2001-01-13 - 19:42 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Yores

Like in what's yores stranger ? Naah, Old times yeah! I can choose one thing that will help make my point, which is that the old days weren't that easy and rather than easy and laid back were hard and damn complicated.

Operation Dishwash

Come home from school, stir up the fire from its banked condition and put the teakettle on to boil. Then I would get the dishpan, put it in the sink and carry pans full of warm water from the built on reservoir at the stove. Get the Oxydol and arrange the dirty dishes on the table, glassware in front, silverware next then dishes, check the pots and pans on the cool part of the stove to see what scooping was needed and if boiling water was needed to be put in any pans to soften the crusty foodstuff in them.

Tea kettle on the boil, I would grab it and carry it over to the sink and add enough to make the dish water hot enough to be uncomfortable, add the Oxydol and put the glassware into the dishpan. then filling the teakettle and putting it back on the stove. While the glasses were soaking I would put a folded, thick terrycloth towel on the bobtailed countertop which was tilted to drain into the sink.. I would wash the glasses, lining them up on the back side of the counter. Then the silverware, also to the side. My architectural skill came into play then, carefully choosing the dishes to wash that I would lean other dishes on to avoid an overflow on the counter and washing them. The pots and pans were last and using Choreboy dislodging the crustys and washing them clean and stacking them on top of the dishes. Wringing out the dishrag, emptying the dishpan, rinsing it with cold water and then putting the glasses in in the dishpan and pouring boiling water over them from the tea kettle, I would dry them and put them away, dump the dishpan and put the silverware in and scald it, dry it and put it away, dump the dishpan. Next I would put the dishes in, scalding them, drying them and putting them away also, again dumping the dishpan. Then came the task of rinsing the pots and pans, usually there would be black grime on the bottom outside that would not wash off but would ruin a dishtowel, so I would do them one by one, holding one by the handle, pouring boiling water inside it and dumping the water into the next pan then drying the scalded pan and putting it away going on to the next one repeat, repeat. repeat until done. Then I would wipe the dishpan dry and put it away.

Summer time dishwashing entailed building a wood fire, putting the kettle on, boiling the water and add enough to the cold tap water to bring the wash water to the right temp.

Winter and summer, if the dishwater dirtied to the point that the dishes weren't getting clean I would dump the dishwater and refill, pouring from the teakettle and adding the Oxydol.

That sounds laborious, and it was. Time consuming, and it was. Frustrating at times over water temperature or waiting for the kettle to boil or over a slosh from careless handling of dishes, and those were plentiful.

That is just one simple detail of life back then. There were many more, Mama would cook on that stove. Mama would set up the wash tubs on stools outside, carry water out, then the teakettle out to make the water hot enough and then attack dirty clothes with Fels Naptha soap on the wash board. I have lost track of the number of rinses clothes were put through but I do remember that the whites were final rinsed in water that had bluing added. I remember carrying buckets of water out to the tubs for her.

I could go on and on making a fifteen yard list of the complications of living and surviving back then, but all it would take is to look around you and see how much of the housework is done by machine, including vacuuming carpets. Carpets used to be swept with brooms and then in the spring brought out, hung over the clothes line and were attacked with "beaters," rods, shaped in various curly shapes having a handle. Used to beat the dust and dirt out. I can still remember the heavy thwop, thwop of a rug beater in my head yet. There were vacuum cleaners back then, hotels had them and so did rich people. There were wonderful good times and pleasures back then, but they were had after the wearying work was done. Some good, some bad Yores . . . . . . .

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