What ever happened to perma-press? Tina asks herself as she is ironing a linen pair of capris, and is having difficulty getting the wrinkles out. She goes through the history of fabrics, from perma press, to wrinkle free, to natural fibers, to those that today need ironing, just when life should be simpler.
As Tina is ironing her husband’s dress shirt, she questions why her husband is steadfast on wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie in his stock broker business. She also reflects on what a clean-cut person he is, and how everything has to be in order, and when things get out of order, that it drives him crazy. Speaking of crazy….
As Tina irons a dress she wore to a party she attended with her husband, she reflects on the good times they used to have together and wondered what happened between them.
She imagined people reading it. Why would they care? Someone would respond, no doubt, as they always did on these things. “Good work, Tina” or “Rather you than me,” or something equally similar.
The age that they start using computers nowadays too is just unbelievable, Tina thought. The other day she’d seen a five-year-old tapping away at one of those tablet computer things in a restaurant, blatantly ignoring his parents while they ate their food. What happened to crayons and coloring books to entertain kids? In the supermarket she had seen children as young as three years old with handheld computer consoles or their parents’ phones. Whatever happened to children playing with boxes or playing outside in the fresh air? No wonder they were all pasty and overweight nowadays!
However, Tina would welcome any technology that would save her from doing the ironing. If they can invent robots that vacuum the house, why hasn’t anyone invented an iron that works by itself? Sure you have to put coordinates in it or something and carry it from room to room--but still. Tina stares off into space. Imagine it, an iron that you just press a couple of buttons and it works by itself. Of course, you’d have to change the clothes each time it finishes with a garment, and you’d probably have to keep changing the setting depending on whether it was ironing a shirt or a skirt, otherwise it would be racing all over the ironing board willy-nilly.
Tina shook her head as if to banish the thought. That’s just silly. It wouldn’t save any time whatsoever. Leave the inventing to the inventors, Tina, she said to herself, you wouldn’t be able to use the damn thing anyway, even if they did invent it!
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Dutch
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Already translated.
Translated by Marlies Perman
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Nicole Stella
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Andre Barroso
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Noel Romero
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