Dykstra cousins

Being born in the middle of 20 cousins (on one side--26 on the other!) has given me the advantage of remembering them all well--those at the beginning or end of the pack are less likely to have this.
Christmas 1959 has me at the youngest in the photo--the crying one. My sister and I are wearing matching red dresses my mother made. There is one cousin 3 months younger than me not in the picture--she must have been crying even harder.

dungeon laundry room

(note to relatives horrified at the condition of my laundry room and that I am showing it--this is part of a ring of quilters posting photos of our laundry rooms. You may come by and help me clean it any time!)

Living in a 100 year old house means the laundry room is in the basement that looks like a dungeon. I was hesitant showing it, but realized we are the sixth family to live in this house and the others did nothing to improve it either, so I'm not the only lazy one. The washer and dryer were placed on concrete steps decades ago to prevent damage during the occasional storm drain backup that Chicago downpours give our neighborhood.
For the first 6 years we lived here (and for two pregnancies), this was also our only shower. Every shower during the third pregnancy I gave thanks for not having to shower in a cold place with spiders.
I saw a wonderful photo of a laundry room painted Chinese red, with colorful paper lanterns. The apple green idea is great too.
I may just have to put this place in order.