 My family and I lived on a farm in the country. We had two long
windows in each room, with screens, and in the warm weather, they
were opened day and night, except when it rained.We did laundry
on Mondays. I remember it well. Fill a wash boiler with water and
put it on the stove. When hot, take some of the water and put it in
washtub. Rub white clothes first, on a washboard with lye soap.
After scrubbing, rinse in another tub of lukewarm water. Then put
white shirts, men's white handkerchiefs and pillowcases in a hot
boiler that you added the blueing to. Stir around and mix the
blueing in good. Boil 15 minutes, remove and rinse again. Then
starch the shirt collars and hang on clothesline. We did the same
with towels and washcloths, but without starch. Colored clothes came
last.
Mom got a wringer washer in the '30s, but we hung clothes outside
on the line all four seasons. In the winter, we would put the long
underwear in the washtub in the corner of the kitchen until they
thawed out.
On ironing day, which was always Tuesday, my sister and I would
keep cold, wet cloths on the back of our necks to try and keep cool.
We had to have a hot fire in the kitchen stove to keep the irons
hot. I think mom had us iron everything but towels and overalls.
Sometimes, we would open the icebox to keep us cool while ironing.
We kept cold water on the shelf of our Hoosier cabinet.
Mom would pass out many times because of the heat, and we would
carry her out to the yard. We would fan her with towels and give her
smelling salts. We washed our faces often to keep cool, and
sometimes funeral homes would give out hand fans.
We always ate breakfast and supper around the kitchen table
during the school year. I still remember the oilcloth we used as our
tablecloth. Dad would leave the table first, both in the morning and
in the evening. Us kids and mom would stay and tell jokes, or
discuss the day's happenings, until we got up to do dishes.
Mom sold eggs to buy groceries. She would give each of us a dime.
There was a store near the school that sold soup and sandwich, each
one 5 cents. Sometimes, we'd buy a candy bar.
School was out in April, so we had the spring and summer to help
mom with the gardening and spring cleaning. No vacuum cleaners back
then, so we drug the area rugs and carpet outside to hang on the
line. We then used the back side of rakes and brooms to beat the
dust and dirt out.
Mom always had a big garden: corn, peas, green beans, sweet and
Irish potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, radishes, beets, and
lettuce. She would go to the garden when the lettuce was ready, pick
it leaf by leaf, put it in a basket to bring in the house. Then she
would look each leaf over for bad spots and wash several times. At
noon, or for supper, we would have the best wilted lettuce. I could
never get mine to taste like hers. I should have wrote her way down.
Mom, my sister and I canned many pints and quarts of vegetables
for the winter. We also picked blackberries and canned them in
half-gallon jars. In the fall, dad and two of my brothers would take
some berries, milk, soup and bread to the woods and spend the day
cutting wood for the winter.
Mom sewed all of our dresses. Dad would buy feed and flour in big
sacks. He would empty them into other containers, and mom would wash
the sacks to get the stiffness out. She then made our dresses,
adding rickrack or ruffles. My sisters and I would go to school and
see the same dresses on other girls.
Mom baked all of our breads, pies and cakes. She usually did the
baking in the morning so the kitchen could cool down by dinner time.
She made the best homemade noodles. She had no recipes -- always a
pinch of salt, maybe a handful of sugar and flour, a couple of drops
of vanilla, couple of eggs, and some baking powder. She'd stir and
bake, and out came a delicious cake that often fed the minister. No
box mixes.
Mom always wore two aprons, the kind that covered her front, with
strings around the neck and ties in back. That front apron was used
for many things: chasing the baby chicks back into the shed when
rain came, gathering eggs and chasing rabbits from her garden, to
name a few. If a car came up the lane, off came the soiled apron,
and she was ready for visitors.
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When threshing season came, the farmers would thresh their wheat
and the neighbors would come to help. The ladies would come to help
mom and us kids provide food. The men always ate fried chicken,
potatoes and gravy, green beans, tomatoes, and pies, coffee and
lemonade. After they were through, the women and children ate. We
had fun pumping water and taking it to the men.
We had a telephone, but on a party line. I can say my mother did
not listen to other people's problems or gossip. We went to each
other's homes to visit.
We would go to the park or beach on the Fourth of July for
picnics. We'd take our shoes and socks off and waded in the water,
but never thought of swimming.
The young people of the church spent a lot of time down at the
parsonage. Lots of people didn't have money for church offerings but
instead gave vegetables and fruit. Often, after butchering, people
would donate meat. The minister's wife canned the beef, and on
Sunday nights after church, we would go for a delightful meal. We'd
sing, play checkers or dominoes, then eat hot beef sandwiches and
chocolate cake.
On Valentine's Day the young people had a box social. The girls
would decorate boxes filled with fried chicken, potato salad, baked
beans and, usually, chocolate cake. The boys didn't see which girls
brought what box. The boys would bid on them, then eat their supper
together. That was a lot of fun. The money raised was used for
church activities. The boys never bid more than $4 each.
At Christmas time, my sister and I would get a limb off a tree
and put it in dirt in a flowerpot. We would decorate it with popcorn
and angels cut out of pretty paper. We hung our stockings over a
chair. On Christmas morning we would find an orange, handkerchiefs
and socks. The boys would get an orange and socks. My brother, who
was nine years older than I, got a job in the city. One Christmas he
came home with six boxes of chocolates for all of us. He had enough
chocolate drops to fill mom's baking bowl.
When I got married after World War II, I continued the way I was
taught. I had a washer but no dryer. When we had a daughter, I
ironed all of her cloth diapers. One day my sister-in-law visited
and saw me ironing. She grabbed the basket and soon I had a stack of
nicely folded diapers. I never ironed them after that. We had six
children born through the '40s and '50s. All used cloth diapers, no
pacifiers, no preschool or kindergarten.
As I come to the end of my memories, I guess the biggest
improvement, to me, is indoor plumbing. The path out back is now
planted in beautiful flowers, and the Saturday night bathtub has
been replaced with a whirlpool bath.
I've had a good 89 years. We didn't have much when I was young,
but neither did anyone else. We were poor but didn't know it.
[By HELEN TANNER, The Christian
Village Writer's Group]
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