Then water was collected in a couple of buckets and put in kettles on the wood fire to boil. This was then tipped into the bath and some cold water added but as you can imagine in a cold climate hot water in a tin bath wouldn't stay hot for too long so a minimum of cold water was needed. With 3 adults in the house would you be bathing every day or making do with a wash down? How often would you have a bath of perhaps find a quick strip down wash would suffice? Things were different then and yet everyone was clean. After his two years in the British Army in Germany MOH used some of the money he'd saved and had electricity installed in the cottage. He bought a wireless on hire purchase as before that they'd only had a crystal set. A while later he also had scheme water brought up to the house but I don't think it was into the house itself.
I have no recollection of bathing facilities in the farmhouse where I lived till I was nearly 6 and even after we moved to Perth and were living in share accommodation my memory is sketchy although I do remember having baths. When I was 12 we were renting a really nice house with a spacious bathroom which had a bath with a chip heater where you heated the water that ran into the bath and as long as there was fuel in the chip heater you would have hot water. My very clever half-brother Len came over one day and added a shower that also ran through the chip heater so were were able to have showers, albeit quick ones before the water ran cold. I think that is the first time I had ever had a shower, when I was 12 although, come to think of it, I think there were showers in the guest house we stayed each year in Mandurah. They'd have had to have showers as it would have taken too long for the guests to each have a bath (just thinking aloud about that).
Baths usually had 'feet' back then and could be quite fancy. These days of course they are built in or, like us, no bath but a shower recess with glass walls and glass door.
I do remember that back in the 1950s it was possible to buy a shower head that had an element in it which heated the water as it flowed through but can't remember how we regulated the heat. Prior to that (when I was married to my first husband) I had to fill the copper (remember them?), light the fire underneath and ladle the water over to the bath. It was quicker to bath my little ones in the large kitchen sink and much warmer too as we had a wood fire in the kitchen.
I also remember life prior to washing machines when we had to light the copper and pop sheets, towels etc in and bring them to the boil. We then had to use a copper stick to get them out of the copper into the nearest laundry trough and then run the things through a wringer attached to the centre piece of the troughs into the second trough to rinse out the soap. Then it was through the wringer again before hanging the washing out on the line.
I remember using a washboard and wringer washer. In fact, my mother-in-law used a wringer machine until the mid-'70s or so. And I remember making a starch mixture (loved the smell!) and rolling up the clothes and tucking them into the fridge until it was time to iron them. And the soda bottle stoppered with the holed piece to sprinkle the clothes while ironing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember all those things, but I sure don't miss 'em! (Except for maybe the smell of the starch. The spray stuff just doesn't compare.)
All of the above but I was fortunate in not having to starch anything (as far as I can remember). I do remember my dad had detachable collars for his business shirts and mum had to cold starch them so they were really stiff.
DeleteBack in 1953 I knew a polish gentleman who when ironing took a mouthful of water and sprayed the clothes he was ironing from his mouth. Quite fascinating to watch but not sure how hygienic it would be.
They were the good old days in many ways but other ways were just darned hard work.
Oh Mimsie this brought back so many memories.I remember a wash tub parked near a roaring wood stove in a cold old house where nine children had bathed before me a downfall of being the oldest. My Mom would pull the kettle off the stove and for the hot water in to warm it up. I also remember helping Mom wash with a scrub board cloth diapers:-) from two sets of twins. Oh yes I LOvE our modern conveniences now. Thank you for reminding me why. Hug B
ReplyDeleteIt is sometimes good to be reminded of how fortunate we are these days and yet it never does any harm looking back which makes us realise we were pretty tough back then.
DeleteCloth nappies (diapers) were the only ones available when I was young and at least they didn't pollute the earth as the current ones must do when taken to garbage disposal sites. They talk about being 'green' these days but back then we just were.
I remember heating water in the copper and carrying it through the house to the bathroom. And chip heaters too.
ReplyDeleteI also remember swapping a bottle of cognac (which neither of us like) for our first automatic washing machine. Which lasted longer than the cognac - and I think we got a whole lot more pleasure out of it too.
Those were the days where we learned to cope but glad they are now behind us.
ReplyDeleteA bottle of cognac for a washing machine. Wow! Much rather the machine too although if you didn't like the cognac it would have lasted quite a while too!!
I still find something sort of comforting though thinking back on all the above. We were perhaps made of sterner stuff then?
In the early '50s we had an electric washer with a ringer in the back porch (beside the cold-water bathtub). I still have a scar on my right index finger where I reached up under the agitator belt and it made a snatch at me. I look at appliances now and think they sure don't make them like they used to. Good thing too!
ReplyDeleteMy hubby put his hand through the mangle when he was a child and I bet that hurt.
DeleteSome modern appliances are much better than the old ones and yet at times I wonder why they don't make them to last as they once did. I get a little tired of this throw-away society.
I have many similar memories! The big wash tub brought in by the fire in winter so we could have our weekly bath, then the same tub was placed on a stand out in the yard in summer and on the back porch in winter and Mum used it along with a rippled washboard to wash our clothes. There was great excitement when mum got a Simpson washing machine with wringer attachment. When I was about six dad built a bathroom into a section of the back porch with a chip heater, but we never had a shower until the day we got a housing trust home when I was fourteen. Did you also have an icebox with the big open top section to hold a giant block of ice? Pre-fridge days. They worked well enough in the winter, but in summers the ice would melt too fast and foods in them didn't keep too well.
ReplyDeleteMemories come flooding back don't they River? Yes we had a large icebox. In fact my mother-in-law gave us hers when I married my first husband but we had to wait until her new fridge arrived. We didn't get a fridge ourselves until we had been married two years as I felt we should have one when our daughter arrived.
ReplyDeleteI remember the man carrying the large block of ice on a chaff bag on his shoulder. I also remember those coolers with a tank on top that dripped onto a metal frame covered with hessian. They were very good for keeping food quite cold.
Memories come flooding back don't they River? Yes we had a large icebox. In fact my mother-in-law gave us hers when I married my first husband but we had to wait until her new fridge arrived. We didn't get a fridge ourselves until we had been married two years as I felt we should have one when our daughter arrived.
ReplyDeleteI remember the man carrying the large block of ice on a chaff bag on his shoulder. I also remember those coolers with a tank on top that dripped onto a metal frame covered with hessian. They were very good for keeping food quite cold.
Memories come flooding back don't they River? Yes we had a large icebox. In fact my mother-in-law gave us hers when I married my first husband but we had to wait until her new fridge arrived. We didn't get a fridge ourselves until we had been married two years as I felt we should have one when our daughter arrived.
ReplyDeleteI remember the man carrying the large block of ice on a chaff bag on his shoulder. I also remember those coolers with a tank on top that dripped onto a metal frame covered with hessian. They were very good for keeping food quite cold.