Start As You Mean to Go On

'Times is 'ard, I'm takin' in laundry', my old vicar in High Wycombe would sometimes jest if you called round to find the utility room draped with drying smalls. It was in line with his instruction to his dog that you might occasionally be able to hear as he came to answer the door, 'Kill, Max! Kill!!'

This bag arrived in the church porch on Christmas Eve, deposited by an unseen person as we were tidying and cleaning ready for the festivities later in the day. The bag mostly contained children's clothes, with a smattering of adult items, a duvet cover, a towel and a couple of wiping-up cloths. Not only that, but they were all just-laundered, and not even dried out (the laundrette is just around the corner). 

I left the bag for a while to see whether anyone came to claim it, and then took it all home. At least the cold weather meant it didn't go mouldy. Days of moving items around between the airing cupboard and the boiler cupboard have finally dried it all out, and what an operation that's been. I could have taken it back to the laundrette and used the tumble-driers there but it would have taken at least two loads and an unknown amount of time, as well as costing a bit.

I've assumed the clothes were deposited at the church because the depositor had some notion we might distribute them to The Poor. A public-spirited if wrong-headed thought, perhaps, but they might have dried it all out first, or even left a note. It's possible that it's a very unkind prank on someone who is now looking for their laundry, and I will put a note in the window of the laundrette just to check, but otherwise I will have to find a charity shop to sort through it all, or take it to a textile bank. As I say, perhaps a charitable thought, but from my point of view entirely unhelpful ...