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Mopping memories

ESCANABA -- Cinderella had to scrub the floor while her stepsisters danced.

The army sergeant had Beetle Bailey on KP duty scrubbing the floors in the famous comic strip.

Floor scrubbing was something great grandma did on her hands and knees with a wooden horsehair brush.

Saturday was typically the day when grandma swept, scrubbed and waxed the floors so that they looked spiffy for Sunday supper time when company would often come over.

The art of cleaning floors sure has changed much over the decades. Scrubbing floors on hands and knees was never a homemaker's favorite job, but it was one that she took great pride in.

There was an old saying that "her house is so clean that you could eat off the floors". It was a great compliment.

From hardwood flooring to tiles, linoleum, inlayed, laments flooring, and carpeting the floorboards that we walk on have evolved over the years.

And the process of keeping them clean has changed too.

I remember back in the olden days my mom and her younger sisters (who lived with us) all took turns at scrubbing the kitchen floor.

About four or five times a year, usually right before a holiday, mom would use a strong solution to strip all the old, yellowed wax off the floor tiles. Then she carefully reapplied a fresh coat of wax.

I can still smell the clean aroma of her hard work!

Us kids had to hide out in our bedrooms or in the basement until the wax dried. Even Spot had to spend some time in the backyard so that he wouldn't leave paw prints on the freshly cleaned floor.

Once you've scrubbed a floor on your hands and knees, you get to intimately know that floor. Every scratch, nick, burn, stain or crack is noted.

Black heel marks were the result of a scuff made by men's dress shoes back in the 50's and 60's. Black heel mark had to be diligently rubbed off the floor.

Mom developed good strong hands from wringing out that old sting mop head. For many decades we had large family gatherings at my parent's house. The basement was set up like a banquet hall. At that time, I got to use the huge basement mop to prepare the basement for the party. Dad had a cool squeegee thing to wring out the basement mop.

Today's domestic engineers have a great variety of cleaning tools to choose from. There are sponge mops, string mops, twist mops, microfiber mops, self-wringing mops, Libman wonder mops, Swiffers and steam mops!

There are wonderful soaps too like Mop & Glow, Mr. Clean and Murphy's Cleaner.

Now if we could just get more volunteers to scrub the floors!