Fishing Through the Laundry

I was in the midst of getting Ronnie and Tommy ready for school when I heard a noise that demanded immediate attention. The load of clothes going round and round in my dryer didn't sound "right."
I'm an expert at knowing how my dog, close family members and the most-used appliances in our home should look, sound and smell on any given day. And I know what action to take if something is "off."
The noisy dryer demanded immediate action, so I ran upstairs to investigate. First, however, I handed Tommy his Speed Stick so he would have the "right" smell for school.
On my way upstairs, I hoped a marble, rock or bottle cap was causing the noise. None of those would damage our clothes, and all are favorites of Jimmy, Tommy and Ronnie when it comes to filling their pockets.
Sometimes, I even get lucky and find a quarter or two in there.
I was hesitant to open the dryer door once I got there. Since May 3, I've dreaded what I might find behind that door.
May 3 was the day all my years of not carefully checking the boys' and Ron's pockets while sorting laundry finally caught up with me. Until then, I had gotten away with a quick shake to see if anything jingled, fell out or tried to escape.
A black crayon made its way from Ronnie's pocket onto every item of clothing in my dryer that afternoon. My once white dryer wasn't spared, either. The crayon left behind a legacy that threatened to ruin future loads of laundry.
Ronnie had spotted the broken, black crayon on the school bus floor the day earlier. He couldn't resist picking it up and slipping it into his pocket for later.
Unfortunately, he forgot about the small, quiet treasure, and I didn't hear it when I shook the clothes into the washer the next day.
The end result was a mess of black crayon melted all over our dark clothes.
Panic and staring into the gray dryer didn't help the situation, so I paid a quick visit to www.Crayola.com The website provided just what I needed to remove dried-in crayon stain and even offered advice for getting my dryer clean.
Until this morning, I thought the melted crayon mess had taught me to be extremely thorough when it comes to checking the boys' pockets. What I found after opening the door to that noisy dryer told me a different story.
All sorts of things were peeking out from between the damp clothes.
The two noisemakers turned out to also be the most likely to cause trouble when heated with clothes. Luckily, the cherry Chap Stick and peppermint Chap Stick I plucked from the dryer weren't even warm yet.
There were six more things hiding among the denim. I managed to find four of them before going back downstairs to make sure Tommy was actually using the Speed Stick.
I returned to the family room clutching a variety of artificial bait, two sparkly worms, a crawdad and something that looked like it might be more at home in outer space than any local watering hole.
Tommy did his best to identify the mystery bait. "It's supposed to be a minnow, I think," he said. "You're supposed to make it swim backwards, away from the fish."
By the time I finally took the dry clothes out and began the task of folding them, two more worms made an appearance. These were no longer black and sparkly after going through the entire drying cycle.
They resembled old Cheetos more than worms.
Looking at those withered worms, I admitted to myself the time had come to ask for help in handling the task of keeping up with the laundry. For that help, I'm going to the three boys who find treasure around every corner but forget to take it out of their pockets.
Instead of telling them how crayons and Chap Stick can ruin clothes, I plan to remind them how much pocket change ends up in the washing machine.
To erase any doubt in their minds, I plan to slip a couple of coins into their dirty little pockets.
I'll either end up with three boys who empty out their pockets at the end of the day or a whole lot of clean change.
(Zich and her Marine Corps husband have been stationed in various locations, including Okinawa, California, Texas and their current home in Springfield, Va. E-mail her at homefront@stripes.osd.mil.)