
Mom would often say she didn’t need one of those newfangled dishwashers. She had four of them, and we were better than any Whirlpool. We were faster. The dishes were cleaner. And we used less water and no electricity.
Mom was the inspector. If any food residue was still on the dishes, they went back through the cycle — and none of us wanted to be blamed for that. So we scrubbed, and we rinsed, and we dried, and we put away.
Doing dishes with Dad was easier. We would wash the dishes and then set them on the counter on a drying rack. “We will let Jesus dry those,” he would say with a chuckle.
Looking back, I am glad we did the dishes by hand. We learned to actually talk to each other, not only sorting out tasks but actually having discussions. We learned how to work together quickly, efficiently and in an orderly manner. We would listen to music sometimes, but we would usually just talk. There was a lot of joking around, laughing and storytelling. It was mostly silly stuff, as I recall, but it was important then.
Jolene and I had a similar process with our kids at home, filling the dishwasher after each meal. The dreaded task was clearing the dishwasher, especially when learning it was full of clean dishes when you were ready to load the dirty ones in. When all our kids were home, the dishwasher seemed to run daily. Now, it may run once a week.
Dishwashing today is a different process for a different era, and it just isn’t the same as leaning over the sink, shoulder to shoulder, trading out wet towels. I am reminded of this process as the holidays approach and we hand-wash the “fancy” dishes — and I am actually looking forward to it.
Have a fantastic Friday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital editions
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707