April 15^th is National Laundry Day. Who celebrates this less-than-exciting chore that, unless done, will cause one to dress in a swimsuit and ball gown to carry out daily activities? The answer would be Canadians. That’s right. Someone in Canada loves laundry so much that they created a day to honour this heartwarming expression of love for one’s family or oneself. If you doubt me, check out this comprehensive list of national days in Canada, which includes several options for each day: https://www.calendarr.com/canada/observances-2024/.

To be clear, I can offer no reason for the why. Yes, I appreciate living in a country with automatic washers that do the hard work. Generally, you put in detergent and possibly some other products, push buttons, and presto! Clean clothes come out—theoretically (don’t get me started on the efficacy of my current washer). It’s a huge blessing not to have to beat clothes on rocks or use the methods our ancestors did, so I’m not discounting the benefit of our machines. But celebrating the humdrum task of laundry as a national day is puzzling.

I was going to be flippant and ask if there’s a national toenail-cutting day. I checked, in case there is such a thing, and sure enough, April 25^th is National Clip Your Toe Nails Day (in the U.S.), according to the Urban Dictionary! Puzzle solved. Nothing is too insignificant to have a day to celebrate it. Can you imagine receiving an invitation to a party and the response to your offer to bring something is toenail clippings? But I digress.

A pile of dirty clothes may not seem humorous, but funny things can happen while undertaking this mundane chore.

I’ll give you a little background to appreciate how this hilarity occurred.

I entered the world of cell phones kicking and screaming. My pink flip phone had served me well for several years. It was almost impossible to text with it, which forced my adult children to use their words and speak with me. Why would I willingly give that up? Well, technology gave up on me first. It no longer supported my phone, so I was dragged, against my will, into the world of smartphones. Still under the illusion that I didn’t need many bells and whistles (I have since reformed), my husband bought me a previously owned Blackberry on eBay.

While staying with our son and his wife to care for their sick baby while they worked, I decided to do some laundry. With a baby on my hip, I pulled out my trusty Blackberry and texted my son to ask for help with their temperamental washer. Yes, I texted.

While I awaited his response, the baby’s arm shot out faster than a beagle snatches a dropped morsel and touched my keyboard. Instantly, it changed to Chinese characters. What does one do to fix a keyboard that is in characters? Behind an impenetrable wall of incomprehensible shapes were my contacts. So was Google. We Google everything now, but not when we can’t communicate with it. Do you remember the olden days when we had a resource called a telephone book? Ah, progress! I burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation while utterly bewildered as to how to find a solution. Meanwhile, no clothes washed themselves.

I knew my husband’s phone number, but he was working and unreachable. The only other number I could remember of someone who could possibly help was our daughter. Giggling, I explained the situation to her, and she Googled an answer for me. We found the fix in the settings as instructed and discovered five Asian dialects set on the phone. What a find because one never knows when one might feel the urge to switch to an incomprehensible language. And having five different options was an embarrassment of riches! After returning the keyboard to English, I could read the washer tweak and proceed with my day.

As long as I owned that phone, we never discovered the shortcut that a baby found with one lightning move. So now, on April 15^th, I have a day dedicated to remembering the hilarious incident when a grandbaby outsmarted his grandmother before he could walk or talk. Now I know someone who will celebrate National Laundry Day and why. That would be me.