When I was growing up, my mom had a job working at the high school and every morning she’d leave me with my day’s “to do” list of chores. This included dusting (which was my absolute least favorite), vacuuming, organizing, taking trash out, sweeping, watering plants … you see the trend. They were pretty mindless jobs that kept a 12-year-old out of trouble for most of the day and I didn’t mind because I could listen to music and be in my own little world. And, I always felt like my life had purpose because mom put ME in charge of making lunch for my dad. I was so proud that he no longer had to eat grilled cheese sandwiches.

*Note: There’s nothing wrong with grilled cheese sandwiches, in fact, I love them. But dad would butter some bread, put it in the toaster, slap on a slice of cheese and then microwave it. Talk about mushy, soggy sandwiches!! He had it all wrong.

Now that I’m older, I wish my dad would’ve included me in more farm chores so I could’ve learned about the in’s and out’s of agriculture; but he was of the thought that it wasn’t safe to have girls on the farm or around the big equipment. Nonetheless, the chores I had kept me occupied without the television on, and even when I got in trouble for just dusting around the knick-knacks instead of removing all of them and THEN dusting, that was my purpose those few summers until I got a job.

Things were a little different for my grandfather when he was a boy. Listen to his story about some of HIS boyhood chores.

Until we walk again …