Your Mothers Cloth
Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Wed 2 Jan 2013 21:02
sizeable piece of super absorbent cloth that she and Dad had purchased even
more years ago from a market stall in Tenerife.
Mum said she thought we could probably do with something like that given the
amount of water we would be dealing with.
How right she was. Said cloth has been close at hand ever since because it
really, really worked at slurping up water be it out of the bilges, on deck,
in the bathrooms, wherever and whenever. It quickly became known as 'Your
Mother's cloth' or 'My Mother's cloth' depending on who was asking for it.
Over time it started to get a bit torn and tatty so we started to look for a
replacement. Some, labelled 'Superabsorbent' at huge expense in swindleries
just didn't feel the same but in the end, and in some desperation we bought
one. Purple and shiny and in a posh case it promised much but delivered
little. It was more absorbent than your average JCloth but nowhere near as
good as 'Your Mothers Cloth'. The new one was very difficult to wring out,
rigid when dry and went strangely crispy when soaking up stray water in the
bilges that had a bit of antifreeze in.
Even in its decrepit state 'My Mother's cloth' was the best we had.
Until........ we went to Wal-Mart. And there, between automobile spares
and the gun department was a roll of orange cloth. It looked the same. It
felt the same. AND THERE WERE THREE IN A PACKET. Such joy has not been
seen in the aisles of Wal-Mart for a long time.
Back to the boat and breath is held while the big test is done. The bilges.
YES. The very same result. Bliss.
The original needs to be properly remembered though and never forget that
even in this state it really was tremendous.
And for comparison, one of the new ones........
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