Flashback Friday.... The summer Slaves... and the Green bowl!

There they are folks your two victims. Yes the two sisters Mandy and Rachel Free (at the time) got suckered into a "wonderful summer spent with the Walkers"... Job description:

"Come have a great time with the Walkers at their summer home there will be light pillow fluffing, an occasional dog walking, and when needed, help entertaining guests."

there was no side note stating that we would be working over 100 hours a week and only getting paid $200 a week. Oh and the pillow fluffing was a twice a day thing, put them out on the porch in the morning and take them back in at night, not to mention that when it rains you must take them in and the second it stops put them back out. We're not talking one or two pillows we're talking 3 decks worth.....anyway, the dog walking, that was every 3 hours because heaven forbid little modelle get cabin fever, and the guests well that was the whole summer non-stop it would become a novel if I wrote the details of that.

Summer of 1996 Mandy and Rachel decide it would be a neat adventure to take this job. It started at the Walkers home in Washington, Connecticut at this estate on 50 acres which was located on Hinkle rd. named after Dr. Hinckle that lived and died there.
Dr. Hinkle decided to have a pet cemetary and also had a poem written for him after he was to be cremated...So we (switching from 3rd person) started and the freaky hinkle house then moved after a month to the "SUMMER HOME" in the Adirondak mts. near Lake Placid, New York. (I do have to say that if we weren't under the circumstances that we were these places were truly beautiful and I would love to visit them again just not as a peon.)

Upon arriving in New York, we were in the process of unpacking dishes, food, clothes, etc...and we came upon a green bowl. Mandy started to put it away and both Julia and Carter stopped her and said "ahhh girls, you might want to put that in the dishwasher and let it run through a few cycles" so we asked why and they basically just said trust us on this one. So for the majority of our time there we just left the bowl in the dishwasher cuz we were all afraid of what had been in it. I'll get back to this subject later.

In New York we were busy night and day with an occasional break to go for a swim in a river or hiking in the area, but we were always on call in case they needed us.

Their meals consisted of Breakfast: the table was set the night before, and the coffee ready to be turned on, they had a cantelope wedge, blueberries, and cereal or eggs. Lunch: a sandwich, or fruit in a bowl with cottage cheese, 2 cookies and a drink. They sometimes wanted to eat at the table inside, or when the weather was nice they ate outside on the patio. Dinner: we always opened the bar so they could have a drink, and there was always something out of the Martha Stewart cookbook that they had to have or try. along with sorbet for dessert. Dinner was always served with wine, and there was a specific way that you were to serve the food to them and a specific way to pick the plate back up.

I apologize if this is boring, Mandy might enjoy it though, and it is super fun for me to reminisce.

On a particular occasion, Carter or "Pansy" we liked to call him behind his back, came in after we had just put the pillows out and cleaned up breakfast, and said"ahhh girls, (as he always began his sentences) " for my lunch I would like a nice bowl of assorted fruit arranged neatly with some cottage cheese on top, and I would like to eat it on the patio."


That particular day we had HAD it with him, so I was bugged and started to get the fruit out and cut it up while Mandy disappeared around the corner then said "how bout this bowl?"We both busted out laughing and couldn't stop because she had pulled out the Green Bowl to put his fruit in. We were laughing the whole time as we arranged the fruit nice and neatly and dished the cottage cheese in so carefully. The time came for us to take it out and I made Mandy do it, she said that when she handed it to him his eyes just popped open and he was speechless. Ahhh what a beautiful moment that must have been. We laughed all through lunch cuz we totally felt we got him back for all of his dumb stuff he had done to us. it was great.
When we went to clean up lunch he said "ahhh, girls next time can I have my fruit on a plate so that i don't have to DIG for it... ?" and of course we just said sure...Julia his wife was pointing a finger at him and laughing. I think it was a great moment for us all.

We survived and I have to say that as horrible as it was at times, I would never have traded that experience with Mandy for anything!
We were going through a hard time with our family that summer, my parents got divorced while we were gone and I think it was just the right thing for us to be able to be together and support each other, we laughed a lot cuz if we didn't we probably would have cried. Sisters are great!

And there you have it, sorry I got long winded