Behind closed door #6

The final closed door of this little winter interlude shows an ordinary laundry. An ordinary laundry with a far from ordinary story.

A number of years ago, in an effort to be more environmentally conscious, we had a speaker who came in to tell us all about this new laundry soap that was more environmentally friendly than the standard brand detergents and could do the same job, even less expensively. We all sat there attentively, listening to her very-practiced marketing pitch. After she was done, she asked for questions. That was her undoing.

In the audience was Sr. Genevieve, Genny to all of us. Genny was kind of like what used to be called a lay sister. She didn't have a college degree, didn't speak too eloquently, but was a happy community member, serving in kitchens and laundries throughout her religious life. Formal education or not, she knew her stuff! So when the laundry lady asked for questions, it was inevitable that Genny's hand eventually went up. When called upon, "Yes, Sister?" she stood up and blurted out the only truth she knew, "You can't beat Tide!"

As you can see, behind this closed door, even though our laundries are equipped with the low suds, environmentally friendly version of today, there is the Tide bottle. Sometimes you just have to, because "You can't beat Tide!"