Today has been a quiet day here at Joe's Pond. We started the day off with bright sunshine and the temperature actually got to a high of 58. Low last night was 25, a little warmer than previous nights, but there was still plenty of frost on the pumpkins.

We went to St. Johnsbury for haircuts this morning. By the time we got home, a little after noon, the sun had pretty much disappeared. For a while it looked as if it might rain, but that didn't happen, and I think we're going to have a warming trend for the next few days.

Today was also wash day for me. I know lots of people these days do laundry every day, and there was a time when my kids were at home, I had to do a washing every day, too, but now Fred and I keep pretty clean and we don't have to dress up like when we were working in an office. We can always find something clean to wear around the house, so I do a couple loads once a week, on either Sunday or Monday. And I seldom iron anything, but today I did. Used to be lots of things had to be ironed - back before technology made wrinkle-free material. There was a day when I had to iron half a dozen dress shirts or more. I was pretty fast at it, too.

Times have changed a lot since I learned about doing laundry chores. I first learned how to iron by doing flat stuff like handkerchiefs, napkins and pillow cases. I was reminded of that today when I was inspired to iron two stacks of napkins I've had sitting on the drier all summer. There were a bunch of "hankies" there, too - the pretty ones with tatted or crocheted lace. I love to tuck one into a pocket with the lace showing. I never mastered tatting and don't do crochet well, either, but my mother and most of her sisters were pros. They tried to teach me to tat, but I never got the hang of it and could only produce tight little knots.

Anyway, I got everything ironed this afternoon, and the process brought back a pile of memories - of how as a kid I used to rush through my ironing chores at home in the summer so I could catch up with my father and uncles in the hayfield. My mother insisted I learn at least a few basic housekeeping duties, but I always preferred to be working in the fields or wherever my father was. I was more at home driving the hay truck or a pair of horses than I was helping my mother in the house.

When I first went to work in St. Johnsbury, I found a room with kitchen privileges with Dr. Charlotte Ashe, a widow. She was a chiropodist with her office in her home, and also on Main Street, and also took in tourists. She had a few overnight guests from time to time, and several regular "roomers" like myself, except I was the only one who had access to her kitchen. We got along fine with that arrangement - we even shared some meals and cooking duties. On weekends when I didn't go home, I agreed to help out with some of her work - mainly ironing. I liked doing it because she had a mangle, a wonderful machine that pressed sheets, tablecloths and other flat items beautifully - all I had to do was feed the material into the thing properly. It was time consuming and tricky if you did other items like clothing, but with a little experimenting, I managed that, too. It was great for pressing slacks. I suppose they don't even make household mangles anymore.

I'm glad I got all those napkins and handkerchiefs done today, though, and admit I enjoyed doing it. Ironing is kind of like painting a fence - you can let your mind wander to all sorts of wonderful places and still get the job done.