Purple Hands

My Mom decided she was going to juice concord grapes. She did not have a fancy press or a way of easily getting the seeds out of the grapes. It would probably have taken too much time to get the seeds out of the grapes anyway. Mom had a lot of concord grapes to try and juice and no help from my older sister or me, and especially no help from my two younger brothers. So Mom sent us off to play and got to work. First she got the broom and mop. I know these don't seem very useful when you are trying to make grape juice but Mom had a plan. Back to the mop and broom, she tied some white towels or material from the middle of one to the middle of the other. This created a catch of about 12 inches and inside this she place the grapes. Sitting on a chair Mom put the grapes that were in the cloth or towel thing and began to squeeze the grapes. I almost forgot, second, Mom had a large five gallon bucket set between her legs. As she squeezed the grapes the juice began to come out of the cloth and drip into the bucket. As she squeezed her hands began to change color. At first it was a light blue tint, but as she continued to work the hue became darker and darker until her hands were a deep purple. Now as she squeezed the grapes she used the mop and broom to spin the cloth tighter. Mom would stand and spin one side a crank or two and then the other side the same. I am sure that this system sped up the process considerably. Well there she sat all morning as my older sister and I would come by and watch in amazement as the juice dripped deliciously off of the cloth and into the bucket. I am pretty sure that my younger brother's cloths became a little purple because of his need for a diaper change or a drink. I don't remember how many bottles of grape juice that mom put away that day but I know that her hands were purple for weeks.