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Edited on Tue Dec-21-04 08:37 AM by Padraig18
My dear Gran belongs to that generation of women who pride themselves in maintaining a spotless home. There is more than vanity to it, however, because Gran firmly believes as an article of faith that the reason that all but one of her 12 siblings lived to adulthood (her brother was killed in a farm accident) in an era when it was common for 1/3 of Irish children to die before their 5th birthday was due in large part to the fact the her mother also waged war on both dirt and lack of proper hygiene and sanitation. She may well have been right. Any way, on to today's 'battle report'...
Gran has reached the age when she quite literally doesn't want more 'stuff' for her birthday, Valentine's day, Christmas, etc.; she has enough robes, gowns, perfume and the like to fill multiple closets, were she not in the habit of giving them to other family members, friends and the St. Vincent de Paul Society's clothing bank. Knowing this, an idea came to Tony and I for a Christmas present for Gran when we visited her back in October: seeing a commercial on TV for Armstrong flooring, Tony mentioned that the linoleum in Gran's kitchen, bathroom and hallway seemed to be a bit 'long in the tooth' (late 50's/early 60's vintage), and that perhaps Gran would enjoy some new. I agreed, and after discussing it with my brothers, we approached Gran with the idea of replacing her lino and repainting the kitchen, hall and bathroom in whatever colors she chose to match her new floors. She was delighted with the idea, and my brother promised to take her to pick out the flooring and paint, which was done about 3 weeks ago.
Gran's new flooring was installed last Friday, and my brothers spent all day Saturday painting. Gran was delighted with the results. The flooring she chose was that no-wax Solarian stuff, the kind you just damp mop with clear water. Well, yesterday afternoon my brother and sister-in-law stopped in just to visit with Gran, and guess what they found? That's right--- Gran on hands and knees, bucket of scalding hot ammonia water, scrub brush in hand attacking her new 'no-wax' kitchen floor like she was battling the devil himself! Horrified, my brother said "No, Gran, you're not supposed to clean the floor that way--- you're supposed to only use clear water on it!", whereupon my Gran--- never missing a single brush stroke--- replied "Nonsense, Dary! Plain water can't clean anything but vegetables." . As Dary rolled his eyes, my sister-in-law giggled and wisely ran a bucket of clear rinse water, handed Dary some clean rags to dry with,and joined Gran on the floor.
By God, you can change the flooring, but you can't change my Gran!
:P
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