Saturday Chores and a Sack of Candy

Every Saturday we had the same routine. After breakfast all of us girls would help Mom with the weekend cleaning. We were each responsible for changing the sheets on our beds and cleaning our rooms. This included washing the windows on the inside each week. My specific task was dusting all the curliques on Mom’s foot-treadle sewing machine. I didn’t like doing it, but I did it! By noon we’d be done and we would all take a little sponge bath and get our hair combed. We’d put on a nice dress and Mom would take us downtown shopping. We always went to the New York Store so we could ride the elevator. What a treat! We’d hit Penney’s and Block and Kuhls. But we would always end up at Kresge’s dime store, where we’d get a small toy and a sack of candy to take home. The candy was stored in small glass bins lined up next to each other. We would point to the one we wanted and Mom would get a quarter pound of each for us to share. That small sack of candy would last us a long time. We savored each piece and tried to make it last. The day would end by going to the A&P for the weekly groceries, or perhaps to Shinner’s Meat Market for a supply of meat. There was a big scandal when they were caught selling horse-meat right after the war when everything was scarce, including good meat.