On Oct 9, 2005, at 23:04, "" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Beth) wrote:
Reading Tamara's description sounds like what I do. Best iron I own
is my
greatgrandfather's, a GE with settings for rayon, silk, wool, cotton,
and
linen (catalogue number 119F23, 1000 watts, 115 volts).
That tells me straight off the distance there is between us personally
and culturally :) You may only be 30 or so years younger (I'll be 56
later this month) than I am _chronologically_, but you have to add at
least another 50 yrs for post-war communist Poland... I never even saw
an iron with a thermostat - something that your great-grandfather owned
- until I came here in '73 (although they began to appear at about that
time)... So, I could be your mother (maybe grandmother) at one level,
but your great-great-grandmother at another level. I've always found it
relatively easy to share experences with my MIL, who was born in 1897
:)
I learnt to iron twice: once in Warsaw, where we had electricity. You
controlled your iron by plugging, un-plugging and re-plugging. You
judged when to unplug/re-plug for whichever fiber by spitting on your
finger and touching it to the plate - the amount of hiss you got back
was your "thermostat"
The second time - when I was a bit older - was in the village, where
they didn't have electricity until I was 14. They used a metal shell
with a handle which had a hinged door at the back, and you heated up
the metal "soul" (an iron-shaped metal slab) in the (coal/wood) stove,
pulled it out red or white hot with "pincers", slid it into the shell,
closed the hinged back door and ironed until the "soul" was cold, while
the other "soul" was heating. While I was permitted to handle an
electric iron by the time I was 7, I was too much of a townie to be
allowed to touch the "soul" iron until I was 11 at least; much too much
risk involved :) Though, of course, my cousins were expected to be
proficient at it much earlier.
The only time I have ever felt superiour in US was when I visited the
Stonewall Jackson (1824-1863) House, here in Lexington, for the first
time... Their irons were even more primitive - they didn't have a shell
with hinged door for the insert - the whole thing was heated... And,
the secondary reason to preen... I was the only person in the crowd of
15 or so who could even guess as to how the tool might have been used
(they have a goffering iron in the collection) :)
But, yes, all those irons (even the early electric ones) were much
heavier than the ones we use now. I remember, during the last "energy
scare" (Carter's presidency), some tailors in NY "discovering" the
non-electric and early-electric irons and their comments - they
actually _liked_ them, once they learnt to lift often, an and to glide
more. Can't say I blame them - it took me a long time to learn to lift
less and press a lot more :)
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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