Remembering washday

Remembering Monday Washday

I started out this morning thinking “What a pain”as I looked at the 2 huge basket loads of laundry .I dumped the white wash in the machine, put in the washing powder, adjusted the dials and off it went. An hour or so later the whites went into the dryer, and in another hour or so I had them out folded and ready to put back in place. Same thing with the darks. Meanwhile I sat watching the Presidential Inauguration on the TV.

It was only while I was putting the clothes away that I began to remember how my Mum had to do her laundry when I was growing up in England. She had first to boil the water in a big stone wash boiler , starting with cold water. A fire underneath the boiler had to be lit and kept going with coal. Once the water was boiling , the wash had to be stirred with a big wooden stick. The kitchen where this all took place, filled up with steam and a strange smell of washing soap and everyone got hot and sticky.

 After the laundry was considered clean, it had to be fished out with the stick, put in the sink of cold water and rinsed and wrung out by hand. Then it was taken out back to a shed where it was put through a mangle. This was the bit I loved . I would turn the handle to make the big wooden rollers go round but it was hard work and sometimes more than I could do.I was only about 5 or 6 at the time.

Then came the part where the washing was all hung out with clothes pegs on the line in the garden. This was another awkward task especially the sheets and large items as they often dragged on the floor and got dirty again and so had to go through the washing and rinsing process again. Now think about England and you know how rainy and damp it is. Sometimes the wash would take nearly all week to get dry .The wash would be taken in and out, drying on the lines in the shed and then on the outside line. And eventually all had to be ironed. Another long job. Just remembering it makes me tired.

We have come such a long way. In the 60s when I lived in Canada doing the laundry had progressed to a washer kept in the basement .This appliance had the luxury of hot water, an agitator and a small mangle on top. Still not easy to use but so much better. , We still had to carry the washing up the stairs each time and hang it outside on the garden wash line or string it around the basement in bad weather.And then there was the ironing,

So when I think of the luxury of today' washday I really shouldn't grumble at all but be really thankful for our lovely laundry machines and non iron fabrics.

But I do miss seeing the clothing hanging out in the sun on the washing line and didn't they always smell so good and fresh when you brought them in..