Heating Iron

I remember the old heating iron that Grandma had. She used to stand by the old cook stove and lay the iron on it to heat. This was when I was real small. She washed them clothes just right and hung them out to dry. After they were dry she brought them in and sprinkled them and then placed them in a paper bag in the refrigerator. She had a special starch she made also, one consistency for her scarf's that she made with ruffles and one for all the sheets and pillowcases and one for the clothes. She was very serious about her laundry,  it had to be white and crisp. She had an old wooden ironing board and it was well worn.

I never understood why the  iron never got too hot, it was always just right. It did the perfect job of pressing everything, it didn't matter if it was cotton or silk. Of course we didn't have much silk. Our underclothes were made from beautiful flour sacks, the white ones with flowers on them. She bleached them out and boiled them till they were soft. She always pressed our slips and the sheets, well we always loved wash days and them clean sheets. You could smell the water boiling every Monday on top of the old cook stove and the motor knocking on the old Maytag washer.