Friday's freebies - sibling names & washing and ironing

Here are today's little freebies. I think their names are Florence and Laurence. But, I am not positive because I can't read the handwriting. If anyone else can, let me know your thoughts about what the names are.

Given names are a source of interest for me. Most likely because if I could I would like to 'give' mine back. (I always wanted to be named Denise. Do you have a name you would have preferred?) Maybe if we waited for a week before naming a newborn, we would be more clear headed and rethink naming a poor innocent little baby something like Mathilda Maude or Herbert Mortimer. Or maybe, after of week of no sleep with a new baby, Mathilda or Herbert would sound like perfectly lovely names. Jeez, a week with no sleep and I think the name Verna wouldn't sound quite as awful as it does!

Brother Laurence does not look too happy to have his photo taken. And, Florence's dress must be stiff with starch - that is the only explanation for its' wrinkle and crease free condition.

Starch! I remember my grandmother and my mother using starch, Niagara starch. I had some pretty nifty little girl dresses that required starch. Can you imagine ironing cotton dresses that have been dipped into starch solution? The advent of spray starch must have knocked hours off of wash/iron day. My mother used to iron on Sunday afternoons when I was very young. I remember coming home from my grandparents' house every weekend to find my mother in the kitchen with the ironing board and piles of lightly dampened clothes waiting to be ironed. I first learned the art of ironing by doing all of the handkerchiefs. (Yes, handkerchiefs. I am not sure I even knew what a Kleenex tissue was then, or if they even had such a thing.) I remember the satisfaction I felt when I was finished with my 'job'. All those little piles of beautifully folded handkerchiefs. I still have an iron and ironing board that gets used quite often. Where did all of this nostalgia for ironing and starch come from? On the news yesterday morning, all 4 of the newsreaders said they did not own an iron. Wow! I wonder what their handkerchiefs look like? (Oh, who am I kidding? No doubt they were all born after the invention of Kleenex, spray starch, wash and wear, polyester, nylong, spandex and dry cleaners!) Poor little things. They will never know the thrill of a pile of freshly ironed handkerchiefs!