May 17, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. Ironing.

Ken has suggested that ironing kills people, because everyone he knew who used to iron every week is dead. It is certainly true that for most people, ironing is not a weekly chore, but I know people who keep an ironing board up all the time and press their clothes every day, just to freshen up the look of the clothes. I even know a person who keeps not one but two machines in her laundry room, just to iron the table clothes, sheets and pillow cases. The machines look just like the one we owned when I was a child, and was called an "iron er" and my friend found one being discarded in an old house. She bought it and discovered that it was so useful that she bought a second one when she spotted one in an antique store. So now she has two, just in case one breaks. They are no longer sold to ordinary householders. It is not accurate to say that no one alive can iron. Most ladies iron some time in the year and I have even been told that some men iron their own shirts.

Today I am going to iron. This activity I perform every six months. I have a shelf in my closet where I store items to iron, and when the shelf is full, I iron them all, except for the table cloths, which I iron when I am out of table cloths. Today I have four outfits to iron, all cotton, two are skirt and jacket and two pants and top, plus one blouse. I have already sprinkled them all and wrapped them in damp cloths in the refrigerator so the clothes will be damp. I always sprinkle them all at once, because I can easily talk myself out of the need for the garments to be ironed, because, after all, I have not worn these clothes for a long time and I have other clothes to wear. Many years ago I threw out (really donated) every object that needed to be ironed, but that was when I was much more busy than now. I also regretted donating all those garments. One day I searched for an hour, trying to find a dress, and finally decided that I had given the dress away to the Greentree Shelter, so now I iron.

Ironing reminds me of my youth, when I learned to iron. I was good at it, so when we lived in Vancouver and my Mother had a bad shoulder and could not iron, I inherited the task and ironed for everyone in the family. Now, I have to remind myself the order to take when ironing a shirt or jacket. It certainly is not intuitive. But after the first one or two items, I just roll through the garments. Of course, I iron in the office, where we have the TV so I always listen while I iron. In the olden days in Vancouver I listened to the radio or talked to someone, in order to keep myself from thinking about the whole basket to be ironed. Today is the day to iron, and I will begin, just as soon something good comes on the TV.