1. Get some chewing gum and chew it.
2. Once you are finished chewing the gum, politely wrap the chewed gum in its wrapper and stuff it into your pants pockets to discard properly later rather than throwing it on the ground or sticking it under any convenient surface.
3. Do steps 1 and 2 several times until you have accumulated several little balls of paper-covered gum in two or three of your pairs of pants or shorts.
4. Take the initiative to do your own laundry, but neglect to check your pockets before placing clothes in washer.
5. At end of wash cycle take clothes out of washer and place in Mom's dryer.
6. Dry clothes, but leave them in dryer until Mom needs to use it and removes them herself, finding all manner of bits of papers that had been stuffed in the pants pockets and have come out in the drying process, and gum sticking all over the interior of her nice, almost new, super-large capacity stainless steel dryer drum.
7. Volunteer to clean the dryer drum at your convenience, even after Mom expresses total disgruntlement at needing to use the dryer now, but finding it impossible to do so because of the chewing gum covering the interior of the dryer.
8. Make no move to show initiative to clean the dryer drum, causing Mom to do it herself.
9. Stay out of Mom's way for several days.
FROM THE PRINCESS ...
10 years ago
Oh no! I can't imagine the work involved in cleaning up the sticky gum!!
ReplyDeleteIt was not fun, especially since it was inside the dryer. I considered using something like Goo Gone, but that stuff has a fragrance that seems to linger forever and I was worried about residual oil on the inside of the drum. I tried a little rubbing alcohol and it seemed to be working, but was slow. Then I remembered that peanut butter can be used to remove chewing gum from hair. I decided to try it, even though I'd have to clean up the peanut butter. Working my way around the drum, I put a thin coat on the gum, let it set for a few minutes, then it rubbed off quite well. I used Windex to clean off the oil residue from the peanut butter. It took over two hours, but I finally got it.
ReplyDeleteOMGoodness! LOL, kids....seems as though they can never do laundry, even if they are grown!
ReplyDeleteWhat an ordeal! I would have been horrified!
Thanks so much for adding us to your prayer list :0)
Oh WOW. Was that Paul?
ReplyDeleteBecka and Jo: I can laugh now, thank goodness. The perpetrator was our oldest son, age 38! Let me tell you, though, he was in the dog house for a bit. Oddly, and thankfully, none of the gum seemed to have stuck to any of his clothing. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
ReplyDeletePeanut butter! Good to know ~ I never heard of that. (Good thinking.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment on my blog. Those hats are easy and use about 2/3 skein of Bernat Satin yarn. We have a fair bit in common. I'm a Mom, who works part-time for an Environmental Engineering Library. My background is in Life Science, but your background is in my interst range.
ReplyDeleteIn order to leave a comment, I have had to reset my password for the fourth time because Google wants a strong password. My password is so strong I can never remember it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway---I would have killed him. My children have left all kinds of miscellaneous items in their pockets, but never gum. My personal favorite is the ink pen Matthew left in his pocket one day. I call myself checking pockets, but some of his shorts have around five million pockets. C'est la vie. Oh, have your kids have like a wad of Kleenex in their pockets. Of course, the Kleenex is flat and you think you are good to go for that pocket. You open the dryer and snow attacks.
Tell Paul that Midge said it would have been justifiable homicide for polluting his mothers' dryer with massive mounds of gum. No judge would convict you.
Paul is 38! Not possible. I remember that sweet little face sitting so nicely in Art History. Now he is a serial gum offender.
I laughed so much I cried Melissa, not because of the inconvenient mess made in your dryer but your way with words. Very naughty of him though. If only he had left some money in notes that you could have dried out and spent. It would have served him right.
ReplyDeleteLol, Cathy! I have told them that if they leave any money in their pockets at laundry time, it belongs to Mom the Laundress. I end up with a little extra cash now and then. Unfortunately no such luck for me this time. When I think of it now, I get a good laugh. The comments have also given me some laughs, too. I read all the comments to No.1 Son yesterday and he did not think they were so funny. Odd, that.
ReplyDelete