TheBanyanTree: If It's Monday, It's Laundry

[Jeri Xiques]

Isn't it funny how we associate certain tasks or events with particular days
of the week?  Monday was the day my Mom--and every other housewife I
knew--did the laundry.  It was what housewives did on Monday.  If you are an
employed adult, most likely Monday is that dreaded day:  Black Monday.  I
used to wake up at ungodly hours like 2 or 3 AM, thinking and worrying about
files waiting for me at work and the pressure, demands and deadlines.

Tuesdays were Ironing Day (in the days prior to polyester and drip/dry
clothes).  Mom had a glass bottle with a metal-top sprinkler thingy that she
filled with water and sprinkled all the clothes to dampen them for ironing.
No steam irons in those days.  Starch was mixed up from a starch powder and
water and boiled on the stove.  Clothes were dunked in that mixture.
Ironing took up most of Tuesday.

As a kid, Wednesdays meant spaghetti and meatballs for school lunch until I
moved to Texas, and then it was Mexican Food.  Every Wednesday.  Of course,
Fridays used to feature fish, but at some point that changed.

As a working adult, Wednesday was Hump Day...no no, getchyer minds outta the
gutter!  That just meant the week was half over.  Sometimes singles would go
bar-hopping on Wednesday nights to line up dates for the coming weekend.
Churchgoers usually have choir practice on Wednesday night.

I don't particularly remember any specific thing related to Thursdays except
as a single woman, perhaps a date to get a jump on the weekend.  Couldn't
stay out late though 'cause tomorrow was a workday.

Friday evenings, when I was a single mom, I would take my kids out for
Italian food.  We especially loved Jim's Villa Roma.  They had the best
Manicotti I ever ate, until my disillusionment upon learning it came out of
a frozen package!

Saturdays meant house cleaning, grocery shopping, all the things you didn't
have time for during the week, and in the evening, hopefully a date.  Now,
as a tired and retired housewife, Saturdays are pretty much like any other
day, although I still like to be taken out to dinner.

Sunday is for Church, of course, or for lying around wading through the big
Sunday paper, enjoying cups and cups of coffee, and not even getting dressed
all day if you don't feel like it.  And it means our favorite Sunday night
supper:  our special bacon-tomato-grilled onions-cheese on sourdough bread,
heated in the oven till the cheese melts sandwiches.

Do you have other days-of-the-week memories or traditions?

Jeri...doing her laundry this Monday