Yesterday I received a voice mail message from a girlfriend asking me to call her as she had a 'proposition' for me. Intrigued, I dialed her up.....and the proposition, it turned out, was asking for my help in cleaning her former next door neighbor's house. The neighbors were renters and were re-locating out of the city; they didn't have time to clean up so they asked her if she would do it for a few dollars.....I thought no problem and besides she did offer to give me compensation for my time.
So I showed up after she had been at it for a couple of hours.....Holy Cow! I had NEVER seen a place so 'lived in' in my entire life (and believe me, I've seen a few in my day).....well, actually it was dirty, no filthy dirty was a much better description.....
As we were working on this house (basement, upstairs, main floor) I couldn't help but think back to growing up. When I was little, before we moved into our permanent house, my parents rented a small house: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen and living room. It was like a little square box. One of the things I do remember was that my mother kept that little house spotless.....she treated that rental just like it was her own. She was very proud of how everything was in its' place. And as I remembered that little house I was telling my girlfriend how people just don't seem to respect property, theirs or others any more.....
Well we cleaned it the best we could (spaghetti sauce stains on the cabinets and floor, broken egg shells from behind the range and all!).....and when we were finishing up she offered to pay me......
You know, some things you just do without expecting anything in return and this was one of them....I refused her offer 'cause as the song goes "That's What Friends Are For"......
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