The farmhouse recently had a wash day exhibit. In the kitchen, a variety of vintage wooden washboards, large galvanized tubs, wooden clothespins and a wringer washer were on display.
I remember visiting my Aunt and seeing her small white glass washboard with a few sizeable chips taken out at the bottom. During World War II, scrap metal was saved for the war effort so some of the washboards were made glass. The farm actually owns a wooden frame washboard with a glass scrubbing insert. I had to look closely to notice the glass.
My mother-in-law told me that wash day consisted of doing wash one whole day and then a second day was devoted to doing all the ironing. What two days to do wash and ironing! Today it’s hard to fathom spending two long days doing the family’s wash and ironing. My mother actually used an electric wringer washer well in to the 1970’s. If you were inserting clothing into the wringer and got your fingers stuck, there was a release bar you could hit which would spring the two washer rollers open, thus, saving your fingers.
The amber colored glass bleach bottle was made in approximately 1932. The top of the bleach bottle has a cork stopper and the inside of the bottle shows a coating of dried out bleach crystals. I look at that bleach bottle and think about the hard-physical labor which was needed to do the laundry. I can almost see those clean clothes flapping in a gentle breeze on a clothes line.