When I was growing up my mother was very good at keeping the house in top shape. It was clean and orderly and with us five children I'm sure she had her moments of just having her efforts undone by our young ways of maybe making a mess.
So it was such an unusual day that we had let the kitchen "go". We didn't do the dishes from the meals and we had baked several items and so the kitchen was full of dirty dishes and that's when the phone rang.
On the phone was a distant relative calling from a gas station four blocks away asking for directions to our home so he and his family could come by for a quick visit.
Mother told them we only lived four blocks from where they were calling. They said theywould be right over.
We literally had two minutes to clean the kitchen.
"Quick", Mother said, as she started loading dirty dishes into large roasters, "take these to the back seat of the car while I load the oven."
We had an attached garage off of the kitchen and the car was in the garage so it was close for me to run back and forth and load the dirty dishes into the back seat of the car.
The doorbell rang and mother calmly answered the front door.
The visitors came in and we had a lovely visit. It was good to see them. We even had a light lunch together in the spotless kitchen.
I'm sure the guests felt very special as mother served them with our best china plates and matching cups.
The dishes were used for only special occasions and what could be more special than not having any other clean dishes. I really think Mother may have used them anyway but on this day those 'special occasion' dishes sure came in extra handy.
The other dishes were waiting out of sight in the oven and in the back seat area of the car. That was really a "quick thinking" visit that day and I think I remember putting the dirty dishes in the back seat of the car more than the distant relatives who came that day for a surprise visit.
It was fun to be eight years old and putting dirty dishes in the back seat of a car.
Her "quick thinking" idea gave me a long lasting thought for life.
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