Counting your blessings

Today I had to do laundry. Normally I loathe doing laundry. It’s not the putting the stuff INTO the washer and dryer, it’s taking the darn stuff OUT and folding it, and putting it away. And knowing that, inevitably, by the end of the day, there will be MORE laundry. I loathe tasks that never seem completed (scrapbooking doesn’t count). In all honesty, I don’t relish any domestic task–except cleaning and organizing, something about that always gives me a thrill. But laundry is a chore. And I don’t like it.

But today it had to be done.

So Aunt Debi dropped me off at the laundromat (our place has no washer/dryer) and I carried all the crud in and went about starting the various loads and whatnot.

Now, I grew up poor. We use to go to the laundromat frequently, and that place became like a second area of recreation. I never helped my mom (LOL), I would roam up and down the aisles, watch the clothes tumble about in the dryers, and would always play in the carts, though the numerous signs expressly prohibited it. Many of the laundromats were next to a convenience store and I’d often venture there and beg my mom and dad to buy me a soda, or an ice cream, or chips, or candy or a comic book (I swear it was at the laundromat that I read all about the Avengers and kept up on Archie). Over time, the laundromat became a very soothing calm place to sit and think and read and of course, watch other people (I love people watching… could do it all day long). So today… upon walking into this laundromat, I reverted back to my childhood and was instantly warmed by the smell of the FRESH laundry and the general coziness that exists in all laundromats. Except this laundromat was devoid of one GLORIOUS thing: dirty, crying children (how well I remember those kids growing up in the ‘hood).

I got the washers loaded up (four loads), bought some dryer sheets because we had neglected to purchase them at the store, and soon loaded things into the dryer. (The speed of the laundromat is amazing. Absolutely stellar. Commercial grade washing machines are fantastic things.)

Upon putting things into the dryers, I noticed a poster that had inscribed on it directions given 100 years ago to a young bridegroom on how to wash laundry. I found a similar thing on the internet (God bless the internet) and wanted to share.

1. Build fire in back yard to heat kettle of rain water.
2. Set tubs so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is sharp.
3. Shave one whole cake of lye soap in boiling water.
4. Sort things. Make three piles: one pile white, one pile coloured, one pile work britches and rags.
5. Stir flour in cold water ‘till smooth, then thin down with boiling water for starching.
6. Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, boil. Rub coloureds but don’t boil, just rinse and starch.
7. Take white things out of kettle with broomstick handle, then rinse, blue and starch.
8. Spread tea towels on grass.
9. Hang old rags on fence.
10. Pour rinse water on flower beds.
11. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
12. Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with side-combs, brew cup of tea, sit and rest and rock a spell, and count blessings.

Never shall I complain of doing laundry again, but only if it’s at a laundromat

P.S. Did I just write an entire entry on LAUNDRY? Wow.

~ by elysha23 on June 19, 2009.