Laundry

Before the move to the farm while our family still resided in the little brown house, either aunt Ruth or aunt Esther would often walk across the town from my grandmother’s house to help my mother with housework. I think it was usually one day a week, typically on wash day which fell early in the week — Monday sticks in my mind. I suppose they also assisted with the ironing afterward — although usually that would be done on a later day.

Aunt Ruth of course had lived at my grandmother’s during all the time of our being in the little brown house, whereas my aunt Esther was there a part of the time, after her release from Cherokee. So it is likely that my aunt Ruth was the one who spent more days helping my mother. But I am quite sure that my aunt Esther participated also.

By chance I recall one incident between me and aunt Esther. We were having lunch together just the town of us — I don’t recollect where the other members of the family were and why they were absent. The meal consisted of potatoes and gravy and there was not enough potatoes for the both of us. So aunt Esther had her gravy on a piece of bread. It struck me as off, gravy and potatoes were associated in my mind but not bread and gravy.

Washing clothes was a good half day’s work and involved heating the water for the wash in a “wash boiler” on a little stove in our basement, which was dedicated to that purpose. The washing machine tub was made of wood — with staves sort of like a barrel. It was powered by an electric motor. The clothes were first washed, then put through the wringer into the rinse water, then put through the wringer again before hung out to dry. Bluing was put in the rinse water to “whiten” the white clothes.

Most of the time, winter or summer, the clothes were dried outside, occasionally in the winter they would freeze on the line. After drying they were sprinkled with water and rolled into little rolls and tucked into a clothes basket until they were ironed. I guess the sprinkled water helped in the ironing process. After the washing step was finished, all the wash water was used to wash down the basement floor, running down into the drain.

Heating the water for the wash was required as more hot water was needed than could be expected from the hot water tank behind the kitchen stove.