I am working on a new book. It centers around an old legend of Spanish gold. A lot of it is based on my experiences growing up in Oklahoma. There were parts of Oklahoma where everyone had a oil well in their backyard. That was not the case where I grew up. It was a poor part of the state and most people worked extremely hard to just make a living for their family. The book got me to thinking about laundry day. My mother had a ringer type washer similar to the one in the picture above. She used to push the washer out into the backyard on a sunny day and that was where she did her laundry. There were two stools with tubs of clean water to rinse the clothes. First you did the light loads. This was sheets, towels, and unmentionables. After you went to all the trouble to get water hot and in the washing machine, you didn’t waste it on one load of clothes. Next came the lightly soiled colored clothes, like Mama’s clothes and the kids school clothes. My Daddy ran a bulldozer. Sometimes he came home and it was hard to recognize him for the dirt, grease and sweat that covered him. His clothes and that of my brothers work clothes, came last. The only thing that was electric on this machine was the agitator that swished the clothes around, everything else was done by hand. When a load of clothes had washed the proper amount of time, Mama would use the hand cranked ringer on top to press the water out of them and they would go into the first rinse tub. She would put the second load of clothes in to wash, and put the light clothes through the first, then the second rinse water. No fancy dryer, it was then time to hang the first load on the clothes line. In the winter, we always prayed that Oklahoma wouldn’t have one of those long rainy spells, otherwise clean clothes was kind of hard to come by at our house. It wasn’t an easy life and the children had more responsibility around the house. Instead of sports and play dates, we had chickens to feed and cows to milk. A different kind of life.
Television had just come into our lives, but we only got one station. Most families didn’t even bother to buy a T.V. I think I was probably in junior high before Mamma and Daddy got their first television. Instead we treasured our radios. Imagine we had The Lone Ranger, but he was on radio. If you are interested, find a book and curl up to learn about the past..
Happy reading, Linda