Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Today is Permanent Press Day. Which begs the question...

...do you iron?

I do. Oh, yeah, I've been known to pull things out of the dryer and hang them up immediately before they get a chance to get wrinkled.

But by and large, clothes get ironed at our house. Our ironing board pretty much stays up, and spray starch is a regular expenditure.

My husband is one of the best ironers (is that a word?) that I've ever known. He can iron a crease on a pair of pants that you could cut your finger on.

Some clothes are just meant to be worn crisply ironed.

But ironing hasn't always been easy!

I can remember, as a little girl, opening the refrigerator door to find a bunch of damp clothes inside. Before the advent of said Permanent Press, apparently a lot of clothes were made of 100 per cent cotton, and that can be murder to iron. Keeping the damp clothes in the fridge kept them from souring before Mom could get to them, and apparently eased the pressing process.

I can remember also my mom teaching me to iron by having me iron pillowcases and my dad's handkerchiefs. Wow, is this showing my advanced age, or what? Ironing PILLOWCASES?! and who carries handkerchiefs, or "hankies," as my dad used to call them, anymore?

According to halife.com, Permanent Press Day is " a day proudly to wear polyester and keep the iron unplugged."

Please don't even get me started on leisure suits. Those polyester-filled monstrosities will still be sitting in landfills hundreds of years from now!

How about you? Got any ironing memories? And do you still grace the ironing board from time to time? Do tell!


Photo Credit

3 comments:

Sherry said...

No ironing, never, no way, no how. My mom used to pay a lady to do her ironing. Mom was a schoolteacher and too busy to iron. Then, later after she retired, she couldn't stand for long periods of time to iron. But she still wanted those crisp, unwrinkled clothes.

Cindy Swanson said...

Really Sherry, so many clothes today don't require ironing...especially if you grab them out of the dryer pretty quick!

Solameanie said...

I just wish I could get my poor mother to stop ironing except in emergencies. The poor soul has worn out her arm and shoulder (including from several years working at a dry cleaners), but she insists on ironing every load of laundry. I bet if I came home suddenly in the middle of the day, I'd catch her ironing shoelaces.

I guess it's a generational thing.

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