By Lula Anderson
Did you ever go up (or down ) Palenville Mountain, look at the houses hanging above the gorge, and wonder who lives there? Well, on Sunday, 40 members of WAJPL and Mt Top Golden Agers got a chance of a lifetime to take a tour of the "exclusive" parks in the Tannersville, Haines Falls area. Thanks to DeDe Thorpe who came up with the brilliant idea, to George Kelly, Trustee of the Village of Tannersville who supported the trip, and gave a very generous donation to the Kaaterskill Trolley Co., to Kody Leach, the manager of the Kaaterskill Trolley Co who donated the use of the trolley to us and acted as tour guide so we could get through the small, twisty roads and a big thankyou to Barbie Swanson, resident of Twilight Park who, not only got us permission to enter the private grounds, but also, opened her house to us and provided us with cucumber sandwiches and iced tea. Our Trolley driver, Kelly O'Brian did a wonderful job of maneuvering the roads, and was so considerate of our needs (i.e. adequate pit stops for Senior Citizens). Thank you, Kelly.
I, for one, very much enjoyed the excursion into Onteora Park, as I used to clean many of the houses there. What memories, what stories I had to share. Seeing all of those houses makes me think back to the days when I could still run up and down the many stairs carrying my cleaning products. Making the beds up "just so", as each person had his own way for the sheets and blankets to be put on. That was before fitted sheets when we had to make tight hospital corners on the sheets. What work we put into those houses, but we were lucky that they employed locals.
The Ashland Community Church still has chicken halves to sell after their BBQ on Saturday. As of this morning, they had 20 bags of 2 for 410.00 each. Call Bob Ferrris at 518-734-3942.
WAJPL Spring luncheon was held on Thursday at Prominence Restaurant near the Alpine Plaza in Windham/ Hensonville line. We had a full house of 80 people, and the service was great. Everyone went out fully sated, and most had doggie bags. We had 30 baskets of items to be raffled off and all had a very enjoyable day sitting, eating, and catching up with their friends.
Don't forget this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and please come to the VFW on Rt 23 for the Chili Cookoff and fundraiser for the Veterans' Monument for the Town of Jewett. On the way to, or from, make sure you stop at my house just before the turnoff to Rt 17, Jewett Mountain, on Rt 23 for my yard sale benefitting the Ashland Community Church.
June 1 is the WAJPL Blood Drive at the Windham Ambulance/ Senior Citizen building from 9 - 1. all 1-800-733-2767 or www.redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code Windham Ambulance.
AS I REMEMBER IT
Last week I shared Monday, Wash Day, and had many women, both on the trolley trip, and at our meeting, commenting on the memories that that brought back. We laugh though, because most of them had already washed, dried, folded and put away two loads of laundry before they came to the meeting. I know of one person who used to do her laundry at night when she couldn't sleep, because she no longer had to wait for a sunny day to put it on the line. Anyhow......
Tuesday was the day to iron. This was before the days of permanent press, when all the sheets, pillowcases, dresses, shirts, blouses and handkerchiefs had to be ironed. The clothes that had been taken off the line still damp, had been rolled up and put aside for today. There were no electric irons, and the irons we had were heavy, cast iron. We had several of them, each about 3 inches long and about 2 inches wide without handles. The wood, or coal stove would be going, and the irons would be put on the top to heat up. Each iron had a slot in the center where a wooden handle would be hooked on. Then you had to test to see if it was hot. Spit on your finger and touch the iron quickly. If it sizzled, it was ready. Then you would try it, gently, on the garment to make sure it wasn't too hot and burn an imprint into the item being ironed. Unroll the laundry, pick out an item to be ironed, and make sure it was damp enough. If not, it had to be sprinkled with water to build up steam. We had a soda bottle with a sprinkler top. Don't get the item too wet, but wet enough for the wrinkles to come out. This was especially important for the items that were starched. When the iron got too cool, it was put back on the stove and another was used. Some had cast iron irons that looked like the small travel iron of today, without a cord, of course. These had a spiral handle that was permanently attached. Now a days, these are all doorstops.
All day long, we would iron sheets, pillowcases, doilies, dresses, dress shirts, quick press pants to put a center crease in, fold or hang immediately so it wouldn't get creased. Heat the iron, test the iron, sprinkle, fold. Such hard work.
Even with an electric iron, I could not manage my husband's uniforms as much as I tried. To get Military creases was too difficult, so I had to send those out to be professionally done.
Today I say Thank you to the inventor of Permanent Press. Do you even know where your iron is????
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