October 18, 2010
-
Why Do We Hate Wash Days?
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARMWe are truly spoiled these days. Back when I was a kid, I used to help my mother wash clothes in first a cast iron tub and using a wash board (remember those?). Kids nowadays see them hanging as decorations in some restaurants and wonder what they are. But, I sure remember them. When we finally got a real bathroom with a tub in it, that tub became where we did the wash. In some ways, it was nice because we could fit more clothes in it at one time. When you have seven kids, you have a LOT of wash. Especially the diapers. Oh lord, I remember the diapers. Phew! The strong smell of ammonia and scrubbing to make sure they got nice and white. It was a matter of pride that the diapers we hung out were nice and white. Trust me, we went through a LOT of bleach on wash day.
When we were finally able to afford a washer, it was the ringer type. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I got my fingers and/or hand caught in those ringers. But that was actually BEFORE we got a bathroom in the house. We had to give up our pantry, which was really large, but we gave it up gladly. Once the landlord brought in the gas lines to the building, a lot of things changed. We got a gas heater and a gas hot water heater. OMG! We could take a bath without having to heat up pots and pots of water. WE got a GAS stove!
No more hauling up buckets of wood (and then coal) from the basement to the second floor. We also got a real refrigerator around the same time. No more running down when the ice man came through the alley to pay him to bring us up one of those huge ice blocks. No more emptying the drain pans before it ran over onto the floor.When we got a gas dryer, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. No more hanging out clothes in all types of weather. Our clothes and linens, especially towels and blankets were so soft, we could hardly believe it. The diapers were softer and seemed to be more absorbent, too. All the baby’s clothes were so nice and soft. Later on, when we got an automatic washer, then life became truly wonderful. It took so much less effort to do EVERYTHING…or so it seemed. As the oldest child, I was usually charged with doing much of the housework, laundry and dishes. It was so much simpler to wash dishes for nine people without having to clean it up while I was heating water. If I had pots and pans to scrub, it was nice to be able to empty the sink and refill it with fresh, hot water and dish soap to make it easier. Life was good. It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?
Today, we don’t even have to wash dishes (or dry them) by hand. For the most part, everyone has a dishwasher. We take hot water when we want it as a matter of fact. It’s there when we want a bath or a shower. We can be *washing* our dishes and our clothes while we sit in a hot tub of water as our right. Our kids have no idea what a cold water flat was. They have always known microwaves, dishwashers, washers and dryers, refrigerators that just plug into an electric outlet, multiple bathrooms in the same house. They have never known NOT having central heat or air conditioning.
When I was a kid, air conditioning was having a fan in your window to help blow the sweat off you (which had a cooling effect and we appreciated it). When I was small (before I turned 5), we lived in an apartment building where you shared a bathroom with the other apartments on your floor. I remember standing in a cold hallway in my jammies needing to pee when someone was in the bathroom, taking a dump that you could smell clear into the hallway and then running upstairs to see if THAT bathroom might be empty before I peed my pants. I don’t remember having *an accident* but I’m sure I must have a time or two. It was NOT fun.
But even *I*….after knowing how much things have changed over the years (and, trust me, I am grateful I don’t have to use a washboard any more)….have come to dislike wash days. I really and truly hate being at the beck and call of a dryer on a day when I am not feeling all that ambitious. Or, worse, when my back is just KILLING me and I don’t really want to take a pain pill because it knocks me out. Since I don’t use them every day, I haven’t developed a tolerance for them so that I don’t get tired and sleepy. Today was that kind of day. My back was killing me after I was on my feet for a half hour or so while preparing a casserole for dinner. If you add the bending over to grab the folding stuff out of the basket to the equation, my back was just screaming after a while.
I DO have a clothesline (umbrella-type) out in my backyard, mostly because I love hanging my linens out on a nice, sunny, windy day. I do not hang out my towels and things like underwear, t-shirts and towels out because I like those to be nice and soft. I’ve also found that socks, underwear and t-shirts seem to stretch out when I hang them on the clothes line. Even if I am careful about how I hang them. It really ticks me off.
Well, the dryer is calling me….AGAIN! Time to say love ya’ll and go get my things out of the dryer and get it folded and put away. I hope you have a great day (and not too much work to do). I also wish you good weather and not much in the way of traffic on this first day of the work week. Crud! Damn dryer just doesn’t give up. Time to go……
