The Family Calendar
m.s.wardrip
We washed clothes on Wednesdays and Saturday Mornings. If we missed one, we did it that night.
We washed cars in the driveway on Saturday mornings.
We would wax them in the shade in the park.
We would take a bath every morning.
We would go to church on Sunday.
We would go shopping downtown on Saturday.
We would have Fish on Friday.We would go to Friday After Five,
We would spend five dollars on fish fillets of fiddler catfish.
We would have Fried Chicken on Sunday,
Beans and Cornbread on Monday,
Tacos on Tuesday,
Wednesday is Meatloaf,
Thursday is Spaghetti,
Saturday Night is Pizza!
Birthdays a week early or a week late and sometimes on their birthday,
Christmas starts in January and goes until New Years Eve.
Thanksgiving is a four day affair,
Easter is morning affair,
Halloween is an evening affair,
The Fourth of July is a week-long affair.
The County Fair is fairly priced and has a fair amount of activities,
Sometimes we would travel as travelers,
Sometimes we would swim as a swim team,
Sometimes we would play badminton as two teams,
The best days were Thursdays,
No bad days, just that Mondays came too soon,
Fridays were fun for dancing and playing,
Saturday was sacred if it was collection day and you were a paperboy like me,
You got paid and you could eat the deluxe burger and tator tots at the tastee freeze,
You could pay for it with your own money and have some left at thirteen years old,
You could have a campaign to get more customers,
You could get in the contest,
You could win a transistor radio,
You had to do it according to the calendar,
Work started on Monday morning and ended on Friday afternoon,
Play started on Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday morning and resumed at noon on Sunday until Sunday night about ten o’clock,
The Family Calendar was always full,
Then each of us got our own calendars,
And these family calendars are quickly filling up.
Reunions and funerals are on Saturdays,
Babies are born on Mondays,
Put the trash out on Mondays,
Feed the fish everyday,
Change the lizards water every day,
The lizard gets three worms every other day… starting on Monday.
Band Practice is on Tuesday and Thursday,
Payday is on Friday unless it isn’t,
Taxes are due on April 15 and
potato salad goes bad in the sunshine very quickly.
NOTE for Calendar: Buy more milk and diapers, and trash bags, and cake, and candles, and books, and fees, and charges, and mortgages, and insurance, and school loans, and car payments, and doctors appointments, and court dates, and anniversaries and birthdays and wakes and fishing trips and weddings and divorces and notes to pick up pet food and notes to pay before you lose and notes to pay before you win and notes to pay when you don’t win and notes to pay when you know you’re not going to…
All these and more go on the Family Calendar.
