With Regards: Archives ~
|
With Regards: Archives ~ |
|
|
I called my oldest and dearest friend Sue Kelley the other evening, and when she answered the phone, I asked this typical question: "What are you doing?" Sue responded: "I'm cleaning the house because the maid is coming in the morning!" Now being from Mars (male), I didn't understand this concept. To me the maid would be coming to clean the house, and being frugal, I wouldn't have the maid come until the house really needed cleaning. Sue informed me to the contrary, "Fool!" she said, "I can't let her think that I'm a pig, she wouldn't want to work for me anymore! Sue was always big on setting good examples for her employees! At my house, if there is something laying around that I don't want anyone to see, it usually gets pushed under the bed or stuffed in the closet. If you opened any one of my closets, some thing's could come tumbling out that some people would find appalling. Remember Jacob Marley? He was visited by his Ghosts, at Christmas time. Mine are over there in the closet, as well as a skeleton or two, and who knows when some of the other things had last seen the light of day. In what my kids call the olden days, we used to have a ritual called Spring Cleaning. This was the time when Mom would open up the total house, every door and window, and let the sweet spring air sweep through the whole place. This was also the time when the annual ritual of Airing Out The Dirty Linen occurred. What this meant was that all the stuff which (over the winter) had acquired a stale smell, got hung on the clothesline and in some instances got beat, to remove whatever varmints had found comfort. This was the time when old, and long forgotten things, were supposed to be thrown away. This was also a time for extreme negotiations and often subterfuge. "Mom you know that those are my favorite sneakers!" I would say, "I know the other one is here somewhere!" "Ay Mom there are only five or six pieces missing!" Sister and I would take turns distracting Mom so that the other one could sneak things out of the trash pile (or sale box) and back into their rightful place via the backdoor. Why Sister wanted to recover some of the things she did was beyond me however, "Some peoples Trash, some peoples Treasure." Mom always had a plan. Out in the county where I was raised, we had yard sales because nobody had a garage. Over by the picnic table Mom would set out a couple of saw horses, put some 1 X 6's across, throw an old quilt over the top, then she would start to place & price all the stuff which she had bought at somebody else's yard sale last year, all the stuff we (Sister and I) had not smuggled back into the house, and some of Dad's old fishing gear. She would hang stuff over the clothesline, bring out some of her Bread & Butter Pickles to attract a crowd and she would be off & running. Uptown in Paducah they would have Garage Sales and out on Broadway (or Jefferson), they would have Estate Sales. Same junk, higher prices, but no pickles. Those spring days were good days. The dust mites and fuzz bunnies were gone, along with something pungent and in their place a new fresh smell, both inside and out. In those days we called it Lysol Clean or Squeaky Clean and didn't you just want to invite someone over for a visit? Speaking of visitors, one of the reasons all that junk got put in the hiding places and Mom thought Spring Cleaning was necessary, was because sometimes visitors just drop in. Mom must have feared it had gotten around the neighborhood that she was a bad housekeeper or something, and that those uninvited guests came over just to confirm the gossip. I guess those old biddies (ladies) didn't take into account that she had to clean up after five kids and Pop. Anyhow, it was always during the first part of April when Spring was in the air and people were beginning to get out and move around, that Mom began to anticipate someone was coming and "by gad" she was going to be ready! If they were going to come looking for Dirt to spread, they were going to go away disappointed and would have to find another place to look for fodder to feed their incessant appetite. Y'all come back now! Final thought Mom always followed the advice about housekeeping and others things which she found in a column with the title "Hints from Heloise". I wonder if Heloise were around today what kind of "Hints" she would have about Housekeeping for an Industry  like ours. Would she hint about ways to effectively
clean out our closets and how to air out our dirty linen before uninvited visitors come calling? Should we be paranoid
because we know that we had things hidden that we hope will never see the light of day? Do we have things which
need to be hung over something and have the "varmints" not-so-gently removed? It's April, is it time
for Spring Cleaning?Has the Hint already been given? The Hint that instead the Old Biddies from the neighborhood dropping by, our uninvited guest could be from say: "Primetime", "Twenty-Twenty", "48 Hours", "60 Minutes", "A&E Investigative Reports", or "Dateline NBC". Is it going to be Welcome or Katy Bar the Door? |
|
|
Jerry Sikes, RRP / CHA, is President of Professional Resort Operators, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona. He has 35 years in the Hospitality Industry / 25 years in Timesharing, and is the current Co-Chairman of ARDA Arizona as well as Chairman of the Arizona Timeshare Management Association. Jerry is a frequent guest speaker regionally and nationally on all aspects of Timeshare Management and a frequent contributor of articles for industry publications. Email: boyjerry@cox.net Phone 480-947-3300 Fax 480-947-6853 Web site: http://www.protimeshare.com |
|
|
Back to Current 'With Regards' || Back to 'With Regards' Archives CURRENT NEWS: ALL
HEADLINES To report broken links or other problems with
this site please contact:
© The Timeshare Beat |
