Dirty Laundry

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I’ll bet you’re thinking, “she posted a pic of her dryer?!”  How boring.  I did this for several reasons.  First, the top of the dryer has not seen the light of day for more than a year.  The cats are all mad because they’d come to think of it as some type of lounge area.  Second, it reminds me how blessed we are to have them.  I remember dreading Saturdays growing up because we had to load up all our dirty clothes and take them to the laundromat.  Back then there were really no video games except in arcades and kids were actually required to do work.  Daddy had a big thing of quarters and I would watch Mama’s face turn as red as her hair because there was no air conditioning.  Frankly, it was Hell.  I would safely label it the worst part of my childhood.  And then there was the dreaded steamer.  It made that awful place seem 10,000 degrees hotter.  When we first got married and I got to live in the only house I’ve ever known, we had to buy a refrigerator, washer and dryer.  I was SO excited.  This was when they first started making colors and, being a budding techie, I got the best brand for the best deal.  Two loves of mine:  getting high tech stuff and getting great deals.  And yet I still DETEST laundry.  How easily I have forgotten our station wagon slipping and sliding in the ice to get to the washateria only to wait for an hour because all the machines were taken and the humiliation of having other people see your unmentionables.  Now all I have to do is empty a hamper downstairs and any time I want I can have clean clothes.  What a blessing!  I DON’T want to take it for granted; I DON’T want to forget how hard things were for my parents and yet how happy they always made me.  And I DON’T want our little girl to be oblivious to the suffering, plights and misfortunes of others.  There is a false sense of arrogance that comes with money, in my opinion.  After all, if they have more money they are “better,” are they not?  More successful.  Smarter.  A harder worker.  And yet all of that is false.  Look at people in other countries still washing their clothes in polluted rivers.  We are ALL so blessed.  I always want to remember that and not take even the most mundane things for granted.  My father taught me never to envy, but always to aspire:  to aspire through personal growth and to always do my best.  Hooray for those who find it calming and therapeutic, however I still cannot bring myself to iron.  I buy “travel” and “wrinkle free” clothes and linens for that very reason.  I shall end with the words of a woman whom I have always greatly admired.  Erma Bombeck said her second favorite household chore was ironing.  “My first being hitting my head on the top bunk until I faint.”  I could not agree more.

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