Day: February 3, 2024

I Avoid the Kitchen

This was Friday’s prompt, and I had a senior moment and failed to publish it. So, here it is!

As you can see from the title the kitchen is not one of my favorite places. I try not to cook. I never learned how to cook. I was raised with a mother and grandmother who did all the cooking. My mother was a homemaker and did not work outside of the home. My grandmother was with us until she passed on when I was fifteen. I don’t remember if my mother offered to show me how to cook or I did not have any interest. Also, grandma needed something to do, and she helped mom cook. The era I grew up the mother and the father had specific duties. The father worked and brought home the bacon. The mother was the home keeper and raised the children. The most I remember about my dad was him coming from work and sitting in the living room reading the daily newspaper and waiting until dinner was ready. After supper he would continue reading the paper or magazines until bedtime.

I lived at home until I was drafted into the army. No cooking lessons there. Unless you want to say peeling potatoes and cleaning pots and pans is a cooking lesson. Meals and food were provided by the army. After my tour was over, I returned home.

I lived with my parents until I married. I married a woman that was some years younger than me. she just graduated from beautician school and didn’t have a job. She needed something to do so she started doing the cooking and worked for a temp service. Pregnancy came soon after marriage vows. This marriage lasted about ten years.

You are what you are exposed to. I grew up in the atmosphere where the husband works, and the wife is the homemaker and child raiser with very little crossing of these duties. I think this was part of the problem in the marriage. During that time, I didn’t see it, but, as I age, I am seeing things differently.

Here I am divorced, living in an apartment by myself with very little cooking skills to my name. Me and millions of others are the reason fast food, frozen dinners, microwaves are so popular. Who wants to come home from work dead tired and cook something so you can eat alone. Those years were the hardest years in my life.

I then met a great woman who was willing to take on the challenge of me. We have been together for over forty years and was married in 1995. My cooking skills are still very limited, but I am willing to cross over the line and help. I also clean up after a meal and put the dishes in the dishwasher and other duties around the kitchen.

In conclusion, the kitchen is not my favorite room. There are times when I wish I would have learned more about the kitchen and cooking.

Read more: I Avoid the Kitchen

About Tom T2.0

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing to cook?

Cleaning Out Files

Yes, I have files and paperwork over sixty years old. Why do I keep this stuff? I have tax returns back to 1995. Isn’t the statute of limitations five or seven years? I have cancelled checks and bank statements back to 1977. Files on previously own cars. Who cares when the oil was changed on my 1973 Vega Chevrolet. I have about two drawers full of credit card statements and purchase receipts. Many of the credit cards have been closed long ago. I could go on and on with examples of more than likely useless files.

I also have files on homes I previously owned. I am hesitant to get rid of them. For example, some years ago I received a letter from a utility company saying that I owed back money because the renter stopped paying. These bills were after the time the house was sold. I had to verify that I sold the house before the bills were dated. I am glad that I never destroyed that information.

Files and records are a necessary evil. The hard part is to decide what should be kept and what is unnecessary to save. Paperless records have helped since saving an electronic statement is much easier than filing a paper document. Seven years ago, when we moved into our new home, I had the ambition to clean out my file cabinets. How boring! That did not last long, maybe two hours. Yes, it is on my list of things to do, but I kind of doubt if it will ever happen. My family can do that after I leave.

Daily writing prompt
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.