Peanut Shells on the Floor

As a kid, my dad was always worried about appearances. He always sat in the back row of church, a theatre, a meeting, anything. When I asked him why, he told me he didn’t want anyone sitting behind him in case he had a dirty neck. Ok. When we’d go to a hotel, we always had to make the bed and completely clean the bathroom, folding the towels neatly and hanging the washrags up to dry, as if someone else were going to use them! My Mother would explain to him that it wasn’t necessary, as they would change the beds and put in fresh towels and washrags. He thought that was ridicules because we had only slept on them once! No matter, the work was to be done. I’m sure that if we stayed more than a day or two, we would have had to rent a vacuum and wash a few walls, just so the maid wouldn’t think ill of us! In a restaurant, we had to wad up our napkins and straw papers and cracker wrappers and stuff them into our glasses and put our silver and whatever else neatly on our plates and scrape whatever crumbs or debris onto our hands and into the aforementioned plate!
At North Woods Inn, for any of you who have been, know that when the waiter greets you, he throws peanuts on the table. I love that! It right away makes the whole event kind of casual and like home. Not that we throw things on the table at home, but, well, you know what I mean….Anyway, as you walk into North Woods Inn, there is sawdust on the floor. As a kid, I always thought it was ground up peanut shells, because as you know, you are suppose to throw the peanut shells on the floor. There is even a sign that tells you to do this. Right there in plain sight! For all to see. Oh no, not us! How would that look?! We had to pile our shells in a neat little pile. I would point out the sign on every wall around us, but, alas, ours were in a neat little pile next to our Root Beer mug. Each time the waiter would come, he would shove them onto the floor. I’m sure he was thinking, what a bunch of Rubes! But when we’d leave, our last pile of shells, our paper-wadded glass and our silver would be all neatly sitting ready for inspection!
Maybe that’s why I’m such a slob. Tho I don’t throw peanut shells on my floor at home, there are a few other things on the floor, that I seem to just toss like those peanut shells at North Woods Inn. Hummmmm,….. Dr. Phil?