FABRIC SOFTENER DETERGENT

Clean clothes; soft clothes; pleasantly fragrant clothes: These are the things that make my daughter's laundry day successful.  She doesn't have many days off, so when she hauls her clothes to the laundromat, she usually sets up at one of the larger, bulk-capable machines.

I am on spring break from my job, and I am trudging through some terrible essays.  No, truly -- they're bad and in desperate need of real editing.  When my daughter calls and invites me to join her on laundry day, it makes my day leaps and bounds better than what it presently is.  We can sneak across the street and have lunch and a beer or two while the laundry is going.

It has been a long time since I've had to rely on the washing machines at the laundromat, so I stay out of the way and let my daughter queue up and add cleaning products.  She starts by adding a huge cap-full of pink liquid, followed by another cap-full.

Then, she walks away from the machine.

Huh.  I pick up the plastic bottle she left on the machine.  It's blue, and I try (without my reading glasses) to make out this new discovery.  I wonder out loud, "Does Downy make detergent now, too?"  I am examining the bottle like it holds the answers to the universe.

My daughter seems dumbfounded.  I repeat the question, "Does Downy make detergent now, too?"

Turns out that for months now my daughter has mistaken fabric softener for laundry detergent.  We laugh so hard about this that the attendant comes over.  When we explain what my girl has done, the clerk quickly gives us the end of her detergent, enough to add today but definitely not enough for more than one load.  Good thing we are using the bulk-clothes machine.

Oh, well.  My daughter's clothes may not be squeaky clean, but she is the softest, most pleasantly fragrant worker on her floor.

P.S. She did buy (and use!) laundry detergent, and she now adds fabric softener when and where it is supposed to be added.