Irons

including

"Sad" came from an old German word meaning "heavy", thus Sad irons refers to a heavy iron. Though one must think after a day of ironing with basically a 7-8 pound piece of hot "iron", your average housewife was very sad indeed! *LOL*

Think we all can be happy we live in modern times when laundry can be done in less than a few hours, instead of the three days of soaking, boiling, scrubbing, wringing, line drying, then ironing masses of even the most average household's laundry.

Candide

At least people didn't have as many clothes back then as they do now. Most people were lucky to have two sets of clothes. One everyday and one sunday best. If you were a little better off you might have two sets of everyday clothes.

Ms P

I still manage to spend one entire day on laundry every week.

Ob sewing: part of it's because I now have a closet the size of one of the bedrooms I slept in when growing up -- and I can't get all my clothes into it.

Shortly after she bought the Bendix -- her first automatic washing machine -- Mom told me that there is no such thing as a labor-saving gadget.

Joy Beeson

Mom was 100% right. As new tools became available, expectations rose.

Also thing housewives and other let some old standards slip because things would now be so "easy" because of a modern appliance. For instance this current trend of changing one's clothes several times a day, and putting clothing worn for about one hour (or less) into the hamper/sent to the wash.

Candide

We always wore clothes at least twice. How many kids wear their outfits to school twice before putting them in the wash? This was after washing machines, too. We only washed our hair once a week, and not that often if we had our "monthly visitor." For some reason, it was not safe to wash our hair then. Meals were much simpler than today.

Does anyone else remember when frozen food became available? But you kept it in your locker at the freezer plant, not in a home freezer. The freezer section of the refrigerator made ice, but was not used to store food. It made ice in aluminum trays, which you took out and used the handle to break out.

labor-saving

School clothes were changed right after school, with only blouses/shirts fresh each day. Everything was supposed to be hung up, brushed out and aired in prepreation for the next day. Woe if one's school clothes were found to be strew about.

Unless one got grossly filthy or we were going some where, the clothing one put on in the morning was what one wore for the day. Exceptions being of course school, Sunday's, or going with an adult visiting. To which one had to change clothes and "wash up". All trips to anything remotely medical such as the doctor's or dentist elicited the same query "do you have on clean under garments"? This always struck me as odd as a child as we were not slovenly children, and certainly "knew" when a change in under garments was in order.

This was after washing

We had a huge freezer/fridge in the kitchen and an equally huge chest freezer in the basement. Mother would "stock up" on frozen goods when shopping and I swear that woman had instant recall. She could tell if one frozen ice pop was missing from either of the freezers. My parents were on some sort of plan, where once a month or so one ordered all this frozen food (meats, veggies, etc) and they delivered. This was during the 1970's and for some reason Macys/Bamberger's comes to mind.

Yes, remember those aluminium ice trays, and running them under hot tap water in order to loosen the lever.

Whoops, Joanne, I remember all those things you mentioned, and even before. I recall the black kettle that was set up in the back yard with a fire under it on every Monday morning, and taking the clothes off the line while they were frozen stiff . There aren't any "lines" any more. Were those "the good old days"? We are sure telling our age,aren't we?......Dot in Tennessee

We are! Well, we had indoor plumbing.....except when we went to visit our grandparents. They still had the pump in the yard, and the little house at the end of the garden.

I was lucky. My mother's job when she was a child was to tend the lamps

-- trim the wicks, clean the chimneys, fill them up. She hated that job!

As far as I am concerned, those old days were not good at all! I love modern convenience!

Hey, she may have been worn out, she may have been a little grumpy, but she had GREAT biceps and triceps. No, I'm not quite ready to find an iron like that and try this workout myself, but I'm just sayin'........

Oh you betcha. I did enjoy hanging my laundry outside last spring to dry. But the clothes line is gone now. It got replaced by the Deck. But I am very, very glad I don't have to boil my socks over a fire to get them clean!!!!!!!!

Sharon

DM was fortunate part of the time I was small, and had a woman who did the wash in a black kettle in her back yard and returned the laundry clean and folded, then ironed DD's dress shirts in our kitchen.

I had a clothesline in the backyard when DD was born, and yes, I hung diapers when it was freezing. I still hang wash outside in the summer; sheets are so much nicer line dried. I enjoy it, watching the sky, clouds, being in the sun.

Jean

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (Scare Crowe) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3238.bay.webtv.net:

what do you mean, there aren't any lines anymore? i'm a mere pup of 52 & i use a clothesline frequently. i used cloth diapers on my wee one 6 years ago. i remember my grandma (now 101) getting a new washer... it had a wringer on one side & a spigot on the bottom to drain it. lee

I'm 43 and use a line in the spring, summer and fall.

"Angrie.Woman" wrote in news:YSN3h.3147$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

ok, i admit that when it's below freezing, i tend not to use the line... except for towels. i just like watching frozen towels dry. diapers, too, but i rarely had enough extra to wait that long ;) lee

I'm not 43 but I do use my line in the spring, summer, and fall, too. Sheets are so much easier to fold right off the clothes line rather from the dryer. I appreciate my dryer, but also appreciate the clothes line.

I've got one of those little contraptions that looks like an umbrella turned upside down without the cloth on it. Each arm has two alligator clips and I use this to hang my bras on then hang it on the line. The neck of this thing has a long coat hanger hook on it to enable it to hang on the clothes line.

Mom told me once that carrying water into the house was no inconvenience at all. It was carrying it *out* that got wearing.

Having once had a washing machine that depended on a fallible pump under the laundry sink to raise the water to the sewer line, I've had a sample of that experience. (Fortunately, the outside cellar steps were wide and rose at a shallow slant.)

I believe that my grandmother had a drain in her cellar. At the time I saw it, I thought of it only as an aid to cleaning the floor. It only now occurs to me to wonder how she got the water down the cellar steps. And, come to think of it, was the washing machine in the cellar? I don't recall seeing one on the back porch, where the pump was. (But washing machines weren't noteworthy at the time, and only very striking things stick in my sieve-like mind.)

My aunt, who lived in the back woods in a climate that seldom froze, had a tub with a sort of tin plunger for washing clothes on her back porch. She had electricity, but her well wasn't up to feeding a washing machine. (I believe that our visit was during some sort of plumbing crisis.)

Hah! (And to get back on topic): This casts new light on the story that she was such a good seamstress that she once made her daughter a pair of shorts because she didn't have time to wash one.

Joy Beeson

Was very common for older homes to have those drains in the cellar, which is usually where the "laundry room" was located. If one was lucky there was a pump or water tap in the cellar, if not you had to haul water down stairs. Carrying water down stairs may have been one thing, but hauling it back out, especially if it was hot or boiling was quite another. Besides one could use that hot/soapy water to scrub down the floors after wash day was done. Waste not want not, ya know! *LOL*

Doing laundry outdoors or at least on a back porch makes sense to me, especially if one was going to hang the wash on the line. Never understood the custom of having the laundry in the cellars, then having to haul all that laundry upstairs and out of doors to dry. Even a scullery off the kitchen makes good sense.

One thing can see is that in warm climates, or summers in otherwise cold climates, you really didn't want to fire up the copper to heat all that water for laundry. So the cellar was the next best thing to out of doors.

That is true of so many things, don't you find? Can bake a cake or pie faster than it takes to get dressed and go down to the shops and pick up one up and back.

Candide

"Candide" wrote in news:PYS3h.9203$sw6.3055@trndny08:

my grandpa enclosed a back porch for grandma's washer (didn't insulate it though & this was in NY off Lake Erie. brrrrr)

my house is typical New England in that it has partial dirt in the cellar. it was more 'upscale' so parts were paved with brick. it's also a walk-out, which is pretty unusual. it was pretty common for houses here to have the well in the cellar, so one didn't have to go out to fetch the water.

is New England the only place with 'summer kitchens'? the secondary kitchen, usually in the ell, that was used for all the cooking & canning so as not to heat up the main house? this is where the laundry boiling would be done too. lee

snipped

Oh no, not by a long shot. "Summer" kitchens were found on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line! *LOL*

Large homes/estates had them on grounds, indeed some southern plantations had all kitchens located "out-back" to keep the smells of food preparation out of the house. In the North summer kitchens could be out back or in the basement. In very dense areas like NYC brownstones, there were actually several basements, one used for kitchens/ovens during warm weather.

Growing up many of my aunts and other women had finished basements with kitchens, or at least second kitchens down in the basement. Great for summer cooking, or handling the overflow from holiday cooking. Heck some holidays everything from cooking to meals was/are held "downstairs".

Candide