More quotidian matters

I see by my post counter that this one is #501. It seems like more.

We who washed in the "good old days" know that after washing came ironing--our's was usually Tuesday afternoon while we listened to soap operas on the radio. Remember Stella Dallas?

I was in charge of ironing my dad's work clothes and brothers' levis and all the handkerchiefs (before the days of Kleenix--either that or we couldn't afford them), and pillowcases. We didn't iron sheets, thank goodness.
That way, I couldn't mess up anything of importance. We first sprinkled the very wrinkled clothes (you would be wrinkled too if you had gone through a roller twice).
with a big bottle filled with water. And then wrapped the clothes up in a blanket or sheet to "ripen"--that is, for the water to spread throughout the clothes. After a while, we plugged in the old heavy iron, got out the ironing board and began. Somewhere along the way, some of the clothes were starched. That was before spray starch.

While all this was a lot of work, it was a great satisfaction to have all the clothes cleaned and ironed and hanging in the closet. Cleanliness surely must be next to godliness. It feels so good.