Reminiscing about the "good" old days...

I woke up this morning with the thought that I have 4 flannel shirts and a couple of skirts that I need to iron.  ick.  I am not so fond of ironing - unless it is to press a quilt in progress.  Then I got to thinking how I would need to get a spray bottle for water when I go to the store because I do not like to use the steamer on the iron as the water here in Fairbanks has a lot of iron in it and I don't want to ruin my iron. 

A few more moments thinking about ironing got my mind turning back to my childhood.  Back before anyone ever heard of permanent press clothes.  Back to a time when girls wore dresses to school and boys wore buttoned collared shirts.  Back to when levis were ironed and no one had steam irons.

I remember my Mom had a sprinkler bottle that consisted of a sprinkler top and any glass bottle around the house that the cork from the top would fit into.

Once a week, she would take this sprinkler top.

And stick it into the top of a bottle that she had filled with water.

 

Then she would take the huge pile of clothes that needed ironing to the kitchen table.  (With 6 kids, there was plenty of ironing to do every week.)  She would get out her laundry basket and the big square piece of plastic that she had.  Then she would open the plastic and drape it into the laundry basket and taking one piece of clothing at a time, she would sprinkle it lightly and place it into the basket.  She would continue that until she had a heaping basket of sprinkled clothes that needed to be ironed and then would fold the plastic over the top so the clothes could sit for a bit.  Then it was time to get out the iron and the ironing board.  And one by one she would iron each piece and hang it onto a hanger on a stand.  (oh, and if you didn't get all the clothes ironed the day you had sprinkled them - no problem, you just stuck them in the freezer so they wouldn't mildew before you got back to them.)

Not only was she doing the ironing for our large family but she was also ironing Grandpa Carter's clothes and he normally wore a gray shirt and gray pants every day.

 

Then after Polly was born, she fell and broke her knee.   No ironing for her for a while.  But while she healed, Grandpa decided he was going to buy her a mangle iron - that way she could sit down and iron.

 

So this big thing which was about the size of a washer or dryer showed up at the house.
Now instead of standing over an ironing board for hours one day a week, she sat down in front of this monster and ironed.

She got free lessons with the iron so that she could learn how to use it.  And soon, she was not only ironing pillow cases and sheets but she had learned how to even iron the sleeves on a toddler's dress.

To me, this thing was just scary.  And we weren't allowed to use it as it was a bit dangerous as that big round cloth covered cylinder would come down against a very hot piece of metal.  One day, I did decide that I would try it out and the pillow case that I ironed was never rectangle shaped again - I had stretched it all out of shape.

Fortunately, permanent press fabrics came into being and although when I first got married I had a sprinkler bottle, the few things that I have to iron in the 21st century are relatively easy.  Those 4 shirts - well, that is from two weeks of laundry and they will iron up rather quickly.  As for the good old days, I believe that when it comes to ironing - they are here and now.