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Warning: Graphic content may be offensive to some readers!

During the summer of 1959 my neighborhood friend, Brenda and I brought groceries to the Webers about once a week. They paid us a dime each to walk to Sheepy’s and carry their groceries home.

At first I was terrified of the Webers because of their appearance; they were pale-looking, their clothing was dirty, their hair was wild, and their teeth were crooked and yellow, very yellow. I thought they were witches. They looked like witches I had seen on TV. (I was in 4th grade and easily frightened)

In the weeks that we had been delivering their groceries I had gotten over my fear of Mary Weber. Mary always came to the door and paid us for our work. Even though she looked scary, she was actually very kind. It was easy enough to hold my breath long enough to hand her the groceries and get my dime; the odor coming out the door was enough to make me want to vomit. As soon as she placed that warm dime into the palm of my hand I hurried down the one step off the porch so that I could breathe again. Some of that smell stayed with me on my hair or my clothes for just a little while until I could run and let the wind blow it away.

The Webers were so pleased with our work that they offered us another job—–CLEANING THEIR HOUSE!! Oh, I didn’t want any part of this business deal, not on your life. Standing on the porch was closer than I ever wanted to be to the inside of that smelly house; but Brenda really wanted to take the job. Besides that, the Webers wanted to pay each of us a whole dollar!

One dollar would not be an enticement to work these days; but in 1959 it seemed too hard for a 9 yr old to turn down, so Brenda and I decided to take on the job. This was not to be a one-time job; the Webers wanted us to clean their house once a week…..wow, a steady income!

So the plan was that once a week one of us would mop the floors and the other one would wash the dishes. The next week we would alternate and do the opposite job.

The first week on the job Brenda said she would mop. That left me the job of washing dishes. I mistakenly thought that I had gotten the better deal because the Webers had a chihuahua named Mitsy. Mitsy was not house-trained so the person who mopped had to first find and remove all the dog doo. I was so glad Brenda offered to take that job. Little did I know what the dish washing job would entail! Dog doo would have been much more pleasant.

For starters, the dishes had been piling up for quite some time from the looks of things. Every surface in the kitchen, including the stove top, was covered with dirty dishes. The dishes took quite some time to wash since there was dried food stuck to them. After finishing the glasses, plates and silverware I was ready to tackle the pans. When I took the lid off the first pan there was an unpleasant smell. Inside that pan was a green liquid with mold growing on it. That was fun.

The next pan was even worse. When I took the lid off I could not believe my eyes! Inside that pan was a used Kotex. (I warned you this was gonna be gross) I gagged my way through cleaning that pan.

Well, I definitely earned my dollar that day. After that first horrendous cleaning, the coming weeks were much easier at the Webers since Brenda and I kept their primitive abode clean on a weekly basis.

There is much more to tell about the Webers; their friendship and love towards me. Mary, Loretta, and Louie had a great influence in my life in their own special way.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover”