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July 22, 2003 It seems as though wash day is never one day anymore. In the olden days, one day a week, Og and Mrs. Og would go down to the river, strip off their animal skins and wash in the stream. Beat it with a club and smash it on a rock to get the living creatures and dust out of the garments. Hopefully doing so as fast as possible without being eaten by a larger dinosaur. As we came further into development, and garments were made better, often they were washed on the body in a stream or under a waterfall, again hopefully not being eaten while doing so. Yet further still, as we can see in tintypes of the late 1700s and 1800s, women washing clothes in stream or hauling water to be brought to a boil and then the meager amount of clothes boiled until clean. No one knows why but assumptions have been made as to why, Mondays were wash day. As we finished the week and were cleaned for Sunday, the clothes of the previous day were now ready to be washed for the new week’s work. Thereby a person would have a set of clothes for Monday and a Sunday best outfit. For almost a century, on Mondays all women had the job of doing laundry. This day was formally known as, Wash Day. It was not an easy task. Often this is how it went: Firewood was cut (if not already cut), and a fire was made. This had to be a flame fire so as to boil the water which burnt to hot embers (coals were as hot if not hotter than flame and produced no smoke) and the embers or coals kept the wash water hot. As the fire was roaring you carried buckets of fresh water (unless you were lucky to have pump or well nearby) and this was dumped into two large lifeboat sized " wash tubs". There were typically two or three “ Wash Tubs” One tub was filled with lye soap and another with both bluing and cold water, or just cold water. Clothes were divided into two piles, work clothes and whites. It really didn’t matter as \all clothes were boiled. Whites were usually boiled first as these were the “ less dirty”. Often comprising of sheets, few towels, and any other unmentionables, then the last load was work clothes. The clothes were stirred with long paddles that looked like boat oars. Often the smell of lye and heat made for a very long day, one especially not desired in the heat of the summer. The clothes were then removed from the hot boiling tub, and placed into the cold tub. They water would sometimes burn the hands. So by paddle clothes were transferred. And there they were stirred yet again to be cooled and rinsed and then tightly wrung dry. Clotheslines hung heavy, as grapevine leaden with fresh grapes, as the laundry dripped and were beaten by the wind (if there was any). Luckily after about 8 hours of this, the laundry was done, and you still had bread and supper to make. In the 1920s, or thereabouts we got “ modern”. Wash tubs slowly faded away, like a stain in bleach, and away went knuckle busting scrub boards, and of course the routine of stirring. It was the modern age. We now had rocker washers and wringers. And the invention of soap flakes took away the boiling lye soap water. Now you laced hot boiling water into the tub, with your “ washing powder” and you could now sit or stand and with the ease of a handle rock your clothes clean, The water was drained by a small capped hole, rinse water placed, and you could rock your clothes rinsed. The wringer was hand cranked and the clothes could be pulled through and the water drained into a place under the wringer or back into the tub. Wash day was getting easier. More free time, to make simple dinners and maybe do something else. Yet 1 day a week even with these modern conveniences, we still had wash day. The 1950s brought us to the biggest advancement to Laundry Day, that being the automatic washer and the beginning of the clothes dryer. Washers now came in choices, your clothes could be tumbled or spun and still in someway pounded. No more back breaking work on a rock, scrub board or knuckle buster. This was a far cry form our own mothers and grandparents. Laundry Day had come into the modern age. We now have detergents that protect colors and smell of the outside line dried clothes. We really don’t know or remember what that should smell like, so we imagine what clothes should smell like because of the perfumes that are added to make us think that that is what line dried clothes smell like! We now have machines that tumble gently, air fluff, and do a multitude of temperatures. Our clothes dryers provided us with instant satisfaction of dryness and that ever so memorable warm for the winter feeling. No one of our age can truly remember the stiffness of cold dried towels that were so hard that the threads cracked when you tried to bend a towel. Or the jeans that came in frozen from the line, able to stand as hard as wood until they thawed in front of a heater or wood stove. Yet our wash days are as unique as the “ good old days”. In 2003, a new millennium, a new wash day has developed. A day at the Laundromat is now one of new ideas. Now you can go and get your clothes clean while knocking back a few beers, watching TV, singing Karaoke, or even chatting on the internet, No longer for amusement do you have to put your brother into the drier and watch him go around in circles until someone yells. Which btw, large size Laundromat dryers can accommodate a small person much the same way as the lem capsule accommodated an astronaut. DO NOT ATTMPT THIS.. It’s just an observation. Washday now can be any day of the week, colors are still (sometimes) separated and a variety of detergents can provide an unending sensory bombardment. No longer is the Laundromat a place for moms and kids to be on say Monday or Wednesday, it is now a place to be a babe magnet (toss few Joe boxers into the wrong drier. just make sure its not grannies washer) and see what conversation comes up. Enjoy the soulful sounds of that college freshman trying karaoke yodeling while your bed sheets rotate next to baby clothes. Laundry day, has become an event in some colleges and still daily or weekly chore. Simply drop, dry and plunk a few quarters into a machine and you are free to do other things. We are now doing more useful things on wash day, hey we are not our grandmothers anymore. ------------ Email Julia Sherman-Talley: jimmysdevoted@bellsouth.net Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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