WASHING CLOTHES (circ 1900 & earlier

rockin'robin

rockin'robin

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Never thought of a "washer" in this light before - what a blessing!

"Warshing Clothes Recipe"
-- imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe: This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -
with spelling errors and all.

WARSHING CLOTHES
Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.

Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.

To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.

Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.

Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.

Spread tea towels on grass.

Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.

Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
================================================
Paste this over your washer and dryer next time when you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks.

First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer, also your inside bathroom---those two-holers used to get mighty cold!

For you non-southerners - wrench means, rinse

AND WE THOUGHT WE HAVE IT ROUGH!!
 
rockin'robin said:
Never thought of a "washer" in this light before - what a blessing!

"Warshing Clothes Recipe"
-- imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !

Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe: This is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -
with spelling errors and all.

WARSHING CLOTHES
Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.

Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.

To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.

Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.

Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.

Spread tea towels on grass.

Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.

Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
================================================
Paste this over your washer and dryer next time when you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks.

First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer, also your inside bathroom---those two-holers used to get mighty cold!

For you non-southerners - wrench means, rinse

AND WE THOUGHT WE HAVE IT ROUGH!!
Click to expand...
LOL - that was good. My granny told me how she used to have a "warsh tub" a "warsh board" and a "wrencher" back when her an Pa got married in 1948. I didn't realize there was actually an entire "recipe" that went with the items mentioned above. I'll have to print this out and show it to her.
 
My grandma still use the word "Warsh"

called washington "Warshington"

I knew they used Lye soap, but I never heard of using flour.
 
Wasn't lye soap banned due to the lye being poisonous and children were ingesting it?
 
I think they still have lye soap. In fact, most soaps are made with strong alkaline solution which is similiar to lye

But in those days, people made their own lye soap.
 
I remmy my own grandma using a wash board, boiling the water, etc. Her hands were so "rough"!...And her knuckles too.....She raised me and my other 6 siblings for awhile....

And during the winter...since we had no running water in the house, she boiled water outside, brought a big wash tub into the bedroom and we all got in for a "scrubbing". I would say we would have a bath once a month during the winter! And wore our clothes over and over because it would be "too cold" to wash clothes outside. We were "dirty" kids!

As for the outdoor "john"...we had one too! During the winter months, it was terrible!....We had "feather beds" also.

Yeah, after reading all this..I went to the laundry room and said "ILY washer/dryer....then to the bathrooms and said "ILY you too"! HEHE
 
rockin'robin said:
I remmy my own grandma using a wash board, boiling the water, etc. Her hands were so "rough"!...And her knuckles too.....She raised me and my other 6 siblings for awhile....

And during the winter...since we had no running water in the house, she boiled water outside, brought a big wash tub into the bedroom and we all got in for a "scrubbing". I would say we would have a bath once a month during the winter! And wore our clothes over and over because it would be "too cold" to wash clothes outside. We were "dirty" kids!

As for the outdoor "john"...we had one too! During the winter months, it was terrible!....We had "feather beds" also.

Yeah, after reading all this..I went to the laundry room and said "ILY washer/dryer....then to the bathrooms and said "ILY you too"! HEHE
Click to expand...

sound like me :)
 
My grandmother still used flour starch up until she was put into the nursing home in 1989. She said it worked well and was a lot cheaper than buying starch in a bottle or can. My grandfather was a preacher and everything had to be starched.
 
jesus, this made me thankful for having washer/dryer.... and I won't complain about it again!
 
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