Ironing

The use of an iron to smooth and flatten clothes is fast disappearing.  I feel like an old lady as I spend ten minutes most mornings, ironing my clothes before work.  However, I was surprised to find that a slightly older friend  uses an even more archaic implement, a mangle, to dewrinkle her larger home fabrics.  Her household revelation caused great interest on Facebook, though I doubt a rush of mangler companies started sending ads to her sidebar.

My use of the iron started early, when Mom assigned me pillowcases and napkins for my beginning attempts.  I remember her equipment included a soda bottle filled with starch water, topped with a piece of nylon  stocking secured with rubber bands.  I think this was to sprinkle on the clothes to impart some stiffness to the cotton fabrics that constituted the majority of our clothes.  Later, the invention of starch in a spray can replaced this homemade tool..

Mom must have done mountains of ironing, but early on, Dad decided to take his work shirts to the cleaners.  Whether this was because of his dissatisfaction with her results or her complaint over the labor I don’t know.  It always seemed a touch of fastidiousness on his part but led to a ready supply of smooth shirt cardboard for art projects.

Ironing has its pleasures, including the smell of hot cloth, the exciting steam expulsions and the heady risk of scorch.  It also has its artistry; the rhythm of collar, cuffs, back and sides, the careful placement of crease and pleats and the expert adjustments of temperature for different kinds of cloth.

The younger generation rarely irons, which grows less and less necessary with all the various artificial fibers and no-iron finishes.  There is also a lot of wrinkling that you can avoid with careful attention to the drying process.  But ironing may just be another type of housework which has succumbed to the reality of the working woman, with little deleterious results.  Unlike the demise of homecooking, I do not see a revival in well-ironed tea towels coming any time soon.