Question?

 When was polyester invented? Actually it was invented in the United Kingdom in 1941 for the military uniforms. It was not used by the United States until 1971. Everything everyone wore was made out of cotton, wool, linen, silk or other natural products. Spray starch was just as important as water.

I started school in 1951 with a white shirt made of cotton and a wool uniform with a badge and a belt. My white blouse was ironed by me from the time I started school. The shirt was washed, hung on the line outside, brought inside, immediately put in the "to be ironed basket". You dampened the shirt and pull out the spray starch. Nan was the expert at no wrinkles, crisp shirts, when you left for school she made sure you had the best creases in your shirt and they were perfect. My brother, two sister and myself walked to school 1 1/2 miles and the same distance home. One day on the way to school I started to itch around my neck and back. I was 8 and in 3rd grade. Since I had a coat on the itch was not too bad. When I arrived at school I started to wiggle like a worm. It was more than irritating it actually started to hurt. By lunch time the neck and wrists were bleeding and I was crying. The teachers and nuns could not figure out what was wrong with me. They made me walk home alone. They probably thought I was contagious. Nan took one look at me and threw me in the bathtub, tore my clothes off and kept saying she was so sorry. It turns out that Nan washed just my clothes with the new fiberglass curtains. The fiberglass did not blow away when the clothing was put outside on the clothesline. When I ironed my shirts it just imbedded the fiberglass even more into the fabric of my blouse.

The ironing board was always upright on the far side of the kitchen next to the only phone that we owned it was on the wall. Nan had a cigarette in one hand and the spray starch sitting on the edge of the counter. Someone always had something to press. We did not iron our under panties, just our under shirts. I could use a can of spray starch and my blouses would never look as good as Nan's blouses. My sisters would iron their dresses, jeans, tee shirts to perfection. I was lazy or I would pay them 10 cents to iron my blouses for school.

We had a washer and dryer in the basement but the dryer was only used for sheets and towels that were difficult to hang outside. The sheets would take 5 clothespins to hang on the line. The towels were water logged and pulled the clothesline to the ground. Every other item in the house was washed and hung out to dry. What did we do in the winter? We would watch the items on the line freeze within 10 minutes of hanging them. We had a hard time getting the clothespins unstuck and then carry the stiff items back to the house so they could thaw.When they thawed they were still wet so we hung them on every chair in the house. When that happened we made a fort with the clothes draped all over the place. We did not have a set time for homework. We were expected to behave in class, get good grades, be polite and respectful to the teacher, as well as do not embarrass our family.


What is Crisp?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overload

 As Nan was getting a divorce from a 25 year marriage of physical, mental and verbal abuse she never dreamed things could get worse. She moved into a two bedroom apartment from a 14 room home with the two remaining children under 16. There was a little child support from her ex-husband, a $2 an hour job to meet her new commitments. The youngest child, a girl, would get dressed walk to school, then not go in to her room, she was 12. Every other day the school would call the apartment and quiz Nan on the whereabouts of her child. She was in the grasp of a pimp dealing her out for $2 a trick. Nan discovered this horrendous situation and immediately sent her to live in Seattle with her older brother, his wife and son. By this time she was 13 and pregnant. Nan paid for the abortion, scraping together extra money for medical care, food also a little something to help pay for food and lodging in Seattle. The Pimp found out where she was shipped off to and went to bring her back to his slu...
Read more

Runaway

 We headed to the Jersey shore to share a weekly rental with friends. There were 11 children in the station wagon and Nan. There were no seatbelt mandates in 1954. It was not until 1964 they were in American cars. It is 85 miles to Ocean City, New Jersey from our home. Roadside rest areas were few and far between. We played "I Spy" and other car games for the two hour drive. We pulled up to the beach at 10am and rushed with our towels to the edge of the water. Within two minutes we were all called back to the car to help carry chairs, umbrellas, snacks, drinks, floats and boards to our spot. Every child over 7 had the responsibility of attaching themselves to a child under 7.  I had it easy, Richard fell asleep in the car and was ready to play in the surf. He was 3 1/2 years old and very rarely left my side. It was two o'clock and that was time to head to the boardwalk for the afternoon ice cream cone. We held hands, avoided the sea gulls, and sang "I am a little tea...
Read more

Do It

 We are responsible for our own actions. There was no sugar coating what we needed to do to fulfill our programs we advocated for in daily activities. I chose to be a girl scout, to be a part of a group, laugh and giggle while making new friends. At home Nan gave us chores every week, she did not nag us to do them we knew that we owned it and it make her life less hectic if just gave a little help from time to time. Our girl scout troop wanted each girl to sell 50 boxes. I could have gone to my aunts, uncles, neighbors and family friends. That was the easy way out. Nan got a card table, one chair, 50 boxes of cookies and a cardboard sign with a green shamrock on it. We drove to a busy corner in the middle of downtown of our small community. She dropped me off with the table, chair, sign, cookies and $5 in quarters. In those days a box of girl scout cookies were $.75. She knew I would need change. I put on a uniform, hat and sash before I entered the car. I shouted,"Cookies, come a...
Read more