The Rust-Covered Dress

I’m not exactly domestic. (Or domesticated, really.) But I’m learning.

I was head chef all week and have mastered both the green salad and the olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. I even ventured into more creative pursuits, including chicken salad – with apple – and a fancy Argentinean rice salad. I cleaned too, and was complimented for my successes with the vacuum, in the kitchen, and in the bathroom.

Stains have always been the worst. It’s funny; I take after my father (which basically means I can’t have a meal without spilling something on me or the tablecloth) and I love the look of white clothes (which means I own a lot of them). Luckily I was born into a family where the mother not only loves laundry (or at least she does a lot of it) but she is a master at stain removal. So, for many years, I’ve relied at her to remove red wine, olive oil, make up and the like from my white apparel.

But I don’t live with Maman anymore.

On the day she left I had my first success: I removed chocolate (ice cream) and blood (paper cut) from my latest white linen dress – all by myself! I was feeling so confident that I thought I would retackle the white towel dress/beach cover up I had successful ruined with rust stains. My mother and I spent the entire last week trying new ways to remove the brown color from the otherwise perfect dress: hand wash, bleach (by the buckets), stain remover, multiple washings, the like. In fact, I was out of ideas.

I told Tony of my dilemma, who said, “I have rust remover for the boat. Maybe that’ll work.”

I love Tony, but I couldn’t see how something made for boat exteriors could possibly help my towel dress. Today, I figured I’d humor him.

The bottle read explicitly “Only for metals, xxx and xxx.” It came with a warning from Tony, “Whatever you do, don’t inhale.” I was doubtful.

I sprayed. I sprayed some more. And to my extraordinary surprise, the rust faded entirely right before my eyes, in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, my rust-stained towel dress is a perfect beach cover-up again.

Count it: Stains – 0, Me – 2 !