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FACTS, HEARSAY AND MEMORIES - Page 17 Spring was the time for herrings and men other than our regular fish peddlers probably saw a chance to put a few dollars into their pockets nearly empty by slack work in winter. They caught the herring, salted them and put them on a stick. The stick punched through the sightless eyes was repulsive to me, but we always had a stick hanging in the crib. Herring to my mother was the choicest of foods and she said that nothing refreshed her so much after a hard day of spring house cleaning as a hot cup of tea and a herring. I remember that we had some bone dishes given us and eating herring with the fingers was permissible, my mother always tore up some pieces of old cotton cloth, wet them and placed one in each dish to wipe our fingers on. Since I have mentioned spring cleaning I may as well describe it as it is never done now quite the same way. Of course some of it is no longer necessary as furnishings and equipment are so different. The pantry or closet as we usually called it was cleaned as soon as the weather was mild enough as it was on the west side. Another necessity was selecting a day when Jerusha could come. I don't know how old she was, but I think she must have been nearly eighty. She was toothless with white hair always combed neatly with little spit curls about her face. She was the cleanest person I ever saw and I can see her now in a blue checked starched apron when she arrived. My father usually tried to go for her. She was a widow, and lived alone at Booth's corner in the north end of the house now owned by Mr. Wilde. Her last name was Howland. Her son Emerson lived down near the river in the house now owned by the Brayton's. Emerson was just as neat as his mother, and I have been told that when carpenters came to shingle his house, when they returned each morning there was no sign that they had been there the previous day. Emerson had picked up every single and raked the grass of every sliver. Well, to return each dish was brought out of the closet and it was a great treat if I was allowed to help carry out some of the choicest and least used pieces. Usually by night when we returned from school everything was back with glass shining and fresh paper on the shelves which along with drawers and cupboards had been scrubbed by Jerusha. When it came to bedrooms a sunny day was essential as all feather beds and pillows had to be sunned and aired. In the bedrooms and living rooms all carpets were taken up. Mabel and I liked to take out a few tacks in the morning, but they came out very hard and interest soon waned. Carpets were hung on the clothes line and beaten with a carriage whip, or better a flat beater made of rattan. Then they were dragged on the grass. Several children could assist in dragging. One child would sometimes jump on, fun for her, but not the ones who were dragging. When it came to putting them down during the taking process, if it were the light weight English carpeting so called, my mother put on her rubbers and scuffed the carpet to make it very taut as a loose carpet was very unsatisfactory. Fires smoked up ceilings and it was necessary to get a man to whitewash, which was the common way to freshen the ceilings. Stoves had to be taken down, ashes removed, stoves blackened and carried away to closets and covered with old red tablecloths or blankets. They heavy coal stove was a different matter. We had several rollers to avoid too much lifting but even so it was usually necessary to call in a neighbor or two for taking down the stove, and also in the fall for putting it up. Then the chimney must be taken out and cleaned. If papering had to be done it was customary to save the cost of paying the paper hanger by the family removing the old paper. If you could pull off a fair sized piece it was fun, but some came off in inch pieces by the aid of a steel kitchen knife. No prepared paste-my mother always made a huge pan of flour and water paste from flour kept from the scrapings of the flour barrel. When the spring cleaning was over everyone concerned was very thankful. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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