A grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe:
This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook, spelling errors and all.
Warshing Clothes
Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert.
Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.
Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard and boil, then rub colored don’t boil just wrench and starch.
Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
The notes go on to say: My mother-in-law would warsh and wrench the dishes if I would dry and put them away. Wrench has always been a mispronunciation of the word rinse. People used to always reuse rinse water to water flowers or grass.
The one thing not mentioned in the original post: That bar of soap you were to shave up. That didnt come from a store. You made that soap another day from hog fat, lye and ashes. Wasn’t pretty, nor did it smell appealing, but it sure cleaned well.
That those women were strong and resourceful cannot be denied (and many of them also died far younger than us).
Wikipedia states, the housewife “was in charge of feeding, cleaning and medical care for everyone in the household, as well as supervising the servants. The housewife’s domain, depending upon wealth, would also include “cellars, pantries, brew houses, milk houses, wash houses and butteries”. She was responsible for home manufacturing of clothing, candles, and foodstuffs. At harvest time she helped the menfolk gather the crops. She typically kept a vegetable garden, and cared for the poultry and milked the cows.”
In the idealised images of early advertising, the washtub is on a stand near a sunny, breezy clothesline, though in reality it may have been in a cramped kitchen or dark tenement courtyard, or by a tumbledown shack. Only, if they were very wealthy did they possibly employ servants helping with the laundry.
A drying area could be communal, shared by a whole village or neighbourhood; it could be private ground by a large house, or owned by a cloth manufacturer. (source)
Whether you were spreading off-white linen on the ground to bleach in the sun, or just putting your laundry there to dry, you wanted a:
“grassy corner well open to the sun,…sheltered from high winds…the attentions of wandering poultry… and the incursions of pigs, puppies and calves…they not only soil the clothes, but will tear and even eat them”
~Katherine Purdon, Laundry at Home, 1902
Memories from my grandmother
When I read the recipe above, I remembered stories from my grandmother’s lips.
My grandmother (my Nana) talked of her childhood in the South in the 1880s. The older children all walked to the river, and each carried back two buckets of water for washing. Then they all went back to the river for rinse water. It was an all-day effort, and, of course, they helped their mother.
When my Nana married, she said she had two “really nice” tubs, and a wringer. As a young girl, my mother (in the 20s) helped by running the washed sheets, first through the wringer into the first rinse, then through the wringer again into a tub of cold water that she had added blueing to.
When she spoke of it, she said she could still remember how good they smelled when she and grandmother took them off of the line after hanging in the sunshine.
She stated they worked hard and still considered it a blessing to have clean, white sheets!
That is the lost art…
Whether we have little or much, hard work or ease, the trick is to keep our eyes on the Lord and still be thankful!
As one commenter said: “[Today] we have trouble staying on top of the laundry because we have much much more. We own more clothes, more beds that need linens, more pillows, more towels, more everything. If we had to do laundry the way they did, I guarantee, we would have much less.”
So many ways of looking at this: Would you rather have lived then or now?
“The joy of the Lord is my strength” ~Nehemiah 8:10
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” ~Col. 3: 23
Alex Watson
We have trouble staying on top of the laundry because we have much much more. We own more clothes, more beds that need linens, more pillows, more towels, more everything. If we had to do laundry the way they did, I guarantee we would have much less. They may have shared a bed with siblings, or shared a towel because they bathed less often. They would have not worn a new outfit several times a day, or even a new outfit every day. IF they were very wealthy, they had servants/slaves taking care of the laundry, so it didn’t matter.
Jacqueline
Oh, yes!! All of this is SO very true, Alex! I wish I could have addressed all that in my post, but I think most people understand that! 😀
Beth
This is so sweet! “Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.”! I love that we see an older woman teaching a younger woman, not just how to clean and work hard, but also how to take a moment to rest when her work is done, and to thank God for all she has. That is so encouraging to me today!
Jacqueline
Beth, I know, right!? I had to smile and think how they must have longed to look pretty after such hard work! ~J
Gretchen Kindrick
As a child who grew up on the mission field, I experienced our laundry being scrubbed on a wash board and wrung out by hand. I still remember the excitement of our first washing machine with a wringer attachment. As a mom, we were quite poor, so it was the birth of our first child that spurred the purchase of a washing machine. I loved seeing my diapers hanging in the sun. On rainy days, they hung on lines in the house. My latest washing machine that we bought after my 28 year old one finally died allows me to “load and go”….. it senses the weight of the clothes and dispenses the correct amount of detergent. Wow! I thank God every day for the amazing blessing of a high tech washing machine.
Jacqueline
Gretchen, what wonderful memories! Thank you for sharing them with us, friend. We have so much to be thankful for! We need to always remember that God is indeed good!
Leslie
May I ask where you got this “recipe”?! I have a very special reason for asking!
Jacqueline
Hi, Leslie,
If I remember correctly, my virtual assistant saw it and loved the story. She said I should do a post on it .. and so I did!
It is so amazing what history has to tell us, and many today have no idea, that I thought it would give some perspective to those who complain and whine about how hard we have it!
I myself am almost 70 and remember the work my mom and grandmother had to do, so I am very grateful we have it so easy!
Blessings,
Jacque
Jeannette
What a fun history lesson! It brought to mind my experiences with a wringer washer. My mother raised seven children alone. The laundry seemed like it was never done! She bought a wringer washer once, and began using that instead of her standard machine. After a time, someone from the city came by our house. He wanted to inspect our water meter. He assumed it wasn’t working, because our water usage was drastically reduced! Nope, it was fine. 🙂
We married in 1982, and we bought a “nice” pink wringer washer. It was probably 20 years old then, but worked great. Paid $17 at an auction. The advantages were, much less water and soap usage, and I could wash 3 loads of laundry in less time than the automatic did one load. The disadvantages were that it was much more labor-intense, it didn’t always squeeze enough water out (made for a longer dry time), and I ruined buttons and zippers if I wasn’t careful. The memories are fond, but I am thankful for my modern washer! Thanks for the memory-jog!
Jacqueline
Hi, Jeannette, I wish I could see your nice pink wringer washer! I love that you shared your memories of those days with me! <3 We got married in ’73, and we looked for an older, but nice Maytag set. They lasted us over 30 years and they still work in my husband’s shop!
I only remember my Nana in Mississippi talking of her memories:
“My grandmother (my Nana) talked of her childhood in the South in the 1880s. The older children all walked to the river, and each carried back two buckets of water for washing. Then they all went back to the river for rinse water. It was an all-day effort, and, of course, they helped their mother.
When my Nana married, she said she had two “really nice” tubs, and a wringer. As a young girl, my mother (in the 20s) helped by running the washed sheets, first through the wringer into the first rinse, then through the wringer again into a tub of cold water that she had added blueing to.
When she spoke of it, she said she could still remember how good they smelled when she and grandmother took them off of the line after hanging in the sunshine.”
How I sometimes think I could take the harder work in exchange for less complication and technical stresses of today, but the Lord knew right where he wanted us in time, so I am content!
God bless you, friend!
Jacque