Laundry: a fact of life - inescapable - sometimes insurmountable - omnipresent. Getting clothes clean seems to be a thankless affair. We just expect to go to the drawer or closet and pull out something to wear. The trouble with dirty laundry is that you can only escape it for about twelve hours and then it is back again, just like a boomerang or the proverbial bad penny. I can only relish the empty laundry basket for a short while until more garments get thrown into it.
I understand the alternative to washing dirty clothes - aka "doing the laundry".....spotted, soiled and stinky garments......the kind of clothing, if worn, that would cause people to wrinkle up their noses, perhaps hold their noses, and maybe get up and move. This is not a scenario I would chose to be a player in so I "do the laundry", but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.
I can still "see" the laundry process that my mother and grandmother had to endure back in the early 1950's. The wringer washer was in the Michigan cellar - no great place to hang out - and the wash tub, with its pleated bottom for hand scrubbing, was nearby. If a household was lucky (we were not) there would be running water present. In our case, water had to be carted down the steep stairs from a well pump somewhere out-of-doors. After the clothes were cleaned, the wet garments had to be hauled back up the steep steps in order to be hung on an outside clothesline. Inclement weather meant that the clothesline had to be strung in the cellar from rafter to rafter. It is no wonder that work clothes and overalls were worn as many days in a row as the nose could handle. "Doing the laundry" was hard work then.
In recent years, the Proctor and Gamble Company has sent out a Tide tractor-trailer to areas hard hit from natural disasters, like the devastation of New Orleans from the Gulf hurricane and subsequent flooding. This remarkable semi must seem like a gift from heaven to those who have no access to washing machines and running water. Each time I see a Tide tractor-trailer, whose capability makes it like a rolling laundramat, I say "kudos" to Proctor and Gamble for making it possible.
I know that there are supposed to only be three things you can count on in pop culture: Death, taxes, and Mom. Let's add laundry to that list.
Ancora imparo
