Honeymoon Laundry

The setting up of your own household as a newlywed is such a sweet time. Gifts for a new marriage are nostalgic from the very moment they are seen. Our first two-slice toaster, new linens and fluffy towels. Each carefully put in just the right spot, each used with care imagining they will last for a lifetime. Our WWII military house had a washing machine, but not a dryer. It was expected that we would use the provided clothesline to dry our laundry.

 
How pretty my clothesline looked with my honeymoon linens drying under the Tuscon sun. Four o'clock, darkening of the skies, the scent of oleander heavy in the air. Rainstorm rushing to bring in my laundry, towels as stiff as plywood. I stacked them like flat cardboard boxes and carried them under my arms. I had to iron each towel to get them to relax.

My daily laundry pattern became a race to get the flat linens off  the line before the coming of rain. I was exhausted from doing laundry by the end of the first month! Their had to be an easier way! Thank goodness a neighboring wife saw me laboring at hauling in my stiff laundry and called over the garden wall, "Fabric softener. You have to use fabric softener!" Honeymoon Laundry a memory treasured by me.