The Little Iron That Could

Yesterday, I discovered something weird about myself. I love my iron. Don't get me wrong, I don't love ironing. In fact, I use my dryer for that purpose as often as possible. But something happened that made me realize how much my iron means to me. Let me back up just a bit.

I first got my iron when I was 18 years old and heading off to college. It's a good old HEAVY duty GE with a shiny silver body and black handle. It reminds me of the iron my mother had when I was growing up.

During my years in college, it spent most of the time sitting on a shelf with the other girls' irons in the, believe it or not, ironing room! It saw very little action from me. But during its college days, it apparently had a little run in with another iron because there's a dent near the "nose" on one side (I'm not really sure if there's such a thing as a nose on an iron, but you get my drift).

Anyway, this iron has been in my life for a very long time. I'd already had it for ten years by the time I met my husband. And I used it to iron his Marine Corps fatigues with their jillion and one pleated pockets when we were first married. It's moved from home to home with us over the years.

I have tried newer models but have always come back to my old friend. It has "heft" to it that you just can't find in those fancy-shmancy newer ones. It may be your basic, stripped down model, but it gets the job done.

Yesterday, I was ironing a skirt and decided to fill up the water reservoir so I could get some steam. I pushed in the little red button, poured in the water, and pushed the button once again to release it. But horror of horrors, it didn't pop out all the way like it should. It kind of rattled a bit but no steam. I tried it over and over again, each time feeling sadder and sadder as I realized that this 39-year relationship was coming to an end.

As I finished ironing my skirt...minus any steam, I thought about how silly I was to feel sad about an iron. It had certainly served me well and I knew that I would never have another one that lasted as long. (But then, I'll probably not last that long either!) Then, all of a sudden, the red button popped all of the way out and my little friend started pumping out steam to beat the band! It was healed!

I haven't tried pushing in the red button again, so I don't know what will happen when I do. Hopefully, it will steam like it always has. But one thing I know for sure, they just don't make 'em like they used to.