I don’t usually wash laundry on Sundays, unless it’s absolutely necessary. But today I’m washing a uniform…my son’s soccer uniform. He wore it in a tough game yesterday. One sniff of that soccer jersey and it’s apparent that washing this uniform is absolutely necessary. The jersey smells of sweat and effort and determination and competition…things my son does well…things my son loves.
Today is the last time I will wash this particular uniform. The playoff game didn’t go our way; our team won’t be moving on to the next round. The soccer season is over for us. My high school senior son has played his last game for the school that he has attended since first grade. I am washing his playing uniform for the last time.
I taught this son several years ago how to wash his practice uniforms. I realized that late afternoons and evenings were busy times at home and I might not always remember that there was a dirty practice uniform laying in the laundry room floor needing attention. So my boy would get his uniform into the washing machine after a practice. We would work in tandem to make sure the uniform got taken out of the washing machine and hung up to dry for use again the next day. But the game day uniforms, I usually washed those. They would need all of the laundry expertise that I could muster.
My kids have attended a school where uniforms are worn every day. I have liked that. School uniforms makes it easy on a mom when there are limited choices as to the day’s attire. And I have washed loads and loads of khaki colored pants and shorts and a variety of colors of polos. Sometimes I have had mounds of uniform clothing to launder but I’ve never really minded.
And then there’s the sports laundry. The stinky laundry. The wondering-how-I’m-going-to-get-that-stain-out kind of laundry. The kind of laundry that has at times made me want to leave my laundry room in surrender. The kind that has sometimes made me think that lighting a match to it might be the only way to get the smell out kind of laundry. Washing that kind of laundry has been part of my contribution in supporting my young athletes.
When I’ve washed that super-stinky sports laundry I’ve thought about the game that my athletes played that got that uniform so smelly. I’ve remembered the good plays and the not-so-good plays. I’ve remembered the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. The athletic competitions of my kids has been the wide, wide world of sports for me. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
My high school senior will soon be switching to another kind of uniform. He will continue to wear a uniform as he goes off to college at the U. S. Air Force Academy. But…I won’t get to launder those uniforms. He will do that on his own. I’m sure that he will do a good job on his laundry. He may make some laundering mistakes, but he will learn. I have full confidence in him as I hand off this job that I have had for the last 18 years of his life. Doing my son’s laundry…it has been a privilege and even a joy.
pieces and ponderings 