Soap suds – a cooking pot and twisted tales

Without thinking twice, doing the laundry is not a chore that I am fond of. Thankfully, washing machines are in existence and we can cut ourselves some slack.

I remember my growing up years back home, we washed tons of clothes by hand and it was not a task to sneeze at. Every Saturday morning, would find me seated on a stool in the backyard of my parents big compound, with a big basin filled with soapy water and bales of clothing in the cloth basket waiting for my fond attention. As I didn’t know better then, it was absolutely fine and helped in domesticating me and my siblings – except my brothers who always tried to escape washing their clothes and would rather go through their entire wardrobe till there’s no clean stitch left to wear.

Now that I recall, I think my mother wasn’t fond of washing either and as soon as she could lay her hands on a top-loading washing machine that had been imported by a friend of the family, she quickly committed her finances into acquiring one. We were elated! We felt like the bourgeoisie and that we had climbed a rung on the social ladder. Not only did we have a landline telephone, we now had a washing machine to boot! I was the envy of my friends for a long time to come.

Fast-forward to my adult years, one of the household gadgets that I promised to buy myself was a washer-dryer as I didn’t want to spend valuable time washing tons of clothing items. My husband is still has an old-fashioned approach towards washing especially his inner whites as he believes that the machine does not do justice to the job. I made it understood that from the get-go when we got hitched 23 years ago, that ‘moi’ cannot be doing that handwashing.

He wasn’t particularly enthused at my obstinacy, but I stuck to my guns, fed him good meals, kept him happy in bed, gave him beautiful children, supported him in many other ways, kept our home warm and welcoming. I wasn’t about to start something that I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain doing and I refuse to do things that I will only do reluctantly and grumble about. We came to an understanding pretty quickly and living happily ever after, thanks to the laundry machine.