Waste not, want not

So the photo above is of me, my mum and dad coming back on the ferry from a holiday on the Isle of Man in 1979.  One of the things I remember most about that holiday concerns an ironing board.  An ironing board!  On this holiday, my mum won an ironing board at the bingo.  Until that 'house' was shouted out, my mum didn't own an ironing board.  Until then, my mum had to improvise by using towels on the kitchen table.  Getting an ironing board was a pretty big deal in our house as we lived in a state of poverty that's not really seen anymore.  


Anyway, I inherited the bingo win ironing board in 1999 when my dad died.  It's an excellent ironing board mainly because it's relatively narrow.  I work in a small room and the ironing boards I see for sale today are so wide and long, I think I'd need to open the window just to get one up!  Also, I love the fact that my mum's 1979 ironing board has a piece of asbestos as an iron rest.  It's just a health and safety nightmare that wouldn't be allowed today.


So why am I going on about this 30 year old ironing board?  It broke.  It broke two days ago.  I thought I knocked it over but the rivets in the legs had broken at their ends and it's now it two pieces.  My mum who is staying with us at the moment said 'well I was here for it's beginning and I'm here at it's end.'  She has even offered to buy me a new one.  I haven't been able to do any sewing since - I just can't live without her.


But it's not over for the ironing board - Neil reckons he can fix it and you know what, I'm just ecstatic!  It's not just an ironing board.  For me it's a reminder of how spoilt I am now and how hard it must have been for my parents - they really had nothing.


So here's cheers to my old ironing board - I think I'll give her a new cover and see if we can't get another 32 years out of her.