Like her prior novels, the book began as a re-telling of factual events about her family's life in early 1900s Tucson.

This time it was to focus on her brother Oliver and his inheriting their father's steam laundry, but due to complaints from her family about telling all their secrets, and the author's own feeling of constraint about having to follow real life, the novel turned into one of pure fiction.

[4] To celebrate the launch of the new book, a party was thrown at the steam laundry in Tucson, Arizona started by her father and run by her brother, which became the fictional setting for the novel.

The Arizona Daily Star said that "Mrs. Taylor has written a farce comedy with no pretensions other than wringing out as many laughs as the laundry did sheets.

[8] The Indianapolis Star gave the book a good review, stating that the book "mixes a fresh entertainment salad listed on the booksellers summer menu", and that "It can't miss.