Good Morning.
So I got this big rip in a bottom sheet not too long ago. I have no idea how it happened, but the next morning, there it was, an ugly tear that went this way and that. The set was a wonderful
gold/camel color with shiny stripes, and I will save the top sheet and the pillow cases. I don't care if things match and will use them with a bottom sheet from another set.
Sheets have changed a great deal during my lifetime. Decades ago, they were always white and cotton. They were washed in bleach and hung on a clothesline so they'd smell fresh and be all
sunshiny, but they didn't smell like anything, quite frankly. They were ironed by women who hadn't yet decided they'd rather be astronauts and governors, and they were folded into rectangles and stacked in a linen closet even though none of them were made of linen. Virtually all of the sheets were in a twin size because everybody slept in his or her own bed. The only people of my parents' generation who slept in the same bed were a pair of liberated types up the street. They were atheists but left their Christmas tree up until the daffodils were in bloom. I once went to a linen shower for a friend who was getting married, and everyone in our
age group gave her sheets for a double bed - queen and king hadn't been invented yet - and
her mother and the other older women at the party literally gasped as the bride-to-be opened her gifts. The mother said that the sheets would have to be exchanged for the proper size and the older women nodded in approval while the bride and her friends glanced at each other with an I-don't-think-so look.
By then people had decided that white sheets were boring and were buying their bedwear in blue, pink, and yellow. Then we had patterned sheets with flowers, but the men weren't pleased a bit about sleeping in a bed of roses. They wanted their sheets in plain blue, especially since they were now wearing blue button-down shirts to the office. Long gone were the white ones with so much starch they had to be pried apart with a screwdriver so the guy could get dressed for work.
Today you can get sheets with sports logos, ballerinas, dogs, geometric shapes, nautical themes, and so on. They come out of the dryer wrinkle free or pretty close. There also are satin sheets in colors like red, black, and purple. They are often purchased by women who shop at Victoria's Secret - after they argued a case in court or transplanted a kidney. The greatest innovation, however, may be the fitted sheet. It was created by someone who was tired of having the bottom sheet come loose, but he or she did not take into consideration how to fold the thing. Martha Stewart has a tutorial out on how to fold a fitted sheet, but I have never been able to get mine to be anything other than a large blob with the elastic all askew.
A few months ago I bought a very boring set of beige sheets made of microfiber. It took awhile
to get used to them because they feel funny, sort of slippery, maybe even a bit clammy, but I don't think they'll rip because they probably have plastic or something in them. I also have a microfiber blanket; I haven't seen wool on a bed since 1954, and I wonder if this new stuff is safe. Perhaps the deal really is to sleep with cotton and wool, but I haven't the slightest idea where I put my iron.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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