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Show Oh for the Good Old, quiet, peaceful Days By Mary Gae Evans Have you ever heard your grandmother tell about how she used to do her Monday washing, heating the water on the wcod-burning kitchen stove on a cold, crisp morning, then scrubbing the clothes in a steaming tub of suds on a scrubbing board? Then had her tell you of the white radiance of them as they hung out on the line in the cool breeze to dry. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it. Those poor people in the pioneer era. Now all we have to do is sort it, get out the pre-treatment spray, go through and spray all the stains and collar rings, then soak it for a while, decide which detergent to use (the one that works in cold water; hot water; or in the short, warm, wash and wear cycle-besides making sure we've got the right one for delicates or for cotton etc.). We add the appropriate detergent and turn on the completely automatic machine. Now, so far, we've only made two trips up and down the basement steps. Next, of course, we must remember to dash back down just at the right moment and add bleach when the washer is filled and begins to agitate. Then back up the stairs and take a 20 minute break until time to run back down and add fabric softener to the rinse cycle. Then back up the stairs and wait another 10 minutes or until we get our breath, then it's back down to traasfer clothes from washer to dryer, making sure to add a product to prevent static cling (naturally holding out anything that the dryer might shrink). Now we relax, right? Wrong! Drying must be carefully timed because clothes left in fho dryer even for a few minutes after it stops will wrinkle and have to be wet down and dried over again. Now isn't that easier, I mean modern living really has its " advantages. ad-vantages. No longer do we go out in the evening and milk a nice gentle cow that gives gallons of milk and rich cream, we can just run to the store and pay $1.68 for some thin white stuff in a plastic bottle. And, we don't have to grow a garden either, we can buy those pretty pink-colored tomatoes in the store or some other fresh vegetables with part of the flavor removed. We no longer have to worry about feeding chickens. .we also no longer have to worry about ever seeing one of those beautiful giant fresh eggs with a double yolk. The egg producers aren't so dumb, they keep those kind home to feed to their kids. We're lucky we dont' have to put up with all the noise the pioneers had too-like horses hooves clip-clomping down the street, an occasional oc-casional piano or maybe harmonica in the living room, or the crickets outside out-side by the porch swing. Now we have those nice big stereos with all that nice loud music and drums, and the reassuring sounds ' of cars and sirens and heavy machinery. Poor grandma, she really had it rough. She could never even have imagined all the wonderful progress we've made toward a peaceful, easier way of life. |