While sitting at work today, I had this strange memory creep into my brain. I don't know what triggered the thought, but it got me to remembering a fun ritual with Mom and my sisters. It happened during the times that Mom would be folding clothes and we would be "helping" her. Yeah, right. That would be the time when we would spy a pair of pajama bottoms and then they would be whisked to our heads and instantly become our very long "hair". We would be transformed into Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella and dance around the room flipping our gorgeous locks until Mom would reach the bottom of the clothes basket and would ask for the return of our "hair".
If there weren't pj bottoms, panties placed on the head made for additional amusement as pieces of our real hair could be pulled up through the leg holes. By doing this, the hair could wiggle around or stand straight up, depending upon the length of the wearer's hair. We would erupt into gales of laughter looking at each others heads and try to outdo one another. The fun would end once again when Mom needed to recover them in order to finish folding the clothes and then handing each one of us our pile of neatly folded items to be placed appropriately and carefully in our designated drawers. (Heaven have mercy on our souls should the clothes just "be thrown" into the drawers)!
Growing up in the 50's and 60's though I can remember wearing dresses the majority of time to school. Though we didn't have a great deal of money and since there were four children, I don't remember having a large selection of dresses to wear to school. However, I always remember that mine were always clean, starched and ironed and always in good repair. As the oldest, and usually the first one to have a new dress that was not a hand-me-down, I had to make sure that I took care of my clothes especially carefully as it would one day belong to Susan or Nancy. One final ritual I recall was arriving home when Mom was folding clothes. (I really think she tried to have that task completed before school was out just so that she could get it over and done with with little distractions from my sisters and me). However, if we were lucky to arrive before the competition, that meant that not only did we get to have our "long hair", but because I was going to grow up and be a ballerina, I would tuck my dress into the legs of my panties, fluff out my dress and begin swirling and twirling around with my impromptu tutu. Being the oldest came with responsibility...responsibility such as being an example to my younger sister siblings and I did a wonderful job teaching them how to be ballerinas too. We were beautiful ballerinas with beautiful long locks.
Folding clothes was a magical time with Mom. I never remember her snatching the clothes from us. I never remember her telling us to stop; that it was ridiculous. I never remember her sending us from the room and asking us to leave her alone. I remember her allowing us to stretch our imagination. I remember her letting us be giddy little girls. I remember a mother who loved spending time with us. After all, she was the one who inspired us with reading and telling stories about ballerinas and fairy princesses.
If there weren't pj bottoms, panties placed on the head made for additional amusement as pieces of our real hair could be pulled up through the leg holes. By doing this, the hair could wiggle around or stand straight up, depending upon the length of the wearer's hair. We would erupt into gales of laughter looking at each others heads and try to outdo one another. The fun would end once again when Mom needed to recover them in order to finish folding the clothes and then handing each one of us our pile of neatly folded items to be placed appropriately and carefully in our designated drawers. (Heaven have mercy on our souls should the clothes just "be thrown" into the drawers)!
Growing up in the 50's and 60's though I can remember wearing dresses the majority of time to school. Though we didn't have a great deal of money and since there were four children, I don't remember having a large selection of dresses to wear to school. However, I always remember that mine were always clean, starched and ironed and always in good repair. As the oldest, and usually the first one to have a new dress that was not a hand-me-down, I had to make sure that I took care of my clothes especially carefully as it would one day belong to Susan or Nancy. One final ritual I recall was arriving home when Mom was folding clothes. (I really think she tried to have that task completed before school was out just so that she could get it over and done with with little distractions from my sisters and me). However, if we were lucky to arrive before the competition, that meant that not only did we get to have our "long hair", but because I was going to grow up and be a ballerina, I would tuck my dress into the legs of my panties, fluff out my dress and begin swirling and twirling around with my impromptu tutu. Being the oldest came with responsibility...responsibility such as being an example to my younger sister siblings and I did a wonderful job teaching them how to be ballerinas too. We were beautiful ballerinas with beautiful long locks.
Folding clothes was a magical time with Mom. I never remember her snatching the clothes from us. I never remember her telling us to stop; that it was ridiculous. I never remember her sending us from the room and asking us to leave her alone. I remember her allowing us to stretch our imagination. I remember her letting us be giddy little girls. I remember a mother who loved spending time with us. After all, she was the one who inspired us with reading and telling stories about ballerinas and fairy princesses.
I remember when I was little staying with Grandmom and after my bath she would wrap my hair up in a towel so I could have "long hair".
ReplyDeleteNo one folds a towel or sheet like Mom does! That's what I remember in addition to how the laundry always smelled...:-)
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