Sprinkle Bottles and Ice Boxes

Ironing shirts today...for my man. My mom never taught me to iron shirts...my Aunt Lucille taught me when I visited her and my Lebanese grandparents in Maine in 1963. Aunt Lucille was amazed that I didn't know how to iron clothes~my mom always had piles of clothes to iron and she ironed every day...first sprinkle the clothes with the sprinkle bottle~ she put a sprinkle head on a Coca Cola bottle. If she couldn't get to the ironing right away she rolled them up and put them in a pillow case and put them in the ice box...it was called an ice box then...the old Philco...not a refrigerator. There were no steam irons. I would sit on the back porch with her while she ironed and read one of the five books she would read each week and I watched Queen for a Day on the television. Mother never once asked me if I wanted to learn..you know she'd just as soon do it herself~she enjoyed it but I felt kind of guilty when my friends told me about the chores they had to do around the house. It was more of a bother to teach us girls than to do it herself..and she did a really great job of it..ironing sheets, shirts, underwear etc. So Aunt Lucille taught me how to iron shirts and I think of that with every stroke of the iron....the collar first, then the shoulder area, Then the back and the sleeves and cuffs and finally the shirt fronts. I iron fabric really well...I used to iron shirts for our male friends when I was in college. My friends sew....so when we get together to make articles of clothing or curtains they ask me to iron ...my ex-mother-in-law taught me how to buy fresh fruit, vegetables and meat at the grocery store and I learned to cook with a cook book. I'm spoiled I guess....