June 12, 2014. Ridgeland, Ms. Cleaning.

My mother always joked that she was not placed in this world to clean the house, but she did it anyway. And she cleaned cheerfully. But she was delighted the year both she and I had a housekeeper clean our apartments. That year of 1963, Ken was an intern and I was teaching so I hired a cleaning lady. She had been at college with my mother and she was retired and just enjoyed cleaning apartments, so once a week she came in the morning to clean our apartment and after lunch she went to clean my Mother’s apartment. Then she ate dinner and visited with Mother, before Mother drove her home. Mother loved it and so did I. I still recall the feeling of returning home to find a spanking clean home. It was like the story of the shoemakers fairy who repaired the shoes overnight. I left for work with a dirty house and returned with everything clean. It was like magic. I fell in love with house cleaners. Our condominium in Mississippi is small. Charming but small, so Ken and I have cleaned the place. Ken runs the vacuum and I clean the kitchen and bathroom. But we don’t clean at the same time so the whole place is never clean top to bottom. Today a cleaning service came to clean. We left at 10:00 to see houses and when we returned we were met with the most wonderful sight and smell. The whole place was clean. It was worth every penny.