Mari Collier's Blog - Posts Tagged "yesteryear"
Laundry Day
Many of you know that I am on the Board of Directors for Twentynine Palms Historical Society. You may not know that I write two columns for their Old Schoolhouse Journal. I love history and this is one of the Snapshots in Time that I wrote for them.
Have you ever really looked at the displays in the Twentynine Palms Old Schoolhouse Museum? They represent snapshots in time. The mundane household items show us the tools or items used, but can’t provide a moving history of the activity around them. The laundry exhibit is a case in point.
The tub and washboard bring up images of women with reddened hands scouring their clothes. The women are clad in longish dresses, either short sleeved or long sleeves rolled up. Left out is the scurried activity to find the wood to heat the water, the hours of bringing the water to the tub from a larger container, a creek, or hand pumping from a well. If the woman was able to do so, she would have bought bar soap that needs to be “shaved” so it will dissolve in the water or a soap powder in a box. If she wasn't as fortunate, she would spend long hours with ash, lye, lard, maybe some lavender for fragrance, and more wood or coal to heat the final mixture to a thick mass before pouring into molds or spreading it out to dry and cut into cakes. After washing in the soapy water, the clothes were rinsed in more water lugged from somewhere, wrung out by hand, and then hung. Lugging a basket full of wet, hand laundered clothes is far heavier than most people imagine.
Then by the 1920’s there was a remarkable improvement found in many homes. Yes, electrical machines existed, but the average person couldn't afford them or they did not have access to electricity. The washer looked much like the old Speed Queens, but there was no motor. You put hot water, soap, and the clothes into the washing tub, closed the lid and turned the crank on the side by hand, load after load, hour after hour. This chore was usually given to the oldest child or daughter. Then you could wring out the clothes by running it through the wringer (guiding by hand while someone turned the wringer crank) into the rinse water. If you were rich enough for two water tubs, you could wring the clothes into the next tub, still with someone turning the wringer crank. After all of this, the clothes were ready to hang on the clothes line.
You may wonder about the number of loads the woman washed. Sheets weren't washed as frequently as today and usually, it was just one sheet from the bottom. No matched sets for most people. Everyone wore one set of clothes all week and put on the clean, pressed clothes for Saturday or Sunday. If there were special clothes for Sunday, these were laundered as needed. The families tended to be large prior to 1950. This meant there were always whites, colored, and dark clothes every week.
None of these details are in the displays, but if you look at them long enough, maybe you’ll see the intense look on the woman’s face as she exams the clothing for any missed stain before it is placed in the rinse water. She might study the lines full of clothes once they are all hung, and then she thinks about the ironing to do tomorrow. That, however, is another snapshot.
Have you ever really looked at the displays in the Twentynine Palms Old Schoolhouse Museum? They represent snapshots in time. The mundane household items show us the tools or items used, but can’t provide a moving history of the activity around them. The laundry exhibit is a case in point.
The tub and washboard bring up images of women with reddened hands scouring their clothes. The women are clad in longish dresses, either short sleeved or long sleeves rolled up. Left out is the scurried activity to find the wood to heat the water, the hours of bringing the water to the tub from a larger container, a creek, or hand pumping from a well. If the woman was able to do so, she would have bought bar soap that needs to be “shaved” so it will dissolve in the water or a soap powder in a box. If she wasn't as fortunate, she would spend long hours with ash, lye, lard, maybe some lavender for fragrance, and more wood or coal to heat the final mixture to a thick mass before pouring into molds or spreading it out to dry and cut into cakes. After washing in the soapy water, the clothes were rinsed in more water lugged from somewhere, wrung out by hand, and then hung. Lugging a basket full of wet, hand laundered clothes is far heavier than most people imagine.
Then by the 1920’s there was a remarkable improvement found in many homes. Yes, electrical machines existed, but the average person couldn't afford them or they did not have access to electricity. The washer looked much like the old Speed Queens, but there was no motor. You put hot water, soap, and the clothes into the washing tub, closed the lid and turned the crank on the side by hand, load after load, hour after hour. This chore was usually given to the oldest child or daughter. Then you could wring out the clothes by running it through the wringer (guiding by hand while someone turned the wringer crank) into the rinse water. If you were rich enough for two water tubs, you could wring the clothes into the next tub, still with someone turning the wringer crank. After all of this, the clothes were ready to hang on the clothes line.
You may wonder about the number of loads the woman washed. Sheets weren't washed as frequently as today and usually, it was just one sheet from the bottom. No matched sets for most people. Everyone wore one set of clothes all week and put on the clean, pressed clothes for Saturday or Sunday. If there were special clothes for Sunday, these were laundered as needed. The families tended to be large prior to 1950. This meant there were always whites, colored, and dark clothes every week.
None of these details are in the displays, but if you look at them long enough, maybe you’ll see the intense look on the woman’s face as she exams the clothing for any missed stain before it is placed in the rinse water. She might study the lines full of clothes once they are all hung, and then she thinks about the ironing to do tomorrow. That, however, is another snapshot.
