While doing the dusting (a chore I will
never enjoy), I began thinking about dusting my grandparents’ living
room when I was young.
Grandma would put us girls to work doing something to use up all of our energy that was getting on her nerves, I think.
In
the middle of my grandparents’ living room stood a long table; it had a
drawer in it and a shelf on the bottom. The large legs had rounded
feet. There was a lot to dust on that table.
It was what you might call their “entertainment center.”
The drawers had fancy pulls and, as I remember, it contained a magnifying glass, pencils and some writing paper.
It
held a stereograph in which you put heavy cardboard photo pairs. You’d
slide handle to focus the pictures and make them look three-dimensional.
There was a whole box of pictures.
We weren’t allowed to use it unless an adult was with us.
The
shelf at the bottom was always left clean for dusting, I suppose. The
top of the table had an ecru scarf that went the whole length of the
table with crocheted edging and a wide hem from which tassels hung, some
of Grandma’s handiwork. There was a matching on top of the piano in the
corner of the living room.
A Tiffany-type lamp sat in the middle
of the table and when you wanted to work at the table and needed room
it could be moved to one side, but grandma used it in the evening when
she would sit in her rocker side of the table and with the help of the
lamp do her sewing, needlework, mending or sometimes would read.
There
was also a hanging lamp in the ceiling that had three bulbs with glass
shades that if needed could be turned on for more light.
Grandfather
sat on the other side of the table next to the radio, which was against
the wall. It was a Stromberg Carlson, if I remember correctly. It sat
on tall legs in a wood cabinet which was either walnut or mahogany with
ornate wooden decorations. The radio was only turned on when Grandpa
turned it on and that was only to listen to the news, a news commentator
H.V. Kaltenborn and the singing cowboy Montana Slim.
The radio
took electricity and in those days (Grandpa lived through the
Depression) you didn’t use electricity except when necessary and limited
enjoyment. As in most homes in those days hanging over the radio was a
large photograph of Grandpa’s father. Many homes had pictures of their
parents and families decorating the living room walls back then.
After
the news he would read the daily newspaper and occasionally a few pages
of the Reader’s Digest, one of his Christmas gifts along with National
Geographic. Children weren’t always allowed to look at that magazine if
it had articles from Africa or other eastern countries with pictures of
the people in their native dress which sometimes was very limited.
All this came back to me while doing one of the tasks I don’t enjoy, which made the task go quicker.
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