11 April, 2015

Pressing Matters

When I was a little girl I stayed at  my grandmother's house while my parents worked. I remembered my Nannie's "ironing day"; there was a ritual about the whole event.  She would set up the ironing board in the kitchen and would sprinkle all of the the shirts and articles of clothing to be ironed, with water from a re-purposed soda bottle; it was fitted with a perforated top held into the bottle by a corkstopper. The sprinkled clothes were then methodically rolled and placed, one at a time, into a large zippered plastic bag.  I would sit on a stool in the kitchen and watch this weekly occurence as the zippered bag grew smaller and the freshly pressed row of shirts hanging on a hook over the kitchen door grew and grew. To me it was all magic, I loved the order that was created. I've always had an affection for ironing. I love irons, ironing boards and all of the related paraphanalia. Lately, however, I've let the inventory in my own ironing basket grow and grow until it held a mountain of ironing that was threatening to avalanche. Why? I can't tell you. I took the bull by the horns the other day and worked my way through it all... piece by piece. The feeling of accomplishment was amazing. This morning I was greeted by an unfamiliar sight in the laundry room when I entered, an empty ironing basket! All of a sudden I felt connected to those days, long ago, when my grandmother would tirelessly work her way to the bottom of that plastic bag full of damp, sprinkled, rolled-up clothes; I can only imagine how good she must have felt to have her work done... at least for an all too brief bit of time!
Life is Good! 
  

8 comments:

Carolyn said...

I know all about ironing day. When I was in Lehman's store in Ohio, I spotted the sprinkling spout used on the soda bottle for sale. Brought back memories...

Janet O. said...

My mother used to set up the ironing board in the living room for ironing day. She would sprinkle and roll the clothes and then iron while watching the movies from the 30s and 40s that were shown on the local channels in the middle of the day. During the summer I enjoyed spending the hot middays with my mom watching those "old movies" while she ironed, and those movies are still my favorites today. Ironing, not so much. : )

Jacqueline said...

Many good memories with this post.

Nane said...

I don't iron much, unless I am quilting! I take Mikes shirts to the cleaners but I do think it's fun to iron Wade's little dress shirts. I am wondering when he will be old enough tobprotest over the lavender scented best press

LizA. said...

Do you hire out? I need you to come empty my basket for me......

45th Parallel Quilter said...

Similar memories ... my mom would listen to the radio "dramas" while ironing and we played with our toys on the floor nearby. I still "sprinkle" certain clothes prior to ironing ... yes, I do still iron hubby's shirts and put a crease in his pants ... there is definitely a satisfaction in it. Good post!

Kathryn said...

My mum's ritual was the same, down to the pop bottle fitted with the sprinkler! i got to iron handkerchiefs first.

Laura Chaney said...

What a great feeling to not only have an empty basket, but to feel that connection to your grandmother, too!