Do you remember: Washing Day Monday

Do you remember: Washing day Monday

30 July 2020

12:03

Washing Day Monday

 

Lines of washing across the street

Blowing in the breeze

Shirts and pants

Even a sheet

 

Early Monday morning

Early they rise
Fill the cauldron set in bricks
Have breakfast until it is boiling

 

Go for the washing gather bits up

Sort them out

Whites and coloured

Open the mangle and set it up

 

Wash tub filed with water from the set pot

Soap powder and white clothes  in the tub

Swish them stamp them with the 'Dolly' stick

Lift them out with wooden tongs - they are so hot

  

Into s wash tub of hot water under the mangle

Swish them about for a rinse

Lift them out pass through the hand wound mangle

Undo any tangle

 

Coloureds items now follow

Each is placed in the wash basket

Follow with coloureds

Greasy clothes their turn now

 

More hot water to the tub

Bit more powder

Greasy clothes

Need a scrub

 

Rub hard soap on the cuffs and neck

On the wash board

Let them soak

Another scrubbing, what the heck

 

Hang out the clothes that are done

Fire out from under the cauldron

Empty out the last drops

Almost finished - ready for some fun

 

Rinse the working clothes

Out they go on the line

All done tidy up

Perhaps have a drink and some toast

 

Wild Rose

July 2020

Reviews

[Lisasview]

Oh how I remember hanging clothes on the line... We had no dryer..
I hated it as a child..
Now we live in Spain and even though we have dyer we hand our clothes in the beautiful sun..or in winder on racks in front of the fire...and now I love it..
Life does change things.
Enjoyed your poem.. as I am drinking tea and honey.
Lisa, now in Spain

[Wild Rose]

Drinking tea and honey - How nice - and sitting in the sun. I presume.

Where about in Spain are you?-
We have had two winters in our camper van
Spain/Portugal
Where did you move from?
PeteC

[Lisasview]

Hi there Pete,
Well, it has rained and been rather cold for about a week here in Costa Blanca North..
We moved from living in a house we built on the beach near Santa Barbara,,

[Gee]

I remember mum having an old copper and mangle before we got our first( second hand ) twin tub, the smell of soapy boiling water used to fill the air.
Enjoyed this trip down memory lane

[Wild Rose]

I have more from Memory Lane

In Do You Remember

[lessa (kenzie)]

Such a wonderful write and such vivid imagery in this write, love your last two stanza's

[Wild Rose]

Late, nineteen-thirties.
Once the washing was out on the line and the free removed from under the 'set pot' (fixed cauldron)
They could relax, tidy up and life returned to normal
Thank for you comment

[Einstein Noodle]

I don't quite remember me Ma using a fire and a pot to heat up the water; but wash day came around regularly and the wash went up on the line in the back yard. We did have a wash machine with what you call a mangler, I think. The two rollers on top that you fed the wash through to squeeze out the water. My parents generations worked hard at every day chores of living. Mine started the "comfortable life of ease" as far as better more convenient everything. Advances were made on all the "old ways" so we didn't have to get out hands as calloused. The world certainly moves on doesn't it?! Thanks for sharing your memories ... sparks me own Wild One
E.

[Wild Rose]

Monday was washing day, lines of washing all along the cobbled street.
Hand poser/dolly stick, hand-wound mangle with huge wooden rollers
The first mechanised item was a powered washtub with adjitator and mangle still han wound but smaller rubber rollers > the water was recycled back into the wash tub

[Einstein Noodle]

wonderful memories eh!?

[Kerra]

Love this, love that last stanza, I love hanging clothes out to dry on a line, they smell so fresh and clean. Enjoyed this

[Wild Rose]

The lines of washing > They can be seen all over the world > the modern heaters haven't won as yet

Thanks for your comment

[Patricia Wedel]

dear Rose... my Grandma and Mother used the old fashion Wringer Washers...
but then my Mother later was able to buy the new Invention. There was a lot to be said for hanging clothes on a clothes line outside. Now, I do not have the patience and save my energy for planting flowers.
You have penned quite an Essay on Adventures of the Golden Older Years. truly, Pat

[Wild Rose]

Thank you Pat - I was privileged to be a child during those days.
I became strong enough to be able to turn the handle of the mangle > I learned the danger of touching the cog; when the girl next door lost two of her fingers, in theirs.
Eventually the mangle was replaced; Until now.
We just put the clothes in the drum; select the program; then return when it beeps to say it is ready
We still have a washing in in our back garden _ It has been nice these days of restrictions, to go out with the washing, where we don't meet anyone. Then on hot days, sit in the shade of the washing
Oh yes we do grow flowers; fed mostly from our compost bin

[Coyote Poetry]

The old days. Not forgotten. I remember my grandmother's old washing machine. Rolling the clothing through the machine and hanging them outside. Hello dear Rose and I hope you are doing well. Thank you for sharing the amazing poetry and your thoughts.
Coyote

[Wild Rose]

Thank you Coyote
Mondays and lines of washing all the way down the street
Look at peoples travel pictures > It is the same in most of the world

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome my dear friend.

[Chris Shaw]

You took me back to the fifties when I would watch my Nan do Monday wash day. Hard work it was by comparison to the machines we have now. I remember clearly clouds of steam, the pan on the stove for topping up, that mangle squeezing the living daylights out of garments and the pegging in the line. Fresh smelling and glorious clean clothing. Thank you fir that wonderful memory. Loved this write.

Chris

[Wild Rose]

Just a collection of things that are soon to be lost forever
Our ringer then had huge (well I thought they were huge) cast iron cog wheels (Girl next door lost her finger in them >> Kitchens can be dangerous places for little kids
Thanks for the comment

[Orphic dreamer]

this poem somehow brings a sense of nostalgia but at the same time strings you to the tedious reality. Mostly no one thinks of these works as it is already instilled in you as a routine. so heartwarming yet heart-wrenching. Such a unique sense of expressing a profound topic! I adore this a ton.

[Wild Rose]

Thank you; Before I ever started school; Monday was was washing day _ (All along the street)
Even in the height od summer, the fire had to be lighted to heat the water. the rugs removed - There was always water spilt during the transfer from the heater to the washing tub.
We moved to a new house - with an immersion heater and a fire back heater to the same hot water tank > Oh and a light weight roller

[Pauline]

Hi Rose. (If that's your name) I remember this well. Mam used to do her washing that way. First she'd scrub away at the clothes on the draining board, then into the tub which she called a poss tub and the dolly stick was known as the poss stick. Everythin else is as you've explained it. All the girls got their fair share of helping and pegging out amongst other household chores.
She lived to be 100yrs. Thanks for the memory.

[Wild Rose]

The techniques are the same even in other countries (Not that we have been to so many)

Hope she didn't have to scrub the washing so long
Ma in law came to live with us > she did the washing and ironing while we were out at work.
"It keeps me busy - and its so easy just put the clothes and powder in, and press the button"

[Pauline]

Aha. Eleven kids made for a lot of scrubbing and possing.

[Wild Rose]

Eleven kids > An army of ?helpers?

[Pauline]

For a time, yes.