Good Vibration

As soon as I get to church I set my cell phone on vibrate mode. Nobody has ever called during service, but you just never know. Today, shortly after I slipped my phone back into my purse, and Pastor Roger was just about to start on chapter 20 in the Gospel of John, I felt my purse vibrate. (Oh my goodness!!!) I saw that it was my brother, three time zones away. The call went to voice mail. After church I listened to his message and he said something about Dad being in the local paper; his friend back home had called him so he called to tell me. But I already knew. I was the one who told him about the reporter and photographer visiting the other day.

Here's the story: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070812-9999-1m12laundry.html

I sent an email to my reporter friend after I heard about the story she was working on. It brings back a lot of fond memories of my childhood. I was just reminiscing with James recently about my family's business and how my siblings and I each had "jobs" before we were even tall enough to look over the counter.

My sisters and brother literally grew up inside that laundry. I think early on some of the big plastic laundry bins were our first play-pens and eventually my sisters and I would push each other around in them; no need for a little red wagon. Eventually we'd even roller skate around the whole inside -- because the flooring was concrete -- and one of my sisters used to swing on the bars where finished shirts were hung on to be sorted; she was not a future gymnast, more of a daredevil because those bars were not ment to carry the weight of a first grader! That was the place where I learned how to fold sheets nice and crisp and towels of every size; the only thing I hated was sorting men's dress shirts for the presses, because we had two different sized machines. Also to this day I cannot wrap a bundle of laundry as efficiently as Mom and Dad; I attribute that to being left handed and unable to get that darn string tied just right without wasting. To this day though I take pride that my linen closet is nicely organized. The story mentioned that we ate our meals at the laundry (Dad mentioned sleeping there, but that must have been the very early days for him...) Honestly, I don't think we used the kitchen in our home daily until I was in high school. Everything was at the laundry.

Looking back it was a fun place to grow up. That and our restaurant (during the 1980's and early 1990's) Those two places kept our family pretty tight...and Mom and Dad knew exactly where were were all the time because we were working right along side of them.

I'm sure my siblings will agree with me that we were and still are very blessed. We have each other!