Wash Day
I remember wash day well when I was a kid. I don't remember it being on a certain day, just whenever my mother decided to tackle the job.
And it was a job. She would get out the old iron wash pot and fill it with water and build a fire under it to heat the water. Then she would get out her wash tub and wash board and bring out hot water she had heated on the wood stove in the kitchen and fill the tubs with it. Then she would pile all of the clothes along beside the wash tub. She would get her big blocks of lye soap, home made, and would scrub the white and light colored clothing first then the dark and dirtiest clothes later. They all got a turn on the wash board and then into rinse water and finally into the cast iron wash pot with the hot boiling water. They were boiled for a few minutes and then dipped out into cold rinse water and finally hung on the clothes line to dry. I think the idea was that the boiling water would kill germs and make the white things whiter. I never boil my clothes when I wash them! Maybe they are loaded with germs!
It was an almost all day job back in those days. We would have to take down some things as soon as they dried in order to hang up more clothes. By the time everything got washed and dried it was late in the day. We hung some things on a fence (equal to our dryer) to have more room. My job was mostly hanging wash rags and other small pieces on the fence. It all seemed like fun then. I'm sure it wasn't fun for the adults!
Of course this was the routine on summer days. Winter was a different story. The job was all done inside when it was cold instead of outside in warm weather.
Now when I load my washer with my dirty clothes I thank God it isn't like it used to be back then!
posted by kyra lafain @ 2/25/2011 12:30:00 PM
4 Comments:
YOU FORGOT THE BLUEING!!
I haven't seen it in so long I forgot how to spell it!!!!
BLUING!!
I remember when Grandma lived on East Sherman Street. Of course, by then she had a fancy electric wringer washer. You washed the clothes then ran them through the wringer into the bathtub for a rinse - with bluing!
During the winter, she had lines strung upstairs in the front room. I can still smell those clothes hanging in there and remember her running us out - we thought it was fun to run in and out between the lines and hide behind the clothes.
Little Devils!
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