Home Ec, Tuesday, Period 1
Class met in the Danger Shop again this week. Which was a pretty sure sign that Eliot was going to have them clean something he didn't want to have to deal with in real life.
"So today we're gonna be covering something that hopefully y'all have been doing at least a little bit of on your own, since you're all living in dorms," Eliot said, meeting the students outside the door to the room. "But odds are good we'll manage to cover at least a little bit of something you might not know about, so pay attention anyway." He pushed the door open, revealing a large, airy laundromat. Along one wall was the usual stacks of front loading washers and driers, as well as a vending machine for soap. On the other were big wooden and metal tubs arranged under spigots, with old wooden washboards and long poles hanging on the wall above them. Double doors at the other end of the room opened up onto a sunny lawn strung with clothes lines. "Today we're doing some laundry."
Hurray?
"Now, like I said, hopefully you've all done this at least a little bit before. Otherwise I'm sure your roommate probably hates you by now for stinkin' up the place or sneaking your clothes into their basket. Even if you don't sweat," he was looking at you, Peridot, "the earth is a dirty, stinky place, and odds are you'll want to wash your clothes eventually. Still, if it ain't something you're real familiar with, it can be mighty intimidating, so I figure it's worth going over. And since we got folks from all sorts of worlds and time periods and things, I figure it could be nice to get everyone on similar footing. Those of you from pre-electric times or cultures who don't deal much with machine washing, I want you all using those, today, at least to start with. Anyone who grew up using the machines should give handwashing a full load of laundry a go, if nothing else so you can better appreciate the wonders of modern technology. The basic concept for either, though, is to put similarly colored clothes in soapy water, let 'em soak it up, and then agitate 'em around and rub the dirt off 'em. Then rinse 'em and dry them out. Beauty of the machine is, it does the agitatin' and rinsing automatically, but it can be pretty satisfying sometimes to stomp around on your dirty clothes and clean 'em out by hand. Plus, you never know when you're gonna be stuck without a machine unexpectedly."
Especially on this island.
Eliot gave a quick demonstration of the use of each, including some quick tips on laundry sorting, label reading, and choosing your water temperature, then handed out some simple guides for those who did better with paper instructions, then set the students to work on a giant pile of holographic laundry.
At least one load of whites was programmed to have a mysteriously appearing red sock. So have fun with that.
"So today we're gonna be covering something that hopefully y'all have been doing at least a little bit of on your own, since you're all living in dorms," Eliot said, meeting the students outside the door to the room. "But odds are good we'll manage to cover at least a little bit of something you might not know about, so pay attention anyway." He pushed the door open, revealing a large, airy laundromat. Along one wall was the usual stacks of front loading washers and driers, as well as a vending machine for soap. On the other were big wooden and metal tubs arranged under spigots, with old wooden washboards and long poles hanging on the wall above them. Double doors at the other end of the room opened up onto a sunny lawn strung with clothes lines. "Today we're doing some laundry."
Hurray?
"Now, like I said, hopefully you've all done this at least a little bit before. Otherwise I'm sure your roommate probably hates you by now for stinkin' up the place or sneaking your clothes into their basket. Even if you don't sweat," he was looking at you, Peridot, "the earth is a dirty, stinky place, and odds are you'll want to wash your clothes eventually. Still, if it ain't something you're real familiar with, it can be mighty intimidating, so I figure it's worth going over. And since we got folks from all sorts of worlds and time periods and things, I figure it could be nice to get everyone on similar footing. Those of you from pre-electric times or cultures who don't deal much with machine washing, I want you all using those, today, at least to start with. Anyone who grew up using the machines should give handwashing a full load of laundry a go, if nothing else so you can better appreciate the wonders of modern technology. The basic concept for either, though, is to put similarly colored clothes in soapy water, let 'em soak it up, and then agitate 'em around and rub the dirt off 'em. Then rinse 'em and dry them out. Beauty of the machine is, it does the agitatin' and rinsing automatically, but it can be pretty satisfying sometimes to stomp around on your dirty clothes and clean 'em out by hand. Plus, you never know when you're gonna be stuck without a machine unexpectedly."
Especially on this island.
Eliot gave a quick demonstration of the use of each, including some quick tips on laundry sorting, label reading, and choosing your water temperature, then handed out some simple guides for those who did better with paper instructions, then set the students to work on a giant pile of holographic laundry.
At least one load of whites was programmed to have a mysteriously appearing red sock. So have fun with that.