"Retcro©": or how retro is eco
Take ironing for example. As a young child one of the first tasks I was allowed to do was sorting the clean clothes, folding them up neatly, and putting them away. Then I graduated to being able to 'moisten' the clothes that needed ironing. This entailed getting an enamel jug of water and sprinkling water all over the clothes with some deft wristwork and rolling them up. I've often wondered why we didn't just iron the clothes while still wet, rather than wait for them to dry and I had to wet them again. These were then bundled up in a large piece of cloth for a few minutes. Then Mum would do the ironing. She would have a bowl of water with her and would sprinkle the clothes with water when she saw fit. That was 'steam ironing'. Later I watched for the first time my sister-in-law use a steam iron and I thought how marvellous the steam iron was. In my married life -- just coming up to ten years -- I cannot remember how many steam irons we'd gone through. The h