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Mona stood quietly
before the house mother. Everything at Chilocco was strange and new to her.
The kindly woman was quietly sitting at her desk with papers in her hand.
“Your detail will be
the laundry, Mona. You will work for one-half day, every day.
If the woman had
said, “you will now fly to England on a broom,” it wouldn't have meant any
more to her. She was thinking, “What laundry and where is it.”
As if to read her mind
the gentle woman quickly explained. “Mary here will walk over there with
you, exactly to where you will work.”
“Mary, take Mona to
her job at the laundry. Introduce her to Mrs. Grinnell, please?”
The two girls
leisurely ambled across the campus in a short time. They followed the loop
around the central oval until the power plant was in sight. The large
building housing the power plant and the laundry looked to be a more newly
built structure. The tall smoke stack on the back side was what identified
it.
When the girls walked
through the doors into the very large room, an acrid smell of bleach was
strong in the air. On the right against the walls were large tumblers of
stainless-steal. Mona had never seen such large washing machines. In the
very center of the room were great rollers turning. At one end two girls
busily straightening and put sheets in between the rollers. On the side
closest to them two more girls were catching the sheets and in a studied
quick method they had obviously developed. The sheets the two folded almost
as fast as they came out of the machine.
Along one wall was a
bevy of pressing machines. The lids on them popped up and down making a
staccato sound as the girls used them. One of the areas held machines
designed for one particular job. These were in a circle. One girl was in the
middle and surrounded by the machines. She had one shirt on a collar
machine, another for the back, yet another for the front, and one for the
sleeve. The dozens of shirts she had finished were lined up on hangers
beside her. With the kind instructor helping her Mona went right to work.
The work detail was
changed every semester unless the student wished to stay. Before the
semester was up Mona had learned every part of the laundry. Her last time
spent there was at a window watching out over the large room to see if
everything was going along as it should. Mona only made one mistake while
she worked at the laundry and this was to neglect to turn on the steam for
the large rollers doing the sheets. It didn't take long for her to catch her
error though. The sheets coming out of the rollers were still wet and cold
and that told the tale. One of the girls, who had made this her regular
vocation, caught the mistake. She, in two steps, slid over to the switch and
turned it on. The girl was Navajo and could speak very little English but
she seemed to understand Mona's thank you. The girl smiled and went on with
her work. |
