As our family went through my mother’s personal effects, we discovered these essays, handwritten in a spiral notebook. Immediately, we knew we had found a very special look into the early life of someone we loved and admired. We’re sharing them here in the hope that others may enjoy them as well.
November 23, 1986
These essays are being written because I have often thought how nice it would be if, say, my great-grandmother had written about what life was like when she was growing up. It would have been so interesting to know how people’s daily life and experiences fitted in with the history that was being made at that time.
Wash Day
Wash day was a big affair. They washed outside – had a hand powered machine converted to use a gasoline motor – I remember the belt as being quite long. Water was heated in a boiler. Everyone made their own soap then. They saved grease and tallow and combined it with lye. Some cooked it in a butchering kettle outside but my mother made cold soap. It was whiter.
Everybody had a “stomper” as we called it. It was a handle with a metal bottom, something like a plunger (see illustration). You put heavy clothes, especially overalls, in a tub with water and soap. Then you stomped it up and down. We also had washboards, real killers. Grandpa had a nice one – it was like glass, purplish blue, with fairly smooth ridges. Some had sharp ridges – good for washing but murder on knuckles if you weren’t careful.
Butchering
Butchering was another big operation. The hogs were killed and stuck to catch the blood. Then they had to be scalded and scraped, then gutted. Liver, heart and kidneys were saved – also large and small intestines. These were cleaned and scraped so they could be used for sausage. Liverwurst had to be stuffed in beef casings which were bought in the butcher shop. The carcass was cut up into bacon, hams and shoulder which were salted and smoked. The loin was eaten fresh.
Meat sausage was made from lean meat, sometime smoked for summer sausage. The liver was added to some of the ground pork, along with seasoning for liver sausage, blood sausage was made from blood, cornmeal, and fatty meat ground up with seasoning, the lard was rendered and the cracklings made into scrapple, a breakfast dish, made with oatmeal and fried. The head was cleaned and boiled – brains were fried – the cooked meat chopped and combined with vinegar and spice for head cheese. Feet were pickled.
People used to say the Germans used every bit of the hog but the squeal and that was about true. We boiled the tongue, also the kidneys. Nobody worried about cholesterol and seemed to suffer no ill effects on a high protein, high fat diet. However, people ate very little processed foods and everyone got lots of exercise as there were very few labor saving devices.
Walt’s Comments
Grandma Link still had a washboard, though she didn’t use it much. I got to use it once to satisfy my curiosity. It made me appreciate washing machines. Grandma used a wringer washer (as did my Mom, though Mom’s was newer). But that’s a story for another time.
Washboards
One early method of laundry was pounding it on stones. Later, boards were carved with ridges to to provide a surface that allowed laundry to be washed indoors.
Later boards were made of enameled metal, galvanized tin and glass, like Georgie talked about.
Today, they are mostly used as home decor or musical instruments in jazz, zydeco, and jug band groups.
Digging Deeper
This page has some interesting facts about the history of washing clothes and washing machines.
Sherrey
Yes, washday was quite an event at our house with seven kids! But much easier of course with the washing machine!