I HAD A MEMORY

I worded my title as such because I have a friend who is always telling great stories that she remembers from her youth and I've always told her I can't remember anything. Yet, when reading her blog, it triggers a memory.

It doesn't have to have anything to do with what she's discussing... just a word and I'm off on a memory trip of my own. I think the following memory is funny, so I'm telling it. Thanks for this one Sizzie!

When I was in high-school, my sister was two grades higher than I. We were probably considered "poor" financially in those days, so we didn't have the benefit of a washing machine. Thus, we had to wash our own clothes, in the bathtub, on a scrub board...mom said we were old enough to do that chore ourselves. Well, I wasn't so good at keeping enough clothes clean for the week, so I had to do double duty with my washing chore. My sister, on the other hand, was Miss Do Everything Right. Her clothes were washed, ironed and hung or placed neatly in her dresser drawer, and enough to last her the whole week.

She would always tell me that I needed to be better prepared. Today I might have given her a flip answer, like "get bent", but back then ... well, I probably had some smart answer for her.

Anyway, eventually she graduated and started a job but still lived at home. I had two more years of school. She always left for work earlier than when I had to catch the school bus, (I'm sure you have figured out where I'm going here) ... after she left for work, I would go to her wardrobe and borrow her clothes to wear to school. Nice clean clothes...

And... I would return from school before she got home from work, sooooo... I'd place her clothes back neatly in her closet or dresser. This went on for about a year and a half... just before I graduated from high school. She never knew, until... that blasted year book and my stupidity.

I had all my pictures taken for the yearbook wearing her clothes. When the yearbook came out and she saw the pix, she had a fit. She could not believe I could have pulled it off, as she thought I wasn't capable of keeping anything neat or clean. And the thought of her wearing clothes that had already been worn was more than she could take. I'm not sure if we had an actual physical knock-down-drag-out. Probably not then... she was too sophisticated for that, after all, she was a working girl.

Of course, that was the end of having clean clothes prepared for me. But it was a blessing while it lasted.