Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Will My Hygiene Be Questioned?

I'm making a trip to the "big city" tomorrow, and I think I shall be wearing gloves all day.


I have harvest hands. Food processing fingers. Dirty digits. (Gak, that last one doesn't even sound good.)


Every one of my fingernails is stained dark All the cracks and crevices of my fingers up to my third knuckle look as if they're harboring something black and unclean.


About a million years ago (give or take a couple of years), I was an executive secretary to a vice-president of a large company. One autumn, I had spent the whole weekend making and canning applesauce. The following Monday morning, my boss called me into his office to take dictation. (Yes, my children, that was back in ancient times when we operated with a pencil and steno pad and wore panty hose and high heels.)


Mr. S, who usually had his thoughts well organized and gave dictation in an easy flow, seemed to be fumbling over his words that morning, stopping and starting with distracted frequency.


Finally when there occurred an especially long pause, I looked up from my pad on the edge of his desk and found him staring at my hands with an almost repulsed look on his face.


"WHAT in the world did you do to your hands?" he asked.


Yup, harvest hands. Dirty digits. I explained the situation to him, but I had the impression he didn't believe me.

7 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Well, folks, exhibiting my usual stupidity when it comes to anything having to do with the computer, I succeeded in deleting the post I made earlier tonight along with the two comments I'd received on it.

I have managed to get the post back up but the comments are gone, gone, gone. Luckily I still had them in my incoming e-mail box so will copy them here.

Erin wrote: That's hilarious! Every year I swear I will find the solution, just as I also mistakenly think I will find the magic solution to making tomato plants behave. This year I stocked up on buffing pads, pumice, Cornhuskers, Bag Balm, gloves for nighttime . . . alas, I still have those garden hands! And now they are green also from trellising those darn tomato plants, LOL!

My reply to Erin: Last year during my great tomato fiasco, one day I pruned so many tomatoes that when I tried to wash the green off my hands I ended up having to use a table knife to SCRAPE it off!

MaineCelt's comment tonight was:
Hahahaha! I love the story of the distracted bossman. Anybody who can't wrap their mind around applesauce-making and the look of good honest labouring hands ought not to be in charge of anything!

My hands are dirty today, but not from harvest work. I almost finished creating the box around the plumbing under the house today. (Only have one small panel left to cut and fit, but it's the trickiest one in the hardest-to-reach space.) Just as I was about to tackle it, the tractor guy showed up, and I ended up helping him move rocks for a couple hours. My arms feel like noodles!

My reply to MaineCelt: Boy, neither one of your jobs today sounds like a picnic but I think I'd pick moving rocks. I don't do well in tight spaces in awkward positions!

Jennifer Jo said...

I agree with MaineCelt---that anyone who can't wrap their heads around honest labor shouldn't be in charge of anything. AMEN!

As for me, I think that hard-working hands are beautiful. My carpenter husband's hands are huge and nicked and chapped and calloused, and I think they are downright sexy!

So go to the big city and flaunt those hands. Draw as much attention to them as possible, and then educate those poor city folks! You never know, they might get excited and run to the nearest farmer's market and load up on apples to turn into sauce...cause they want to be cool like you.

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Hi Mama Pea, I came over from The Paw Paw Patch. You have a nice blog and I'll be sure to come back to read more future and previous posts.
I agree with Mama JJ that hard-working hands are beautiful. I'm not worry about what people think of me anymore. I used to put make up on to go to the grocery store! But now I would go to the store in my "garden" work clothes. Why dirty another set of clothing just to go to the grocery store, right? There is a different between dirty scummy look and dirty work look.

YD

RuthieJ said...

I've had those applesauce hands before too but it's worth the looks and comments every time I open the freezer to pull out some of those tasty accomplishments.
P.S. Is Duh-loot the big city for you?

Mama Pea said...

Mama JJ - You gave me the courage to go and do what needed to be done!

I appreciate the support from all of you REAL women out there. Lovely manicured hands, be damned. (Well, maybe someday when I'm not working quite so hard. I do love nicely polished nails!)

Mama Pea said...

Hi, YD - Thanks for stopping by and the kind words.

Here's to all of us succeeding in being more free, natural and uninhibited (in a good way, of course) in thought, word and deed!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Ruthie - I think it was mainly the beets that did it to me this time. Who knew something so red could turn your nails and skin so black?!

P.S. Yup.