My mother worked most of my growing up teen years so we had lots of responsibilities. The house had to be clean before we left for school. Mother didn’t have to work until 10:00 so she would do the washing in what was called a double dexter washer. It had two tanks one had a ringer where you put the clothes in soap and Clorox first. handmade soap.
The soap was made outside in a bug tank. The recipe for the soap was: 2 quarts of water take out 1 cup, add 1 cup Clorox, 3/4 cup borax, 1 cup ammonia, and 1 cup lye. add 1 gallon grease minus 2 1/2 inches. Stir all the time. The more you stir the finer the soap. This was cooked over a fire outside. When the soap was done it was cut into bars and then shredded with a potato peeler when put in the washer.
After they [the clothes] were washed you put them through the ringer into clear water and ringed them back back through the ringer to squeeze out the water and hang on clothesline outside to dry.
After school I had to take them off the clothesline when they would be frozen to the clothesline and stiff as a board from the cold, then take them in the house and scatter them everywhere to finish drying.
We didn’t have a furnace so we would stoke up the kitchen stove and heater in the living room to get the house warm.
Dad would bank the coals in the stove when he went to work and when we got home we had to add wood and stoke up the coals to start the fires going. I hated to bring in the cold clothes—my hands would be so cold.
I also hated to dust the old treadle sewing machine. It had so much decoration on each end it took forever. I hated to defrost the refrigerator and clean the oven.
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