Peg Bracken

Yesterday there she was,
Peg Bracken, on the obit page of the Washington Post.
I felt like I had lost a friend. A friend I never met but one who had an important impact on my life.

Do you know her?

Peg Bracken was a writer.

Her book, The I Hate to Housekeep Book made a deep and lasting impression on me. I still have my worn, stained and torn paperback copy.

She wrote the book in 1960. I found it in the mid 60s - a time when I was raising three children, sort of keeping house and going to college - - ok ok showing off at multi-tasking.

Peg Bracken had answers for me.

Take short-cuts. Don't do it all - just make it look like you have.
Sound advice.
I use many of her tips to this day.

" Before people come, wipe the toilet and the telephone with pinesol. When they smell the pine they will know that anyone who has time to do that must have a spotless house."

"Start a dinner party backwards. Set the table first - everything else will fall into place." Try it. It works. Many an afternoon I ran in to cook supper and threw on a table cloth, plates and silverware just to get my engine running. Once you have the stage set -t - the food follows.

All of Peg Bracken's pearls of wisdom were written with wit and style. How I wished to be able to write like her - - as well as keep house as she suggested.

It is said much better on the blog, Apartment Therapy - "Her wit has rightly been called "as dry as a gin martini and as sharp as a paring knife," but in counterpoint to that piquancy is a warmth and thoughtfulness that makes her writing a comfort as well as a tonic. "
(read the link to get her full story.)

Thank you, Peg Bracken.