Mildew, whites & campfires

A few years ago, I stayed at my older sis's house in Virginia. We had 3 weeks of fun with our kids, each of us having one at the time. However, when I was packing to go home, I couldn't seem to find my girl's little striped shirt. We looked all over and finally found it in the bottom of the hamper under some damp towels. I have no clue how long it was there. But, it was long enough for it to become covered in black spots - mildew!! Yuck! It smelled so bad!