Inside: Today’s post is dedicated to my new friend Calen from Impromptu Promptlings. I met her during the A – Z Blogging Challenge, lured to her blog because of a shared love of classic television, and she’s been so supportive of this website since then. I’ve become a fan of her writing and taste in poetry–another shared love. So, Calen, here is one of my favorites, “Wash Day in the Midwest,” written more than a handful of years ago. Hope you enjoy it!
Wash Day in the Midwest
The corn wilts and puckers,
waiting to get its feet wet
in the playground of grasshoppers
as cows collect
beneath the coffeenut tree.
The dog doesn’t bother to get up.
It’s hot dry August in the Midwest,
where people assemble
in the frozen foods section to complain.
“Hottest day of the year,” one says.
“If it weren’t for the humidity!” says another.
And somewhere,
from the back door of a hundred years ago,
behind the old farmhouse
Great-Grandma gathers her skirts
’round the washboard and tub,
takes up her fight against several days’ dirt
and laughs out loud.
“They’ve all gone soft,” she says.
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calensariel
😀 Those gals were made of much sterner stuff that me! Love this!
And somewhere,
from the back door of a hundred years ago,
behind the old farmhouse
Great-Grandma gathers her skirts
’round the washboard and tub,
takes up her fight against several days’ dirt
and laughs out loud.
“They’ve all gone soft,” she says.
That’s a very titillating line of thought. I wonder if there’s a story there… Thank you, Amy! That was great! could picture it all. 😀
amy@amyharkemoore.com
Thanks, Calen. 🙂 Glad you like it. . . As to a story, I don’t know. I don’t remember how I came up with the last part. Just that I thought how wimpy we would seem to those hardy women of the past. They probably would have thought they died and went to heaven to be able to use a washing machine and dryer, and here most of us complain and say, “I gotta do a load of laundry” like it’s some strenuous task.
calensariel
I AM guilty of thinking it’s a pain-in-the-keister job, but there’s not a wash day goes by I don’t thank God for our 45-year-old washer and dryer set! 😀 Yep. They’re the originals we bought when we got married.. We’ve gotten really good at fixing them because we’re still of that generation that thought as long as it could be fixed it should be. You know, before the whole disposable crowd showed up. 😉
amy@amyharkemoore.com
That’s so cool! Hubs does a lot of repairs on our appliances and furnace, too, and I hate throwing out perfectly good things that could easily be fixed if you could get parts or take it to someone. You know, sometimes I think this generation thinks they are the ones who discovered making things last and “repurposing.” I’m sure you remember, as I do, carrying cartons of soda bottles in to the store to get the deposit back. 🙂
calensariel
Yeah, and then go buy penny candy with the change at the drug store! 😀
amy@amyharkemoore.com
Yes! Exactly! 🙂