Washing Dishes

One of my friends knows someone who will not go to bed until all the dishes are washed.
My friend's friend says, "If I get sick and my husband calls the ambulance
the paramedics will see all the dirty dishes."

My friend dismisses this with, "I don't think the paramedics will look for me
in the kitchen sink."

The other night the dirty dishes were taking over the whole kitchen.
I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep so I got up and started
washing dishes.

I kept thinking about two book characters who loved to wash dishes.
One was Sue Barton. She was never given the chore of washing dishes
in her childhood. She was only allowed to do dishes as a treat.

As an adult when washing dishes she noticed
rainbows in the soap bubbles,
   steaming hot water,
and sparkling glassware
gleaming in the dish rack.

The other girl was Victoria North, in the book, The Secret Language. 
When she washed dishes she always imagined a battle field after a war.
She was Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale come to the rescue.
She washed the poor battered soldiers (silverware) and put them to bed
in the hospital (drawer) in neat rows.

This reminded me of a report I wrote every year in grade school.
The subject was Clara Barton. I would pick the same book out of the library,
 read it and then come up with a report.

Nurses intrigued me and some day I was going to be one.
Then I discovered that I wasn't too excited about giving shots.  

My list of things to enjoy was more along this line:

Bandaging minor scratches on cute little pinkies
- giving kisses for ouchies
- warming up milk for bedtime treats
(with lots of  chocolate and sugar mixed in)
- chauffeuring family members to the clinic or hospital
when they developed ear infections or strep throat,
       pneumonia, appendicitis or cellulitis

Recently I pulled a couple books off my shelf at home . . .
Sue Barton, Student Nurse
Sue Barton, Rural Nurse

After I read them I wondered if Krysta could find more of the series
in our library system.  First she looked them up on Amazon and found
that we could spend a small fortune. Then she found them in the library system.
Some of them even came from the library in International Falls, MN.

Helen Dore Boylston was born in 1895.  She wrote this series of seven books
in the 30's and early 40's after serving as a nurse in World War I. She worked
for the Red Cross in Europe and also became friends with Rose Wilder Lane.

Sue Barton, Student Nurse
Sue Barton, Senior Nurse
Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse
Sue Barton, Rural Nurse
Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses
Sue Barton, Neighborhood Nurse
Sue Barton, Staff Nurse

And now I am so curious about that Clara Barton book
in the Williams High School Library
that I kept checking out year after year
because Helen Dore Boylston also wrote
Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross

This series reminds me a little bit of the Anne of Green Gables books.
Sue and Anne are both red heads with tempers to match.
They each marry a doctor and both series continues on after they
get married instead of abruptly ending at the altar like some books.
There is humor and some drama and a great deal of mischief  that
threads through the set.

When I wash dishes it's fun to write blog posts in my mind
while I'm enjoying the rainbows, bubbles and sparkling plates and silverware.
That's how this one came to be.

"The best teacher is also a student." ~HyVee fortune cookie