Saturday, April 26, 2014

The A to Z Challenge: W is for Washing


Wash day

‘Don’t go getting any ideas,’ Lizzie said. ‘I’m too tired. It’s Monday, remember? The wife’s night off.’
—from Mud and Gold.

She had earned her good night's sleep. Every Monday, 19th century women like Lizzie spent the whole day on the exhausting task of washing. Water had to be heated to the boil, the clothes scrubbed, then lifted out of the steaming water on a stick (with the constant risk of being badly scalded) and dropped into cold water to be rinsed. Then came the wringing-out, done by hand unless she was lucky enough to have a hand-turned wooden wringer. And then load after load of still damp, heavy clothes had to be hauled to the washing-line to be pegged out, followed by fervent prayers for fine weather to dry them.

At its worst, a woman might have to do the washing down by the creek. That generally meant lighting a fire on the bank to heat water which she would pour into her metal washtub (which probably did service as the family bathtub each Saturday night), and using the creek to rinse the clothes—taking great care not to let any items get swept away downstream. A more fortunate woman might have an outhouse for washing, with a copper tub set into a bricked surround with a firebox underneath, and wooden tubs for the rinsing water. If she was particularly fortunate, she might even have a husband who was willing to help with carrying the wet washing to the clothesline for her.

Wash day was perhaps hardest of all for women with a large number of sons and not a single daughter to help. But none of them would have found the task easy.

And when they fell exhausted into bed at Monday's end, they had Tuesday to look forward to. That meant the ironing...

Temple, William (Lieutenant-Colonel), 1833-1919. Scene in the bush showing a thatched hut, three people, and washing on a line. Ref: 1/2-004135-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. natlib.govt.nz/records/22718238

8 comments:

  1. I have read through volumes of County Death Record books and among the greatest cause of infant and child death was scalding and burns on wash day. I'm sure more than a few wives, too.

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    1. How nice to see your name on my blog, Charles! Thank you for visiting.

      Yes, burns and scalds were an all-too-common cause of death for children. Older girls and women were made vulnerable, too, with those long skirts of theirs - a bad combination with flames.

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  2. Wow. I did laundry today, and every time I gripe about it, I think about how I could be beating it against a rock instead.

    The washing machine is thought to be the biggest contributor to the advancement of women for good reason.

    http://bit2read.com

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    1. Yes, when I find myself doing half a dozen loads of laundry in a day I sometimes have to remind myself of just how much easier it is with that wonderful machine doing almost all the work!

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  3. I love history, and it's nice to see a blogger from NZ doing the A to Z Challenge. Wish I'd found you earlier.
    I have written most of my A to Z posts on my family history, which covers England to Australia. Would love you to visit.
    Looks like you will have no problems finishing the Challenge. :-)

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    1. Thanks for visiting, Wangi! Yes, only three to go :)

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  4. It's amazing some of the things we take for granted now. New follower here. I'm stopping by from the "A to Z" challenge, and I look forward to visiting again.

    Sylvia
    http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

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    1. Hi, Sylvia, thanks for visiting. Yes, it could be such an effort just to get through "ordinary" daily tasks, let alone do anything out of the ordinary.

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