MY PRIDE & JOY by lcalder, on Flickr

Tide. You know, the big, orange box with the target on it. My mom swore by the stuff. I don’t remember her ever buying any other laundry detergent. Ever. Oh man, that smell is burned into my senses. It smells like…home.

It took the birth of a child with severe eczema before I even considered any other detergent. I shopped around and tried a bunch of different brands. I liked some of the brands at the health food store, and I could occasionally even find Ecos at Costco at a pretty good price. But when Rose’s eczema was flaring up, that would make the clothes burn her skin. I love most Method products, but the laundry soap irritated even the skin of those of us who didn’t even have eczema! I tried making my own but was met with wildly varying success.

It was with a great deal of fear and trembling I tried Soap Nuts. I loved the idea that Soap Nuts were free of synthetic chemicals. And when I visited the site, I got even more excited that this one soap could replace other cleaners in my house. Not even Simple Green‘s carpet cleaner is as safe as Soap Nuts. But it seemed so expensive! I finally saved up and bit the bullet and guess what? Soap Nuts did a great job in my carpet steam cleaner. It did a fantastic job in the laundry and hasn’t stung anyone yet. It even did a pretty darned good job as a shampoo (and I have waist-length, thick hair that doesn’t generally do well with “no poo.”) But I’ll keep an eye on them and if they add a single fragrance, “eth” or “lauryl,” I’m outta there.

I  had another brand commandeer my brain a while back. Before we knew how carbs were contributing to our health problems, we’d have a weekly meal of spaghetti. No meat, just two pounds of pasta and a jar of sauce. We searched for a long time to find just the right sauce, the right blend of sweet and tangy, smooth and chunky, something we all liked. We finally found it in Newman’s Sockarooni. Each week as I’d write out the menus, I’d add a meal of “Spaghetti and Sockarooni” which quickly became “Spaghetti and Newman’s” which devolved into “Spag and News.” “News” was our word for spaghetti sauce for years. It never occurred to me that someone looking at my menus wouldn’t know what “News” was!

I set about the task of creating my own spaghetti sauce one summer. I came fairly close to something we liked, and everyone enjoyed putting their two cents in. “Mom, more salt. LOTS more salt,” Rose would say. “It’s gotta have olives!” Christy would chip in. “You’re getting really close with this one,” Hubby would offer. I very rarely use spaghetti sauce any more, and that piece of greasy notebook paper where I was taking notes on my experiments has long been lost. But my oldest son calls the meal “Spag and News” still.

Now, a caveat. I have to work really hard to not force changes on others in my family. Sometimes the kids are open to trying new things, sometimes not. Blair will not give up wearing makeup, even though her lovely skin doesn’t need it. Christy isn’t fond of my homemade toothpaste. Hubby and John have very strong preferences when it comes to their personal care items. If they never come around, I’m okay with that. After all, it took me thirty five years to stem the Tide!

Interesting note on the above photo, by the way. My mom carried around a photo just like that in her wallet for years. No photos of her kids, but only of her “Pride and Joy.” I’ll bet most of you don’t have a clue what Pride was used for! I do, and the gritty white paste is as much a part of my childhood as “April Fresh.”

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