What 50 years does for diapers and relationships

I went to my parents' this evening to show them a sample cloth diaper I bought (Rich requested I buy an orange one). I had talked to Mom about it last weekend and she was very suspicious of the whole thing, so I was hoping a sample would bring her on board. My oldest brother was born in 1959 so Mom used cloth diapers for him. Those diapers were the plain old squares that you had to perform fabric origami on to get them on the baby. She also didn't own a washing machine, so she was hand-washing diapers in the kitchen sink and hanging them out to dry on the line behind her and her first husband Lee's apartment.

Hanging the diapers out on the line in cold weather would make them freeze from the ocean winds. They would also wrap around both lines on the pulley system so you couldn't pull them back in. Her brother-in-law Squirrel (long story on that name) was the first one home in their apartment complex and would shimmy up the pole and pull the line down to untangle the diapers for my mother.

Mom paused and said, "He was a good man. I don't think Lee would have even known how to fix it, let alone done it when he got home."

I am in such a different world versus the one my mother was back in 1959. I think my mother is looking forward to this new generation of baby and all the goodies that come with it. Here's hoping no one has to climb up a pole to untangle the diapers, but between Rich, my father and several others we have a few good men to volunteer for that.

bonus belly shot from this evening while cuddling with the cat