When I was growing up there were no such things as perm press clothes. Mother used an iron that weighed approximately three pounds to press our “dress” or Sunday clothes. Perm press clothes came along at a later date in my life. My sisters and I helped with the ironing. We used a smoothing iron that we would heat on the hearth of the fireplace in the wintertime and the cook stove during the summer months. When the iron was hot, it was pushed back and forth over the garment to smooth out the wrinkles. The cook stove played a fourfold job when it was used to heat the irons. While preparing the evening meal, Mother would cook a large boiler of turnip greens on top of the stove and fill the oven with sweet potatoes to bake.
On a cold day, Mother would heat the irons in front of the fireplace. There were times she baked little corn pones and sweet potatoes on the hearth while heating the irons. Mother had to be sure the irons were clean because soot from the smoke would cover them. Many times she used an old Sears, Roebuck catalogue to clean the irons.
Back then girls didn’t wear slacks and pantsuits like we do today. Blouses, dresses, skirts and shirts had to be ironed. We didn’t iron sheets, pillowcases and towels. What a wonderful feeling to use fresh towels from the clothesline, and I will never forget the good night’s sleep I would get on sheets filled with sunshine right from the clothesline.
I hated to iron clothes. We had to iron them right the first time or we had to iron the clothes until we ironed them right.
What a wonderful day when perm press clothes came on the market! Goodbye, smoothing irons, and hello, permanent press garments. Recently, a friend and I ordered dresses from a catalogue. Not thinking, I ordered dresses that had to be ironed. What a mess! I had a hard time finding the iron and I don’t know what happened to my ironing board. I spread the dresses on the bar and tried to iron them. As I said, “What a mess!” With the help of son, George, I pressed them enough so that they didn’t look like towels.
I said to myself, “Self, why did I buy dresses that had to be ironed?”
“That’s what you get for not paying attention to what you were doing. So push the iron this way and that way and if you take your time you will get the ironing done,” said Self.
I’ll pay attention to what I buy from now on and if I’m lucky I’ll never have to push a smoothing iron again.
I think of Mother and how hard she worked to see that her girls looked good. She was there to do the ironing when we girls had other jobs to do. I would give anything if Mother was still alive to enjoy perm press clothes and could forget pushing the smoothing iron this way and that to help her family look good when they went visiting.
