Years ago when I walked from The Clipper office to LaPorte’s Pharmacy I had no idea that my pink panties were peeking out from the leg of my bluejeans.

Of course, I wasn’t the first to notice, while I paid for my purchase.

And, yes, those were the days when jeans were usually blue. Then the only other time it happened was with my husband’s underwear before I washed all our undies in a separate load.

But this family lore is about another washing machine story.

It’saboutadeadmouse next to the washer that I thought my husband had gotten rid of, but he hadn’t.

Then I discovered the spin cycle had only moved “my mouse” as Bill had called it.

Bill said he didn’t want to pick it up right then because he was getting ready to eat. “Besides, it’s not going anywhere,” he said.

“It has already moved a few feet in a week,” I said.

He said: “It’s been there for a week? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did!”

“Why didn’t you tell me again?”

Hey, we’ve all forgotten one thing, or another, at some time or another.

Yes, I forgot, probably on purpose, about the laundry during a hot summer. Or, maybe I just didn’t want to go out in the garage during that heat to put clothes in the washer, or dryer.

That’s when apparently no one in the household had a matched pair of socks. But hey, it was the summer.

And, thankfully, those were the days when there was a C.R. Anthony’s in Hennessey. So, soon everyone in the house had new socks. But when I got home both Bill and son Nick were leaving the house for a rendezvous. Nick never wore socks, and Bill’s unmatched socks didn’t show.

Yes, a rendezvous! However, the first time Bill told me he was going to a rendezvous I said, “So, the honeymoon is over!”

He quickly explained that’s what the mountain men used to call competition shoots.

Yes, he was a smart man, and that was one of the first times he didn’t beat around the bush with some long explanation.