Ironing things out

I'm afraid I have a confession to make.

I'm using again.

Funny, I had always been proud of the fact that I wasn't a user any more. I had tried it a few times but it consumed my time and left me so dissatisfied.....and yet now, I find myself slinking down to the secluded laundry room to do it in private. It all started up again for me when I recently bought a bedskirt.

Yes, I bought a bedskirt which, as an added bonus, helps to conceal the golden retriever hair clumps that gather under the bed. I put the 'dryclean only' bedskirt into the washing machine, and then the dryer, and it came out really wrinkled. It looked awful and it really needed to be neatly pressed so the pleats would hang nicely and look sharp (while hiding the dog hair). I spent the next 15 minutes trying to find my iron. It was a used iron with a detachable cord that would never stay attached. I would have to keep holding the cord in place in order to keep the iron hot, and I guess that was what cured me forever from using.

I have tidbits of memories of my mother using a huge contraption to iron sheets when I was very young. I was fascinated by it. I cannot believe that I found the exact same machine on the internet on a website dedicated to the history of ironing (mmmhmm....the whereto place for exciting reading - actually, the website is quite humorous to me in places, especially the old advertisements). When I saw these pictures I felt like I flashed back into my childhood - bizarre! I remember that red cardboard tube and I can still smell the freshly pressed sheets, and hear the sounds of the Gladiron as my mom pushed the lever with her knee.

I don't remember the machine in my later childhood. My mother got an iron and....no word of a lie.......I watched her iron underwear. She ironed underwear!!!! She worked full time, managed a household, and ironed underwear and pillowcases and dish towels and men's handkerchiefs (and everyone born after the 70's says, 'handkerchiefs??). Oh you may still see those today if you're a church goer. Some ministers use them to wipe the sweat from their brow after having wiped their nose with it. I would refuse to marry any man who would want to own (and use) a handkerchief and expect me to wash (and iron) it.

So I think my rebel little heart learned young that I would never iron anything I didn't have to. When I married, I proudly bragged that anything that wrinkled would simply go back in the dryer until the wrinkles were gone. There is no place in a busy woman's life for such a time-wasting task on something that is just going to wrinkle again anyways. My kids don't have memories like me of an iron....except for the fall leaf project in elementary school - remember that waxed paper smell of ironing those leaves? If you ever had a rare emergency ironing job after that, the smell of autumn leaves and waxed paper emanated from the iron years later.

.....Back to my search for the old iron..... It must have been my husband who put the iron aside when we did some renovating in the basement. I finally found it in an old 4 quart fruit basket covered in dirt, dust, and cobwebs. I guess he didn't know what it was!

Good for nothing now but the garbage. So, off to Wal-mart I went and bought a new fangled iron with retractable cord. I was so impressed with the job it did on my bedskirt that I went on and ironed a few other things. After all, I wanted to get my money's worth for this new iron. Then I spent hours cleaning out the laundry room (you have no idea how much junk I threw out) to the point that I could permanently set up my ironing board. I knew that if the iron wasn't readily accessible, I would never pull it out again.

Oh the irony.

And so I'm back to being a user. (I'm glad I've aired the dirty laundry.) I have ironed a few of my shirts that I normally accepted as 'supposed' to have the wrinkled look. What a difference. Now people don't look at me with that 'poor woman...she must have slept in her clothes' look in their eyes anymore.

Oh don't be concerned about me. I'm still only an occasional user and plan to stay that way. If I ever do become hardcore, don't you worry. I'll get things ironed out.