by Sharon Short
But the other day, when I asked Mrs. Beavy for her buttermilk pie recipe, she just smiled at me and said, “Dearie, that’s an old family secret.”
PARADISE ADVERTISER-GAZETTE
Josie’s Stain Busters
by Josie Toadfern
Stain Expert and Owner of Toadfern’s Laundromat
(824 Main Street, Paradise, Ohio)
Not only was last week’s fireworks display the best ever (a welcome treat after the tension of the past few weeks), but the new play, The Curse of Paradise, was a theatrical treat!
Congratulations to Trudy Breitenstrater, for writing a fine play, and to her friends, for super performances. Since the play received a standing ovation, I hear that there’s now talk of bringing more theatre to Paradise. In fact, some customers have told me that former members of the Paradise Players are thinking of starting a mystery dinner theatre group. Hmm . . . murder mystery and dinner with pies from the now employee-owned Breitenstrater Pie Company for dessert? Make mine apple!
Truth be told, the actors and actresses almost didn’t have costumes, because the costumes had suffered mildew damage. Fortunately, I was able to save them by treating the mildew with a solution of nonchlorine bleach and water (ratio of 1 to 3 parts each). Mildew is a living growth, and you can’t just wash it out—you have to kill it. But be careful with fragile old fabric. Spray on the solution, then dab up with a clean cloth, and keep repeating until the mildew spots are gone, then clean as usual.
The Paradise Theatre itself also looked great! I’m proud to say we can thank my cousin, Sally Toadfern, for all her hard work on the theatre. And her little boys, Harry, Larry, and Barry were mighty handsome the night of the play, in their crisp clean shirts. Sally told me it was okay to share that Harry’s shirt had an ink stain on the sleeve—until she followed my tip of spritzing hairspray on the stain before washing. (For super-stubborn ink stains, you can also try soaking the stain in milk for several hours before washing as usual.)
Other tips that have worked well for my customers this past month:
1. For grease stains on work clothes, pour a can of soda in with the wash.
2. For tomato-based stains (catsup, sauce, chili, and so on), pretreat with white vinegar. Another method—pour boiling water through the stain over the sink . . . but be careful!
3. And for red wine stains, rinse out as much as possible with cold water. Then, mix equal parts hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dishwashing detergent and treat the spot before washing. This procedure is recommended by enologists—that’s wine experts—at University of California, Davis.
Now, I used this last tip to help Mrs. Beavy. That’s right . . . she drinks a little red wine every day now, mostly for medicinal purposes. But also, she says—and she told me I could share all this—because it tastes “just fine.” Life’s too short, says Mrs. Beavy, not to have a little wine.
Which is why, she says, once the Breitenstrater mansion is converted over to be the new home for the Paradise Historical Society, cheese and wine . . . and Breitenstrater pies . . . will be served at the ribbon-cutting.
Until next month, may your whites never yellow and your colors never fade. But if they do, hop on over and see me at Toadfern’s Laundromat—Always a Leap Ahead of Dirt!
Want to be in the next Josie Toadfern Mystery Novel?
Josie knows a lot about stains—but she’s always willing to learn more! Send your best stain-fighting tip to Sharon Short, via or to [email protected]. She’ll select her favorite and use it in the next Josie Toadfern mystery novel and give you a hearty thank you in the acknowledgments. Deadline: August 15, 2004.
About the Author
Photo by Jerry Huffman
SHARON SHORT’S humor column, “Sanity Check,” appears every Monday in the Dayton Daily News and covers everything from shredding pantyhose for stress relief to talking refrigerators. Her fiction credits include several short mysteries published in Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine, and Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine. In addition, Ms. Short is a principal of her own marketing communications firm. She lives in Miamisburg, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters. Readers can contact her at [email protected].
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Also by Sharon Short
DEATH OF A DOMESTIC DIVA
A Toadfern Mystery
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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DEATH BY DEEP DISH PIE. Copyright © 2004 by Sharon Short. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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