Breaking Out the Flannels
Now that the days are getting shorter, the nights are becoming longer, and the temperatures are turning cooler, I guess it’s time for me to pull off the cotton percale bed sheets and replace them with the flannel ones that have been stored away all summer. Is it just me or does it feel that we just pulled off the flannel sheets a month ago? Maybe it was a month and a half ago. I know that’s not so because I’ve washed and replaced the cotton sheets more than several times this summer. I can vividly remember hanging them out on the clothes line to dry in the warm sun many times. I can see them billowing out in the breeze, like the sails on a ship.
It’s discouraging to know autumn is fast slipping away and the winter winds and snow will be here before we know it. I’m blest with several sets of flannel sheets, a wood burner, and clothes lines in the basement so I don’t have to dry my sheets outside in the winter like my mom did. I can change the flannels when I need to and not have to dry them in an electric clothes dryer. Tonight I will snuggle down into the warmth of a fresh flannel sheet beneath a thick quilt and a fluffy coverlet.
I haven’t pulled my flannel underwear out yet. The flannel underwear used to be called Dr. Denton’s. They had long sleeves and long legs. The distinguishing characteristic of the Doctor Denton’s was that they had a button-up or a fold-down flap in the rear to allow easy access when going to the bathroom. Long-Johns are similar, but have a fold-over, able-to-button-closed opening. The long-Johns that I have are red. I have both kinds of them as well as underclothing of separate tops and bottom pieces. The flannel drawers will stay folded in a drawer until hunting season, then I’ll pull them out. They’ll be needed when I want to keep warm as I go hunting for venison. It’s always a blessing to stay warm when I try to get and have the extra meat on hand. If I can get another deer this year, I won’t have to go to the store in inclement weather, the meat will be leaner, and I know how the meat was handled.