Thursday, April 12, 2018

Permament

 You see them on Facebook, those meme's that ask if you remember or do you know what this is ? I enjoy seeing them and identifying the objects of the past. I have even subscribed to Reminisce magazine because of them. I guess advertising does work , I've been influenced ! Hey, isn't that a bad thing ? Well, no,  unless the Russians are doing it that is,  but that's another story for another day.
 Something that came to mind yesterday was permanent press clothing. Do you remember when that was a new thing ? I did a Google search and discovered it really began, in the retail market, about 1953, same year I was born. So, to be accurate I can't say I remember that innovation as a new thing. I do remember my Mom complaining that it didn't work and that those shirts and pants still required ironing. Fact is, Mom is still ironing those shirts and pants to this very day. In her opinion it still doesn't work. I know my clothes are only ironed for special occasions, permanent press works fine for everyday use. I wear blue jeans and either a polo style shirt or tee shirts so it really doesn't matter at all. I do recall when it was stylish to press creases into your blue jeans ! Yes, I even had a jean blazer at one time, very fashionable.
 My grandmother was a laundress. Now there's a term you don't hear often. She washed and ironed other peoples clothes for a living. The customers dropped their laundry off at her home. She washed them , by hand in large wash tubs in her kitchen. They were hung out to dry, then ironed, folded and wrapped in brown kraft paper tied with a string. An itemized bill was pinned to the bundle. Grandma didn't think much of scotch tape, that stuff was expensive and didn't work very well ! Just tie that bundle closed with string and use a straight pin to attach the bill. That is how it was to be done ! And her irons were those flat irons. She had a complete set warming on the coal stove most every day. Well, except for wash day, wouldn't need them on wash day. No electric steam irons for her. They didn't have sufficient weight to them and required you to press down too hard. She had larger ones that weighed a few pounds for doing sheets and such, all the way down to small ones for cuffs and collars. A sprinkler bottle was used to wet the clothes before pressing, that created steam enough. How well I remember the sound of her wetted finger striking the flat of those irons when she tested the temperature. She checked her oven temperature the same way. I never asked her about permanent press fabrics but I expect she would have just laughed about that.
 That is the purpose of those meme's to jog your memory. I remember this or that, the things from your childhood that you took for granted. They were just everyday things as common as a housefly. From Grandma's house I remember those irons and the smell of them on the fabric. I can hear the creak of the ironing board as Grandma pressed those clothes. Grandma used octagon soap and bluing on her laundry. I can remember helping set up those wash tubs and filling them. They sat on saw horses. Hot water was brought over from the stove in big kettles, added as needed. Draining those tubs was work too, had to be bailed out. One tub for washing, one for rinsing and sometimes the third one for bluing. That's when you were doing whites.
 All of that are just memories now. Permanent press ? Yes, I guess we are, when are we going to have permanent clean ? Now that would be an innovation ! I do remember Grandma doing that laundry in that fashion. Mom always had a regular washing machine and later on a dryer too. I didn't grow up at Grandma's house. We didn't have a coal stove and so an electric iron was in order at my house. Mom still used that sprinkle bottle though, it just worked better. That modern steam iron always leaked just a bit, an annoyance. A sprinkle bottle was better. Truth be told, a good solid flat iron works best too ! Permanent press still isn't all that permanent.  
  

No comments:

Post a Comment