WEB PAGE NO. 2886 27th February 2022 First Picture: Sunlight Soap

Second Picture: Washing Line

Third Picture: Clothes Horse

Forth Picture: Wash board

Random Thoughts on Washing Day.

Now to test the memory who remembers their mother or grandmother grating a block of yellowish green Sunlight Soap into the wating hot water so she could do the washing|? Also, the use of Reckitts Blue to keep the washing bright and white. Mind you Recketts Blue or Blue Bag had a secondary use, when dabbed on a bee or wasp sting it took away the sting. The big drawback on washing days was that, especially on boiling days, was that the whole of the kitchen, despite the back door and the window being opened and much of the ground floor was, for hours, wreathed in wet steam! Also one of the major pieces of equipment that was put to use at this time was the washing board, that’s if it not been ‘borrowed’ for use in a skiffle group, Once washed, rinsed, mangled and wrung it was time to try and dry the washing. We were lucky we had two washing lines, one high one attached to the top of the house and a normal one below it. On a good, windy drying day the back garden resembled a sailing ship in full sail as the various items flapped and swayed in the breeze. Rainy days were, of course, a nightmare as mother had to try and distribute the washing in front of or coal fire before father came home from work and we settled down in front of the living room fire for the evening. This is where the old wooden clothes horse came into its own. We always knew that on a wet washing day we would never be allowed to use the clothes horse as a tent for us to play in. Once the washing was done and dried it was time to iron it. I remember my grandmother having a fearsome green mottled gas iron which was plugged into a special terminal by the gas stove. This iron always seemed spit and splutter and appeared to me to be a very dangerous fire breathing article. Mind you she also had a gas fridge and I could never work out how that really worked. However, I still think that the most dangerous method of ironing was undertaken by my mother and millions of other women when they plugged the electric iron into the ceiling light in the kitchen something that is unheard of today. The one thing I have forgotten was the use of a flat iron heated up on the kitchen gas ring to the required temperature. I still have one of my grandmothers’ flat irons, I use it as a door stop, I also have my grandfather’s cobblers last which I use for the same purpose! These were the days when Monday was washing day for a good 75% of the population, today with automatic washing and drying machines that has seemed to go by the board and nowadays washing day is any day of the week. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com