When I was a child....

......a half a century ago....(yikes!) ....my four sisters and I were not allowed to go outside to play on Saturdays until we had finished our chores. The first thing was to remove our linens off of our beds and start a load of laundry. Then we would write down the names of all the rooms in the house, living room, bathrooms, kitchen, bedroom and we would put them in a bowl and each pick one. I always wanted the living room. It's the easiest to clean. I mean, come on. You dust, you vacuum and straighten things and you're out the door. The kitchen and bathrooms were always the worst. Those two rooms required scrubbing, polishing, mopping, washing, and garbage....yuck. As soon as we had our assigned rooms we would put some records on the stereo....yes, records.....vinyl.....black.....round....flat....on the turntable. Our favorites were the soundtrack to The Westside Story, Julie London's Greatest Hits, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, and Roger Williams, the pianist, "Falling Leaves" being one of his best, and some Doo Wop tunes. Sometimes we would dance and sing for an hour before beginning the work. That part was the best. I can still see us standing in a line, like The Supremes, singing Baby Love.

Fifty years later, I'm still in the habit of cleaning house and doing laundry before going outside to....play. It's Sunday morning and my linens are in the wash, my bedroom has been vacuumed, dusted and the windows cleaned. I even cleaned the carpet. I just wouldn't feel right if I left the house without at least straightening things. Of course, there have been many times that I have done exactly that. But, when I come home to a dirty house I just don't feel right. I'm listening to Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman. All the windows are open, all the rooms are clean, all my clothes have been folded or hung and now it's time for a walk on the beach.

Life is good.