That Wonderful Smell of Freshly Thawed Clothes

Wash day (usually a Monday, not sure why) was a square tub and a scrub board. First thing in the morning the wood burning cook stove would be stoked up high to heat up the water reservoir* and the various kettles and large pans filled with water on the stove top. Very hot water would be poured into the tub, and the clothes, towels, etc. would be scrubbed using a bar of laundry soap. The rule was ‘the hotter the water, the cleaner the clothes”. Once clean, you would dunk the clothes into another tub with cold rinse water, and then wring them out by hand.

I remember watching this, but never had to do it myself. When I was 7 we got a “real” washing machine (for the life of me, I do not know where we stored it) but on wash day it would be in the middle of the room. The tub part was made of wood staves (like a wine barrel) and the center agitator was turned by gears underneath the machine, which moved when you pushed and pulled a handle on the front. The agitator would go back and forth as you pulled the handle – the larger the load the harder it was to work that handle. You would think a 7 year old would be too young to take his turn pushing and pulling the handle – WRONG. As with all other daily chores, if you were able, you did it! We used Fels Naphtha bar soap (you would cut off slivers and put in the wash water). Some people would save up the little pieces of left over hand soap and put them in an old lard or syrup pail that they had put many holes in – they would then swirl the container around in the water until some suds appeared. I am not sure how cleansing this was for the clothes, but that is what was done. Once clean, you would put the wash through a hand cranked wringer (attached to the tub) into a rinse tub. After rinsing, you would again put them through the wringer and finally they were ready to hang outside to dry. Everyone’s yard had a clothes line and wedge type wooden pegs were used to hold the clothes on the line. During the summer months drying clothes was rather uneventful, but in the winter it was magic. We had 5 – 7 months of freezing weather (the reason for wooden clothes pegs – metal hinge types would have frozen together). The magic happened when, in the winter, you hung wet clothes out to dry and almost immediately, they would freeze. I am not sure exactly how we knew it was time to bring them back into the house – but in they came FROZEN STIFF (like carrying a sheet of cardboard), and once they thawed, they were dry! Now that is magic! And then - That Wonderful Smell of Freshly Thawed Clothes!

*Reservoir – was a built-in container on a wood burning cook stove that held about 2 gallons of water. The water would always be warm from the heat of the stove. There would be a dipper (ladle) near by for you to scoop water out into your wash basin, etc.