Deluded Custodian Challenged

In 1969, I Learned How to Avoid Doing Laundry

Or, “When the EPA started hating children and chemistry sets were banned”

My unique laundry detergents did more than just clean — they were explosive!¹

As a child, I hated what my brothers disparagingly called “girly chores.”

Mom encouraged me to cook and do laundry by introducing me to food coloring. Cooking lasted about as long as the green cake with blue frosting served to a family opposed to their tie-dyed t-shirts.

If I did a job badly, it was sometimes assigned to Brother Cabbage. But even with the step stool, he was too little to reach the knobs. On anything but the dog. Darling Greta reacted by biting.

Cabbage is still weird about boobs.

Mom then sent me to the garage to do laundry with the Maytag monster.

May was my mom’s middle name. I still had the food coloring.

Maytag was telling me to tag May’s clothes!

Abstract expressionism on sheets was underway when I heard Big D call. An opportunity to drive my big brother crazy?

The laundry could wait.

Early chemistry experiments