The 8008 was: Blinky lights WAS: The SR71 Blackbird was designed ENTIRELYwith slide rules 700

And from all this laundry and ironing debate, comes another tale of yesteryear...

When I was a high schooler, we wore Levis, traditional heavy cotton denim type with the metal button fly(Flies, Transpondian?) to the exclusion of all other brands, just as males in the Southwest seem to cling to "Wrankle-Knees", Wranglers today. Most of those who came from modest or more affluence had a remant of of the old slave or patron cultures, an "ironing lady", African American or Mexican American, who eithere arrived at the house or to whom clothes were delivered regularly.

Among the less affluent, a sartorial custom was established that later spread to those who could afford not to go to these lengths. New Levis, after the first washing, were taken to one or another of the neighborhood alteration shops where a creases was machine sewn into the front of each leg from upper thigh to hem...quick, cheap and eliminating the need for ironing, since, hung wet, Levis develop minimal wrinkles. Soon, sewn creases abounded.

By my graduation, '57, another style had been adopted, the wearing of white or light blue button down collar dress shirts on all occasions when Tshirts simply didn't qualify. All cotton then, at the very advent of the "Wash and Wear " era, the custom was predicated upon the profession of "ironing lady", modestly compensated, but working for many families. My shock and awe occurred when I went off to college and found out what laundry-washed & ironed shirts were going to cost (and how poorly laundry ironing compared to the delicate handwork of women for which the skills were a profession at which many made more than their husbands earned in the marketplace). A disreputable former native of my home town helped me search out an "ironing lady" in Houston which meant doing my own wash and then driving up into the 5th Ward, a harsh, loud, violent ghetto even in the 50s (but on Washington Street offering "real" Blues).

I think Houston had the first laundromat selling beer (for on premise consumption) I ever saw...

TM "A couple of loads and a 6 pack of Jax" Oliver