On polishing silver

That I have more time on my hands than I know what to do with is evident by two things: polishing silver and writing about polishing silver. To this Catherine would say, "Mom, get a life." However, when is the last time you read any essay on polishing silver? Likely not in a long while, if ever.

I like shiny things. I don't care what they are--diamonds, crystal, freezing rain on Fayetteville trees, tinsel on Christmas trees--things that sparkle catch my eye. So when Bill and I got married, I was very happy to receive silver wedding presents. Now with Bill painting the dining room, all of the furniture and their contents have been moved to other parts of the house. Tarnished silver is staring me in the face begging to be cleaned. It's too wet and cold outside to work in the yard so the project this weekend is polishing silver.



I like polishing silver. Not many people will admit to that but I find it an immensely satisfying task, well except for polishing silver forks; I don't like cleaning forks. But everything else is fun, especially spoons.

Not many young people today seem to know about silver. I've tried to interest Catherine in the subject but with little luck. And speaking of Catherine and her generation, are not parents always commenting on the need for the younger generation to develop a sense of deferred gratification? So I ask, if the Gen-Yers don't know how to defer gratification, why are not more of them polishing silver?

Consider the water pitcher below. On the right side of the front rim you can see tarnish. Now take a look at the left side of the front rim. Within a matter of seconds I simply wiped away evidence of the passage of time and the tarnish, too. I did not have to wait for years to watch my meager savings grow into a nest egg. I did not have to wait for April 15th to plant flowers. I did not even have to wait for noon to eat my lunch.



So below you see the fruits of my brief labor. They look nice and shiny. If there is a drawback to the way I polish silver, it is this--I do not use gloves to clean silver. Consequently, tarnish residue clings to my fingernails for several days. The tarnish cream works great on silver but I've yet to find a product that works as well on hands.