Williamson County Historical Commission
contact Wayne Ware (512)
863-2202
|
Narratives from the Georgetown's
Yesteryears Book |
LAUNDRY DAY
E. C. "Pete"
Bouffard: Bobby Deaton, Interviewer
My last few years
at home before I moved into this place that I inherited, Mother was
getting pretty old and having a hard time staying on her feet, and I
usually did the washing on Monday mornings, if the weather permitted. A
rub board and the old cast iron wash kettle, boiled the clothes in the
kettle. I had one pair of overalls, a blue shirt, no socks, and some old
run-down shoes. On the days that I laundered, I wore a cut-off cotton
sack, like a dress, until my clothes were dry and put back on. I had
underclothes. Mama made underclothes out of flour sacks or chicken feed
sacks, so we had good underclothes. If I wanted socks, I'd just take a
piece of old sack, and just wrap it around my foot and use it for a
sock. Pretty rough going.
We couldn't afford to buy soap. We made our own, old lye soap. I made up
many a bar of lye soap and it was good. Very simple to make. Of course,
we had to kill hogs for meat, and we used lard and lye and let it cook a
certain length of time. That's all there is to it.
WASH
DAY
Mary R. Engvall:
Cynthia Burton, Interviewer
[At my
grandmother's in West Texas] they didn't have washing machines. After
soap making, they had wash day. That was a day to remember. They put two
benches out-side the ranch house, two benches and three tubs. They
carried water and filled up the three tubs. The first tub was filled
with boiling water from the black pot. Then they filled the pot again
and as they scrubbed those clothes on a rub board with the
lye soap, they dropped them in the
boiling water, and they had to come to a boil before they put them over
in the second tub. They washed them lightly again, then put them into
the big tub with blueing. If you get it too blue, it kind of ruins the
looks of white things. And the colored things, it doesn't show at all in
them.
A lot of us remember the homemade lye
soap used for laundry.
Lye Soap Cook in wash
pot. Mix cracklins amount, one pint lye and two pounds of clean melted
fat from cows, pigs, or sheep. Simmer gently for three hours, stirring
often. As mixture cools, pour in one pound of salt. This settles to the
bottom, but hardens the soap. Some people added scenting ingredients and
color. Pour the molten soap into wooden molds lined with a damp cloth,
leaving the brine in the pot. I watched Granny do this a lot of times,
seems to me in hog killing time when it was real cold. She cooked as
directed except left out the scent and color. She let the soap harden in
the pot, then cutting it out a bar at a time. They were not necessarily
all the same shape or size. The soap was used for laundry and improved
with age.
you want to make some soap you say - visit these links first
http://www.colebrothers.com/soap/intro.html