Between ‘prissy clean’ and ‘post-tornado’

Sweet Talk

Contact Guinn

Smiley face

Contact Index columnist Guinn Sweet
at sweettalk@mineralwellsindex.com.

The Index welcomes comments. Inappropriate language or comments outside our standards will be removed.

comments powered by Disqus

January 14, 2013

Between ‘prissy clean’ and ‘post-tornado’

Anonymous Mineral Wells Index The Mineral Wells Index Mon Jan 14, 2013, 09:14 AM CST

By Guinn Sweet

“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house,” Proverbs:21:9, KJV

One of my least favorite chores, when I was a kid, was gathering the eggs from the nests in the hen house. As one might imagine, considering my reputation for mischief, and wasting time, this was a lonely activity. When I grabbed the egg basket and started for the barn area, I was prevented from taking a book to read or anything else that would tend to take my mind off my duties. The job was not finished until all the eggs were gathered and placed in the egg crate behind the kitchen door. First, however, I was expected to spend a bit of time in the cleaning process. It was while I was removing the chicken “doo” from each egg, that I often philosophized about a creature who fouled her own production, along with messing up her personal environment. The hen just goes on about her “business,” stepping in it and then leaving a lot for others to step in, too.

It was not until years later however, when I was an adult and a homemaker, that I began to understand, somewhat, the chicken mind-set. As a young mother and keeper of the house, I found myself more interested in reading, eating or entertaining friends, than in carefully attending my home-making duties. Looking back, I can’t remember intentionally fouling my surroundings, or even doing naughty to my nest. I just adopted an attitude over the years that someone else would come along and tidy up the place. I was counting on my own personal “egg gatherer” to help me out!

One notable Sunday afternoon, a couple of deacons and their wives from a nearby Baptist church, paid us a visit to invite us to visit their church the next week. Still wearing my jammies and robe, I invited them in to our newspaper-strewn living room. Colon began flitting around the room, picking up papers and apologizing for the state of disarray (he simply called it a “mess”) to my chagrin. When the visitors shortened their visit a good deal and left, I started to tell him that he would NEVER apologize for my housekeeping again … and he quietly and sternly told me that he surely hoped not. I got the message!

Somewhere along the line, we were able to find a meeting place between “prissy clean” and “post-tornado,” for the living room, only! But I was never fully able to focus on having a house that looked better than it felt. I may have even been the originator of the “lived-in” look in home maintenance and care. I have honed, to a keen edge, the art of closet jamming and I hold the speed record for doing so. The Guiness (Guinn-ness?” Book of Records has yet to recognize it.

I can toss three pairs of shoes, a banana peel, this morning’s coffee cups and a two-day-old plate of macaroni and cheese into a closet and have the door closed while unexpected guests are walking from their car to the front door. I have loaded the dishwasher with dishes from breakfast and lunch, as yet not scraped clean, into one already loaded with last night’s dinner things which may be washed. I am not sure of the time record for that, because the noise of the silverware’s crashing together may have distracted my timing sense. Similar things happen in the bathroom. With clothes hamper running over, a good place to put the surplus laundry is in the dryer. It can always be taken out and washed later. Please understand, I do all of this in the interest of pleasing my husband. I don’t want to upset him.

Back to the hen, I have discovered, over the years, that there is no egg gatherer for me, and that I have to clean up my own messes eventually. Unless my hyper-active daughter shows up and finds the above results of my tidying up and spends most of her time with me, cleaning up and misplacing almost everything she touches. Her intention, she says, is to place everything “in good order and convenient for use”.

In spite of my wanting to be a “brawling woman, living in a wide house”, I have come to be living in a narrow house (manufactured home, they call it). The shortness of a hen’s life is so much simpler than mine …and she can “fowl” it up as much as she likes.

Text Only

Sweet Talk

Word from the Sweet Talker
I understand that my most avid followers have been contacting the Index regarding my present whereabouts, my reason for dropping out of literary presence, temporarily, and when I might reappear.

May 20, 2013
Reminiscing on columns
The older I get, the more reminiscent I become … and I think that is the normal process of memory when we pile it up behind us. This is the nineteenth year of my writing a series of weekly columns, articles and travelogues for the Mineral Wells Index. I have observed the changing complex of reporting, beginning with my old original typewriter and continuing through the electric typewriter, the word processor and, now, I have worn out three or four computers. Since the latest one is nearly eight years old, I can see ahead to being forced to advance to a new one, an iPod or even becoming a “texter” on a little bitty hand-held thingy.

February 2, 2013
Longing to Quench a Spiritual Thirst
“Blessed is the (wo)man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are thy ways, who going through the vale of misery use it for a well … they will go from strength to strength”

January 28, 2013
Sweet Talk: Guinn’s Guns
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,” states the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has ruled that this right is not limited to a connection with an organized state militia.

January 19, 2013
Between ‘prissy clean’ and ‘post-tornado’
“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house,” Proverbs:21:9, KJV

January 14, 2013
Sweet Talk
When I was a great deal younger, the only things that talked back to you were your children. Nowadays, every toy, stranger, automobile and kitchen utensil has something to convey to anyone who listens and others who would rather have quiet. The world is seething with idle conversation, insults and instructions, be it desired or not. Some of these things I invite into my life; some are intrusive and unwanted. Some are complete surprises, yet are talking to me as if I were an idiot cousin, come for an extended visit.

January 6, 2013
SWEET TALK: What would you title this?
A long time ago, English poet, Thomas Moore wrote, “Oft in the stilly night, ere slumber’s chain has bound me, fond memory brings the light of other days around me.”

December 23, 2012
Of Payback and Coast Fishin’
“Break forth into joy, sing together…for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem” (Isaiah 52:8, kjv)
Colon fell this morning.

December 17, 2012
The Lord provides words, strength when needed most
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9, Holy Bible, KJV.

December 10, 2012
Stan Musial was truly a hit with my father
“But he ‘his musical finesse was such, so good his{eye} ear, so delicate his {swing}touch made poetry a mere mechanic art; and every warbler has his tune by heart.” – William Cowper.

November 26, 2012
More Sweet Talk Headlines

Sweet Talk

Search Results

Contact Guinn

The Index welcomes comments. Inappropriate language or comments outside our standards will be removed.

Between ‘prissy clean’ and ‘post-tornado’

Site Map