History of wash day in my family

My younger sister Theresa only remembers top-loading washers and matching front-loading automatic dryers. Then, any day was wash day.

My older sister Verna remembers conventional washers with an attached wringer. Alongside the washer, she remembers double tubs used for rinsing the clothes. Monday was wash day followed by ironing day Tuesday.

All of us remember water coming from a faucet and emptying through a sink. Grandmother used a hand pump to draw water from the cistern until I was 6. She said her favorite appliance was running water.

My mother remembered a trip to the Gamble Store in Decatur soon after she was married. Dad bought a scrub board, a tub and a scrub brush. Mom had a copper boiler and two white enamel water buckets. These were gifts from her parents. Water was carried from a cistern located near our backdoor. It was heated in the boiler and then dipped into the washer. Homemade laundry soap was cut into chips with a sharp knife and put into the washer. Before adding clothes the washer would be turned on and allowed to gyrate until the suds formed.

Dishcloths were done first. White shirts and other white clothes made a second load and the process was repeated. Colored items were sorted into piles from the lightest to darkest colors. The washing process was repeated with each pile of clothes.

If the light ones were not sparkling white, they were put into the water with a little soap and boiled for a few minutes. You had to use a large wooden spoon to remove them to a pan where they cooled before being put through the wringer.

The dryer was a clothesline in the backyard. Each time it was used, the line had to be washed. Otherwise it could leave dirty places on the clothes. The washed clothing, towels, sheets etc. were attached to the line with wooden clothes pins. A sunny Monday with a warm, gentle breeze was much to be desired. Bad weather meant a delay of wash day, but sometimes it became necessary to wash on a rainy day. In that case the laundry had to be dried in the house. Also in winter Mom dried laundry inside.

Dad bought a folding drying rack. Dad also strung a line made of twine from the front door to the back door. Mom hung items on hangers and the hangers on the line. She also had frames to slip into the legs of pants and overalls. This speeded the drying and cut down on ironing.

To make starch one started with a box of white lumps labeled “Starch.” Directions on the box included dissolving 1/3 cup Argo Gloss Laundry Starch (the brand used) in 1/2 cup cold water. Stir until smooth. Gradually add 2 quarts boiling water while stirring constantly. That was “heavy starch.” One had to experiment by adding water for medium or light starch.

Clothing requiring starch was dipped into the starch solution, wrung out and hung to dry.

On ironing day, clothes had to be sprinkled, rolled or folded and put aside an hour or two so the water penetrated the cloth evenly. Starch gave a nice appearance to the ironed fabric and was also supposed to make dirt come out better on wash day.

Fortunately, mom remembered only a few weeks of using the tub and scrub board for laundry. Dad had our house wired before they were married. When REMC turned on our electricity a few weeks later, they went to Stuckey’s in Monroe and purchased a Speed Queen washer. It cost $25.

Dad also bought an electric iron to replace the sadirons. Along with the washer they bought twin rinse tubs. That was two tubs similar in shape to twin sinks. They were on legs and each had a drain in the bottom. You could let used water run into a bucket for emptying.

Wash day and ironing day became much easier. That method was used until the third baby arrived. Dad suggested getting an automatic dryer. Mom told him we didn’t have room for one. So for several weeks it was a common sight to have a rack of diapers drying by the stove.

He had made the suggestion several times, but every time Mom had vetoed it. Then one day – she must’ve been tired of wet, although clean, diapers. “For 2¢ I’d tell you to go get that dryer,” she told dad. “But where in the world would we put it!”

After a while Dad went outside. Mom assumed he was doing some chores. In a short time Stuckey’s delivery truck pulled up. Soon they were carrying out her conventional washer. Dad put the tubs in a shed. The next thing I knew, a dryer filled one corner and an automatic washer was between it and the sink.

As Lawrence Welk would say, “Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”