People often ask me where I get the ideas for my column. I tell them sometimes they come from conversation with others. Sometimes they come from reading things. Sometimes they come from life experiences. Sometimes they come from exposure to something.

Today’s column comes from something that came across my desk recently. I saw a picture of cloth diapers blowing in the breeze. I used cloth diapers for my little ones. The disposable ones were new at the time. They were paper, but they did not have plastic on the outside. I took them with me when I went out of town or visiting. That meant that I did not have to carry messy diapers back home. I just informed my hostess that I deposited one in her trash.

When you used cloth diapers, you also had to have “rubber” pants to go over them to avoid an embarrassing accident. They had cute diaper covers – especially for little girls. There were always ruffles on the backside that looked cute under dresses. They were part of the outfit.

First, I had one child in diapers, but eventually I had two. My son was not out of diapers when my daughter arrived. He was only one year old so that was not unusual.

I was living in a trailer with no room for a washing machine or a dryer. I used my mother-in-law’s. Once the baby was down for a nap, I went over to put diapers in the washing machine which was just inside the back door. Quite often by the time they were washed I had to take the baby along to put them in the dryer – that is when it was working.

If the dryer was out of commission, I hung them out on the clothesline. I must admit they smelled good when they blew on the line. Even in the winter, I hung out diapers. Sometimes they froze before they dried. Then I brought them in and hung them on a rack in the bathroom to finish the drying process.

Since I had no dryer most of the time, I had to check my stash of diapers to be sure I would have enough to last me through the day. I also factored in drying time.

My grandfather made me a changing table out of an old television case. There was a place for clean diapers as well as two drawers for clothing. I put a pad on the top to change the children. My bathroom was very small but at least the case fit in there. It was next to impossible for a child to fall off of the changing table so I did not worry about that.

Another photo that I saw had some diaper pins. They were really cute and of course, I also recognized them.

Mothers today think they have it rough, but I tell you using cloth diapers was no picnic. When I washed diapers, I did the thin cloth ones first because they would dry the fastest. I also had some heavier ones that were more form fitting. I liked those because the babies I had babysat for wore them.

The big advantage to cloth diapers is once you made the initial investment in them the cost to launder them was minimal. Today they even have whole showers – usually for the men – for just diapers. They are not cheap. Then, you have to dispose of them. Putting them in the trash is kind of like out of sight out of mind. They just disappear. They are a huge problem in the garbage. The plastic keeps them from disintegrating.

My children when they had babies used to burn them. One of the boys and I will not name him poured gasoline on them and caused an explosion! There were diapers all over the yard. That was not such a good method of getting rid of them.

I would not want to buy disposable diapers on my fixed income. I am sure I would fall short. I would still be able to use cloth diapers and wash them though.

Are we really ahead? Although they are easier, the disposable ones have drawbacks – getting rid of them is one of them. I think if we had to go back to cloth diapers it would solve the disposal method, but it would put more pressure on the moms. Moms are already stressed by their duties. They have too much to do! Maybe if they ran diaper services it would help, but that would also be costly since someone would have to pick them up and deliver them. With the price of gasoline that would add to the cost. There is no easy answer so we just plod away the way we have been doing.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell. Contact her at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.