Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Old Deutsch Cleanser

Most of you are too young to remember Old Dutch Cleanser, the scouring-powder that was popular in my mother's day -- but I thought of it, as I tackled my first housecleaning day, with my little Bavarian apron on and my Putz-Traeger (cleaning caddy, kids) in hand.  Yikes!  I haven't cleaned house in too many years, I guess: I'd forgotten how tired a little Putz-Frau can get.  Well, the place was scoured out thoroughly before we moved in, by Realtor Jan's daughter, so it really wasn't too dirty -- except the stuff the movers tracked in as they unloaded the truck.

I actually enjoyed using Murphy's Oil Soap and giving my lovely old Victorian escritoire a good going-over, such as it has not had in many a long year; that kind of work is very satisfying.

But I'm thinkin' -- my next cleaning job will be to call a local lead on a housecleaner gal and sign her up! 

Anyway, after a nice German lunch of lentil soup from the local "New Leaf" health-food market, I collapsed on the freshly made-up bed and had a nice nap; feelin' pretty good now (but dinner will be quite elementary this evening).  

So, another beautiful day passes.

4 comments:

Teri Dunn said...

"Old Dutch Cleanser" also makes me think of other old-fashioned household expressions that linger charmingly in my vocabulary, origins no doubt YOU, Mama: davenport = sofa; tin foil = aluminum foil; icebox = refrigerator.

GF said...

John's favorite flashback of mine is "isinglass" -- I'm not even sure what it really is, but I use it whenever I can't think of the proper name for a synthetic material.

Teri Dunn said...

Isinglass is a whale or fish product (read all about it, and MORE, in Moby Book!), I think used to make glue and as a filtering agent. You're retired--google it! :) hee hee

kathleen said...

I love that you can remember ISINGLASS when you can't remember the real word. I spaced on the words "tea kettle" once and all I could get out was "the hot thing."