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WASHDAY |
Washday was a major affair. The wash house was originally the brew house where the home brewed beer was made, but with the advent of the numerous "Public Houses" in my district this habit was somewhat discontined. Hence the wash house came into being but still called the "Bruce". It was shared by two more neighbours and this caused much bad feeling. First you had to put a fire in the grate under the boiler and wait for the water to boil. Into this the clothes were put. The mangle was a kind of steel frame contrivance with 2 wooden rollers and a pressure wheel an the top. Clothes were put between the rollers and then a wheel with a suitable handle on was turned to squeeze the water out of the clothes into the "Doily Tub". This tub was where the clothes were put to soak in the soap. Then they were "dollied". The dolly or osset was a heavy piece of wood with three legs which was on a shaft about 2' 6" long, and a small cross piece on the top which served as a handle. Then with an up and down movement you pumelled or dollied the clothes in the water. What a game it was doing a bit of dollying or mangling the washing. Cleaning out the firegrate and cleaning the boiler was quite an irksome job. The it was the turn for the ironing to be done. This was done with a flat iron, with the handle on the top, heated either on the open fire or in front of the fire bars, on a little iron frame. There was another iron called the box iron. This was a kind of box (similar to the flat iron) where a piece of similar shaped iron was heated on the open fire then put in the box in order to heat the base. Clothes in the winter months dried indoors on a clothes horse (a wooden frame) in front of the fire or hung on a wooden rack, which in some cases was suspended from theceiling, and raisedand lowered accordingtoyour need. lt was a dreaded time, washing, ironing and drying clothes.
Then another household chore was the plaiting of the girls hair or later frizzing, making it crinkley, with hot irons or curling pins. The looking for nits, for a lousy head was quite a common occurrence among the girls.
In some better type houses the event of the week was to have a fire in the parlour which was the best room. There the family would gather; some sang round the organ or piano, some recited, but usually it was gossip time. Very often some relation had been invited to come and have tea in the parlour. Draughts was a popular indoor game, also a ring board. This was a board about 15" square, with about 12 hooks and hung on the wall, then the idea was to throw a rubber ring about 2" diameter onto the hooks starting at 1 and to number 12. Whoever did that was the winner, the players playing alternately.
Medicine seemed to consist mainly of home made prescriptions, cinder tea, a piece of hot cinder out of the fire ashes put in a drop of water, was often given for young babies teething troubles. Tea leaves wrapped in a piece of rag (tea leaf poultice) was good for scalds and burns. Brimstone and black treacle was a good standby for stomach trouble. The herb yarrow soaked in hot water was used as a relief for rupture. My father drank this very often.