Yes, if you saw the enormous mound in the middle of the floor that I see every time I try to skirt around it to get to the pantry or the boys' room or the family room or my bedroom or the bathroom to take a shower (it does need to happen occasionally, no?), yes, you would say the same thing.
I am dreading doing the laundry. I am actively putting it off, if you want me to be painfully blunt about it all. I don't want to start, because then I'd have to finish.
But I am and always will be so soooo grateful I do NOT have to wash our family's clothing in a big metal tub. Or in a stream. Or in a sink. Or by a hand-pump. (the reunion's enough for me on this one!) Or using lye-soap that would vex my already-parched hands beyond recall to hand-shake-ability. (Seriously, can they make a strong enough lotion for making my sandpaper appendages into baby-bums? Idaho dryness isn't fun for them... miss PA!)
I am thankful for washing machines and pre-made detergent (even if they haven't got the low-environmental-impact thing quite down yet) and Shout (can't Fels-Naptha everything) that do the work for me.
And I am thankful for dryers! No clothespins up and down and up and down and up and down (and on and on for the seven* loads I've got waiting). Although I do remember that sense of accomplishment when I, as a kid, discovered I knew how to use those -and not just to put them on my ears, pretending they were earrings. And then I remember the sense of foreboding when Mom discovered I knew how to use those clothespins. *sigh!* where were child-labor laws then, huh? jk. I know it was all for my good. At least that's what I tell myself as I dole out the work to my own 'helpers'...
And while I'm on a roll with this long, rambly post, why is it that when they 'help' I always end up with twice as much work!! Aren't many hands supposed to make work light?! Whatever.
*at least!
12 years ago
2 comments:
When Benji and I lived in Mexico I used to wash my clothes in the sink in the bungalow that was off of the main house belonging to our landlord. Part of our rent included a maid. Once she came in while I was washing my clothes and she just stared because she said she had never seen a white woman wash her own clothes before. She arranged for me to use the machines in the main house. One was a large tub that we filled up with a hose and the other was an old machine that only had the spin cycle functioning. Kind of tedious but so much better than the sink. I think on those days when I am plowing through my own loads.
I hope you are well. Email me and let me know what you are up to.
Wow! Thanks for that. What a memory for you!
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