Oh, the humanity!

[Oregon Bill]

So I finally got my century-old Griswold frying pan exactly where I wanted it -- so well seasoned I could literally blow a fried egg out of it.  I always tell my bride to leave cleaning the cast iron to me. But bless her heart, she decided to do me a favor and scour off all of the grease and I walked into the kitchen to see my beloved Griswold almost completely obscured in a thick cloud of detergent suds. She must have used a quarter cup of Dawn on it.
After a dose of smelling salts, I finally came to ...

[dusty texian]

Ouch! Bill that Hurt me way down here Amigo,,,,Dusty

[Ol Gabe]

"I feel your pain..."
Just for the sake of discussion only...
What is it with people who don't understand that cast iron cookware only needs to be seasoned then washed with warm water and a spatula?
Many years ago when my family used to run the rendevous circuit in the upper midwest, we would see newbies try to cook over an open fire with cast iron skillets and scrub them out with soap and suchlike then complain later that the skillets wouldn't do a good job when trying to fry up something for supper, DUH!
No matter how many times it was suggested that they just simply put warm or hot water in the item and let it set near the fire then scrape it out and simply wipe it down with a bit of butter, oil or grease, it never sunk in. Yet they always raved about how good our grub tasted from our well-seasoned ware, go figure!
Best regards and good eating!
'Ol Gabe     

[pony express]

Been there and survived, Bill. Got a #10 Wagner that's about a year older than I am, wife always wanted to wash it with soap, finally got her off that idea. What makes it worse, the Philippine way of washing dishes, instead of a sinkfull of relatively weak soap mix, she makes a small dish with really strong soap mix and dips the sponge/dishrag in that to wash with. Really hard of the seasoning! Now she just heats some water in it on the stove and brushes/wipes it out.

Funny thing, though. When she first arrived here, she didn't like my cast iron, it was just too heavy. So off to Wal Mart we go, been through several assorted lighter weight aluminum Teflon coated wonder pans, most of them are warped/scratched  and sitting in the "future yard sale" pile. There's still 2 aluminum ones she uses for specific jobs, and most anything else that goes in a frying pan goes in the cast iron again.