Do kids still clean up on Saturday mornings with old jams playing in the background? Black cultural research.

I believe I’m the only person I’ve ever met who knows about the Detroit R&B duo Kiara. My dad bought their second album, Civilized Rogue, which had the song “You’re Right About That” on it – as 90-year-old a song and video as you will ever hear or see. I do not know if it’s true (and I’m undecided my family could confirm this), but I feel like I heard “You’re Right About That” on repeat on Saturday mornings, probably in 1990, while we were cleansing our rooms and whatever else the kids needed to clean on the weekends back then. While the song doesn’t exist for most individuals, it is a reminder of my childhood and a part of the soundtrack to my young, black, Saturday morning.

We were also with Luther Vandross, Kenny G, and Rod Stewart that day. Oh, and Hall & Oates. Saturday mornings were jam-packed with easy tasks. According to each black person I do know, this same pattern played out in black homes throughout America, in addition to those of us in military families overseas. The extent to which we actually cleaned is debatable; my parents said we only needed to clean our rooms on weekends, which is smart—I turned 11 in 1990, and I don’t know how good I used to be at anything at that time.

Now I actually have 4 kids of my very own, and there’s no music on Saturday mornings. Sure, there have been a number of weekends after I’ve woken up the house to 80s R&B or Fela Kuti, but my kids don’t often wake up on Saturdays and take into consideration cleansing their rooms, bathrooms, or living rooms. In fact, most days they don’t give it some thought unless I tell them to do something specific. Not because I’ve lost some sort of value system that gave me my basic memories of random R&B duets, but mostly because nobody is home in my house on Saturday mornings. The way our lives are set up, my kids can get home very late in the day, making it not possible to focus on anyone task. Every weekend is filled with some sort of activity, running the kids from one sporting event or party to a different. It seems to mirror most of my friends’ lives. My kids just don’t have time for it anymore.

Lifestyle

Of course, that is personal; my kids have an interest in numerous things and we all know numerous people, so it is smart that Saturday mornings of my youth can now not exist the way they used to. I feel like I knew numerous people as a child and I definitely played sports, but I actually have numerous memories of playing outside with my friends all the time. I feel like I had all the time in the world, so my parents would expect lots more responsibilities and things. My kids have responsibilities too, but I can be lying if I said they were very time-consuming.

Part of me wants to present my child the same life I had; I grew up to be person, so it looks as if the things I remember fondly contributed to that. But I also wonder if that memory isn’t a relic of a bygone era. Similarly, I ponder if I don’t do not forget that aspect of my life too well; I needed to ask my parents if we cleaned on Saturdays, because the culture made it an integral a part of life for those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, but there have been greater than a number of things that live more in cultural memory than in reality. If you let social media let you know, everyone my age woke up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to Aretha Franklin, wearing a bandana, and cleansing the house from top to bottom. It can have been another person’s life, however it definitely wasn’t mine. At least hardly enough for it to develop into a part of my identity as a youngster.

The thing is, for some people it can have been life and I ponder if it’s a time-honored tradition that continues to this present day. Among my friends, none of us appear to have time to show on a Bluetooth speaker and crank up the “Cleaning Music” playlist, and we smile as a family as the scent of Fabuloso transports us to a spotless home. Plus, I used to be 10 years old today after I learned there was a brand called Spic and Span. I’d never understood that term before.

Anyway, do families still wake up on Saturdays and put their kids to work while Babyface, SWV, or Usher play in the background? It looks as if such a pleasant, easy aspect of life that creates bonds and memories at home. I’d prefer to attempt to bring back the old one, but even now I actually have to go away to drive one kid across town to a different before picking up one other. Who has time to clean up the family when everyone must be somewhere all the time?

Am I alone?