I want to take a moment today to reminisce. I opened the kitchen cabinet the other day to get a mug for my coffee, and it struck me that all the mugs were upright. That may not sound like anything at all to you, but it signifies a great change. You see, now that the mugs are upright, it means that I’ve stopped putting them on the shelf upside down.
 “So what?†you ask. The answer is tied up in the reason I used to store them upside down. I did it because my mother always did it. And my mother did it because she was raised and lived most of her adult life in Oklahoma.
“I’m still waiting for the punchline,†you say. “Here it is,†says I. My mother came of age during the Dustbowl of the 1930’s. Houses were often drafty back then — it wasn’t unusual to be able to see sunlight peeking through where the walls met — and windows were the only way to cool a house. The dust went everywhere, and if you didn’t want dust collecting in your freshly-washed cups, you stored them upside down.
Now my cups are upright. We no longer fear dust storms, and we have doors on our china cabinets to keep out the everyday dust. I had almost forgotten about the “upsidedown cups,†but really — how could I forget?
