Washing dishes

Our family never owned a dishwasher. Unless you count my brothers and I.

We hated doing dishes. It's not like we had a lot of chores to do, but washing the dishes was one of them, and we hated it. Since there were four of us and we wanted to be fair, the rule was that everyone would wash 5 dishes and then call in the next brother for his turn. Four pieces of silverware were equal to one regular dish. If there were big pots and pans, those often counted as two dishes.

Nobody wanted to get stuck with the big pots and pans. They were a huge pain. We'd all rather wash twenty bowls, cups and plates than get stuck washing a single dirty pot. And so, if you were first or second in "line" to do dishes, you could control your own destiny. You would wash all of the bowls and plates and cups, and make sure that there were fewer than 15 dishes left in the sink when you were finished, so that there would be no way that your turn could come around again before all the dishes were done.

Jaron was the pickiest of us all. If his turn came around and there were only 1 or 2 plates and cups, and the rest of the dishes were big pots, he'd be furious. And so, he'd scour the house looking for more dishes he could wash so that his turn would be over. He would often come into the living room and find someone who still had a glass of juice, or some leftover dish from dinner, and ask if that person was finished with their dish. If they weren't, he would wait 'em out. I wouldn't be surprised if Jaron stashed extra bowls in his bedroom for occasions such as these. I'm not sure that kid ever washed a big pot. Stubborn and lazy? or creative genius? You tell me.