Ironing......

When we were in our twenties and thirties, we had a friend that shared with us his dream of "making it" in life. He said if he could have half and half in his cereal and real butter on his table for every meal.....he would know he had "made it". I've chuckled about that several times over the years because most of us have attained the ability to have butter on our tables and half and half in our fridges. In those days, we all ate margarine, yuk, and put milk on our cereal. I think the one who has cereal with half and half is a rare specimen but most of the people I know have butter and not margarine on their toast. The health reports would indicate that butter is by far the healthier option and that half and half is a bit heavy on fat for drinking it with our cereal. So even though our friend may be able to afford half and half for his cereal...he probably doesn't pour it on his cereal. I hope he is enjoying butter, though.

My standard for "making it" was and still is being able to send Ken's shirts to the laundry to be starched and pressed. I have hated ironing for most of my years. My mother would have me iron my clothes on Monday's when I returned home from school. I HAD to do this because it was training for my future. I remember thinking about what was ahead of me while I was on the bus. Mom never understood and actually fluffed off my complaints that each time I ironed I got nauseated. Many years later, I realized that the reason I became sick to my stomach was that the ironing board cover, which was silver, had a coating that when hot made an odor I could not abide. There was a name for that kind of cover which escapes my memory right now but I will be happy if I never see one of those again.

People tell me that I'm crazy to still iron....one young gal said, "I take the clothes right out of the dryer and hang them up and one can't tell the difference". I beg to differ. While I'm not nearly as fussy about it as I once was, I still can't send Ken out with a shirt not ironed. Actually, I prefer them starched stiff and he likes that also but I'm not going that far anymore these days.
I have at least two sons in law and a son that iron their own shirts. My niece's husband irons his as well because my niece said she can't do it good enough to please him. Ahhhhh, so that is the secret....why didn't I do a worse job so Ken would have taken it over. Actually, this is one of those issues that makes it evident that there is a generational gap. I don't know any guy of our peers that ironed his own shirts. Guys do many things in this generation that would have been left to the wives in my younger days; such as getting up during the night with crying babies, etc.

So, what is my solution? I've been more careful to buy more knit clothing items which do not need ironing for the neat look. I have also cheated a few times and sent eight to ten shirts to the laundry. I just got finished ironing hankies and cloth napkins....I have pants and shirts to go. The pants I'll tackle but the shirts I just may cheat on again. I haven't quite "made it" but I'll act like I have this week.