Summer days were different in the early ‘90s, quarantine not included.
My daughters bounce between screens:
1) iPad
2) Netflix
3) Nintendo Switch
Their list goes on.
My list was short.
1) The television.
I confess to the luxury of living room vs. bedroom TV viewing, though the one in my bedroom was limited to 4 channels.
On summer days, with mom and dad at work, I opted for the cable-equipped, wood-enclosed set in our living room.
(I got a kick texting my brothers this picture of a mammoth Zenith brand contraption I found on Google. To our recollection it’s pretty close to the set we owned.)
The confine of TV entertainment is only part of my teenage summertime story.
A spiral bound, five subject notebook holds other memories, including a Sweet 16 birthday wish penciled by my daddy.
Talk about a time capsule.
In summer months, my high school self shuffled out of bed (usually around 10:00am) to a to-do list, also written in that notebook, laid on our kitchen table.
Daddy’s familiar scrawl listed in age order our daily chores. One of mine was ironing clothes.
Our chores list. 
My ironing assignment, completed.
A new shirt I wore this weekend reminded me of my summertime task. It’s a yellow tee with lyrics to Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” stenciled on front:
“Here’s Your One Chance”
(Singing it, are you? You’re welcome.)
Like Reba, I remember it all very well looking back.
My mom kept a laundry basket in the closet of our study. (That’s just what we call the room with all the books. We aren’t that elite.) When a load of laundry was dry, mom placed whatever required ironing into that basket. During the summer, it was my job to empty the basket.
To add entertainment to my ironing, I set up in the living room because cable TV, remember?
I watched hours (hours!) of country music videos on CMT (Country Music Television) from behind that ironing board and basket. I hadn’t thought about my chore, or the way it pressed country music into my memory, in years.
Until I saw that shirt.
And, despite a drawer-full, I knew I had to have it.
Music connects us to moments in time. Some of them significant, others so simple they seem easily forgotten.
Mom’s ironing board (with daddy’s instruction to use it) represents both.
It taught me obedience.
It taught me responsibility.
It taught me words to Reba McEntire’s music.
Significance and simplicity.
Good life lessons to learn during summer days.
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
(Proverbs 22:6)
