HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY – PRESSING ON

Today as I think of mothers everywhere, I give gratitude for labor-saving progress that has improved the lot of all women and homemakers. Since we were talking about ironing recently, I "updated" my thoughts with a look back to the day when ironing was not electrified.

I believe the first iron I remember in my Mother's home was not a steam iron – just a simple electric iron. Probably by 1960 Mother had a steam iron, but it didn't change the ironing process. She still sprinkled the clothes before she ironed them since the steam alone was not adequate to the task in her opinion. In fact, I suspect if she were here today, she would still sprinkle some items even though irons now emit a shot of steam or a fine spray of water to help erase a particularly tough wrinkle. Even I will sprinkle an old linen tablecloth or a cotton blouse before ironing it.

A friend was telling me that while visiting her granddaughter, a young mother, she asked to use her iron. The granddaughter confessed that she didn't own an iron. My friend and I agreed that we would not be able to get along without an iron and we often leave the ironing board up. It seems that something always needs pressing and the iron is still an absolute must for the seamstress. Mother advised that good sewing was in the pressing as much as in the stitching.

But – ironing in my mother's day still seems like modern times to me. Here at the farmhouse, Grandma Ina didn't ever have electricity – still didn't have it when she passed on in 1957. Once, when Mother and I were cleaning the farmhouse in the '60s, she decided a curtain needed pressing. She considered taking it back to town, but you know how it is – she wanted to finish the job at hand. She decided to take advantage of the fire in the old wood cook stove and use Ina's flat irons to press the curtain, thereby also giving me a demonstration of how it used to be done. She put several of the flat irons onto the stove. After some length of time, she inserted the interchangeable wooden handle into one of the irons and gave it the sizzle test (moistened index finger). It was a must to test the iron, perhaps as much to be sure it was not too hot as hot enough. When she deemed the iron temperature adequate, she commenced to iron the curtain. As the iron lost heat and became less effective, she put it back on the stove, picked up another iron, tested it for heat, and continued ironing. Believe me, she worked quickly in order to cover the most "ground" possible before the iron lost heat.

[In the first photo, my paternal grandmother, Ina Dobson, appears a little self-conscious as she hangs clothes in the grove in 1921. The second photo is probably Ina's youngest child, Aunt Shirley, hanging clothes in the 1930s. And here's a photo of Ina's flat irons and some of her other laundry tools which I use to decorate my laundry room. Mike weighed one of the irons in the old Dobson cradle scale -- 4 pounds. I don't know if the little one is a toy or if it was used to press out corners of shirts and blouses. At any rate, I found it in the old toy box. Flat irons make excellent doorstops.] KW