Up is off

My mother taught us to iron clothes when we were nine and ten years old. We were keen and interested to learn this dangerous art.

To iron the clothes, my mother covered the end of the kitchen table with layers of blanket and a sheet. She put the wooden bread board at one end, plugged in the electric iron, and stood it on the board.  This was more stable than standing the iron on the thickly padded surface.

The electric iron was heavy and had a surface that was flat and smooth.  It didn't steam. And it had no temperature control. This meant that the user had to turn the power off every few mintues so the iron wouldn't get too hot.  Our iron looked a lot like this.

Electric iron

It was quite heavy to lift. But it suited left handers as well as right handers which was good because Sue and I were both left-handed.

Mum started us by showing us how to iron handkerchiefs. She taught us to tell when the iron was hot enough. This involved spitting, which was fun! She taught us to iron each edge of the hanky and then to iron across the centre, holding the cloth in one hand and the iron in the other.

We were taught to put the iron face-down on the bread board while we re-arranged the cloth. We were not to stand the iron up on its end the way she did. That was too tricky for beginners and she didn't want us burning ourselves.

Our early ironing efforts were closely supervised, and soon we were confidently ironing handkerchiefs and other flat things. Mum was pleased with our enthusiasm because it meant that she would soon have help with the ironing.

One afternoon when she was out of the house, Sue and I decided to do some ironing.

We set up the table with the blankets and the sheet. We got the bread board and the iron and we plugged it in and turned it on. When it was hot, we ironed some handkerchiefs and tea towels. We were careful to follow all the instructions we had learnt. We turned the iron on and off so it wouldn't get too hot. And we were careful to always place it face-down on the bread board. We were pleased with the good job we were doing.

Then we finished, turned off the iron and went to play outside.

After a while we were horrified to smell a burning smell. We ran inside and saw smoke pouring from the iron which was glowing red-hot. Sue was quick to look at the power point and turn the power off. We didn't dare touch the iron. So we left it face-down on the bread board with smoke pouring out.

Mum arrived home, smelled the smoke,  and raced inside to see what was wrong.

We were frightened. She was agitated. We told her exactly what we had done. She was not happy that we had decided to iron while she was not there, but we explained that we had followed her directions exactly.

We had set it up properly. We had not let the iron get too hot, and we had turned it off when we finished. Sue had turned it off when we finished. I had turned it off when we finished.

Ah-haa... Sue had turned it off. And I had turned it off.

Mum and Sue looked at each other. "Oh," said my mother, "Gillian, you need to know that UP is off and DOWN is on."

DOWN is 'on'.

So, we didn't get into a LOT of trouble, because it was a genuine mistake. Not like the time we set the house on fire through sheer disobedience.

Of course, after the big lesson with the iron, I have never forgotten that UP is off.

Our iron continued to work. Sue and I got better at ironing and we didn't burn too many things after that! Our bread board never recovered. For years afterwards, we used only one side, because the other side had a black burn mark the shape of an iron right in the middle.