The dreaded task. Sophomores Eric Lee, from Louisville, OH, and Kelly Conolty, from Endicott, NY, fold their wann laundry. Loads oflaundry piled up in everyone's dorm room. - photo by Bill Tripp. Loads of laundry and laughter Remember your first day of college? How grown up you felt? How excited you were to embark on movies , dates, and late night pizza parties? But after about two weeks the fun and games had to take a back seat Gust temporarily of course) to the dreadful, dirty, duty of laundry. Let's spell it out so we can get the true meaning of this nasty little word. L is for loads . You know that because it took you two trips over from the dorm just to get it all there. A is for AllTemperature (all-temp-a-cheer!) Unfortunately, since you may have little experience along this line, one temperature is as good as the next for all you know! U is for underwear. If you played your cards right, you ' re one of the lucky ones who had stashed a spare pair back long ago - especially for this occasion. This pair is not hard to miss. For girls it is, of course, a soft delicate blue pair complete with one hundred yellow stars. N is for not much. And that is the same as what you know about laundry. D is for dryer. Dryers provide a lot of amusement to the laundry amateur. For example, just to make sure the dryer is working, step inside. Have a friend give you an encouraging little push and you're off. You 'll love it as you're soon to recall those long lost memories of the county fair! R is for ring-around-the-collar. Y is for yell for help! Let's take a look at "once upon a day in a laundry mat." There once was a freshman who knew little about doing laundry. (I'll use myself for this; unfortunately it couldn't be more perfect.) I awoke one morning, reached in the drawer to grab some drawers and there they were ... gone! I raised my gown. Yellow stars. A chorus of "... and now the end is near" went through my mind. I panicked for a brief moment until spying my roommate's drawer. I had to. After all roommates are supposed to look out for each other's needs and I needed underwear. This wasn't a time to discuss etiquette. With panties in hand , I ran to my closet, threw the door open as leaps and loads of laundry buried me. I began to wriggle myself through a variety of assorted clothes that took up a major part of my room. My roommate gave up the hope that this was all a bad dream, rolled over with a curious look on her face and frowned at me. Before she could ask me what I was doing, I stopped her with "how do you sort laundry?" She answered quietly, "You put all the dark stuff together and the lighter stuff in another pile - no big deal! " That sounded simple enough. In three minutes I had it all under control. It was then that my roommate rolled back over to throw in more advice. "Now, remember, towels can be dark or light, so you can basically wash towels in any load. Just whatever you do, don't dry the heavy towels with the heavy clothes. Lint , of course, you know?" "No, I don't know!", I confirmed and the more she kept telling me, the less certain I was of anything. I was tempted to ask her for help, but I thought, "No, no, I am in the big world now, the world where you must survive on your own." Mom doesn't make you take your vitamins anymore, and unfortunately, the person now responsible for my laundry is me. Yuck! (I'm not even getting college credit for this.) With an unexplained strength, I flung my laundry bag over my arm - like I was off to join the Marines and marched all the way to the laundromat. After arriving, I soon discovered there was a method to this madness! .My clothes, now ready to return home were all folded and placed neatly in the basket. Yep, it was all there, four towels, seven washcloths, ten shirts, five pair of jeans, a plethera of underclothes and you guessed it ... one sock, scary! After one and a half hours the whole laundry procedure is history . . . until next week that is ... or until I polish my yellow stars. - Karen Reynolds Annette R. Parson - Nashville, AR Patricia Marie Paulson - Palm Beach Gardens, FL Pamela Raye Peachey - Jonesboro, ·AR Sandra Kaye Peachey - Jonesboro, AR Charlotte LeAnn Perry - Memphis, TN Hong Petuel - Jakarta , Indonesia Quyen Thieu Phan - Campbell , CA Saysavad Phengsom - Toms Ri ver, J Michael J. Phillips - !ndianapoli , I Deborah Ann Pickwell - Mo giel , ew Zealand Laura Marie Pierce - Springfield, VT Bryan L. Plumlee - Little Rock. AR Teresa Ruth Point - Woodstown , NJ Shirley Anne Pollard - Lee's Summit , MO Tammy Lynn Pre lar - Colorado Springs , CO Abraham Quesada - San Jose, Costa Ri ca Sharon Maxine Rabon - Globe, AZ Robbie R. Raisor - Howe, TX Kevin Laine Ramey - Dixon , MO J. Christopher Randolph - Paducah , KY Brett Jason Rardin - Flint , Ml Susan M. Rasmussen - Estherville, IA
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