SHE EVEN IRONED DORIS' DIAPERS

      You heard me right. Back in my mother's generation and prior lots of things got ironed. Do most of you even remember what an iron is or was? It was one thing to spend an entire Monday washing the clothes, bedding, and much more, but, it was another to spend the better part of a day and/or night ironing it all.

        Everything you could imagine got ironed. Shirts, pants, underwear, dresses, handkerchiefs, sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths, and even diapers in our case. I am sure I have left out several items. There was a time when my mother, evidently, couldn't keep up and had a lady from Laurel, Edith Botts, iron shirts for Mom at $1.00 a shirt.

       My mom even purchased sometime in the 1950's an "Ironrite" machine that a person would sit in front of and feed in sheets, pants, and especially most flat items creating great flat creases by two big padded rollers. It saved her a lot of time, but, by today's standards, still consumed a lot of time since who irons sheets?

       It was a different time and from an appearance stand-point it was neat to see old photos and old movies where people dressed neatly and more in a formal manner. Maybe today we dress more leisurely and comfortably, but looking back I am thankful to my mom for all the work she put forward to make us look good. Still today, I take a few shirts to the Cleaners so that when going out in public, I am wearing a "pressed" shirt so as not to look like I just got out of bed with it on!