My son Q helped me put a load of clothes in the washing machine. After that we drove to the store. On the way he asked,

 

“Papi, how did people wash clothes in the old days?”

 

My thoughts went way back to the days before more modern conveniences and I said, “Well, people might have washed their clothes at a river.”

 

“Did you ever wash your clothes at the river?” he asked.

 

“No, but your Nana-C did when she lived in her “pueblo” in Mexico,” I answered.

 

He thought for a moment and then said, “So, you washed clothes with her at the river because you were in her tummy?”

 

“No son,” I said, “I wasn’t born yet.”

 

He seemed disappointed. I felt like I had an obligation to give him my own back in the day anecdote, so I said, “But I do remember when we didn’t have a dryer to dry our clothes.”

 

“So how would you dry them?” He asked.

 

I said, “We had these strings called clothes lines and we would hang our wet clothes there and the sun would dry them.”

 

“Papi,” he said, “when we get home can we pretend to dry our clothes like that so we can pretend we’re in the old days?”

 

--DiggyDaddy