No. 141 June, 2010
Journal
Elbow Grease
by Delores Miller
Elbow Grease is another of those mythical products similar to Blinker Fluid.
No, it cannot be found under the kitchen or bathroom sink. If one asks in the cleaning supply section of the supermarket for Elbow Grease, the young stock boy would only stare and tell one to go to the next aisle.
My parents, Alma and Bill Zillmer, after they left the Dupont Farm in 1953, needed money and an occupation. The small village of Marion had limited opportunities, and Pa worked at the plywood and as a carpenter for Hank and Albert Krueger. Ma did the only thing she knew how to do and that was to CLEAN.
No private houses, she said, old women were too fussy for her tastes. So she went to the business places. The Post Office when Floyd Brandenburg was the Postmaster, and Ruth Seyler, Hazel Mielke and Jean Verch as clerks. Birthdays were celebrated, the the honoree brought cake and other goodies. The Dupont Insurance Office, when Chris Slotten was manager and Vera Johnson as Secretary. The Marion State Bank when it was across from the Public Library. Milton Solberg, Ned Nehring, Ella Anderson and Betty Schachtschneider as tellers. Pa even helped Ma at the bank, he felt it his duty to uncover the office machines early each morning.
For a few dollars an hour they cleaned, scrubbed floors, dusted, washed windows. All the visiting grandchildren loved to go along and empty waste baskets with a promise afterwards to go fishing at Campbell's Lake. Grandma used to tell them to find her some ELBOW GREASE to clean the toilets. Of course, there was none, but they did learn how to scrub, and that was good training. Pa washed the outside bank windows until the day before he had his stroke, in April 1978 when he was 81 years old.
Every year before school started, she grabbed all her grandchildren and scrubbed their ears and eliminated the sun tans on their faces - probably using elbow grease. Or home made lye soap. How many remember that?
All five of our children, while not good housekeepers, do know how to clean and use Elbow Grease. I wish I could hire a good cleaning lady for two bucks an hour, but of course, the late Grandma Alma Zillmer didn't do private homes. Only her own.
copyright 2010, Delores and Russell Miller