Country Savvy

I don’t know about you, but I perceive the world changing so fast now.  When I was younger, it did not seem that the political events were so big as to impact my life. There has always been world tension, and probably always will be.  Those things have little impact on my life here in Datil, but the impact can be really strong with the doings of our Congress and President.  The realization that status quo can change how I live the remaining days of my life are sometimes unbearable.  Not unbearable to the point that they affect my well being now, but to the point that I spend too much time dwelling on the issues.  Do I have to be an activist to oppose or support issues?  I never had to care before, but it seems that if I am not involved, then things I do not want or approve of will be rammed down my throat.  This is the first time that I have (in my lifetime) felt that I should take some action to protect the few days I have left.  I am sure that each of us has an issue that pushes our buttons.  I may or may not agree with you, but it is entirely up to each person to do what they think is right.

I had always thought that retirement would be sitting on the porch, watching the cows, and doing things that were relaxing and peaceful.  I may have a picture that is different than real life.  Maybe if I were ten or fifteen years older, I would not be so concerned, but according to those who know, my life expectancy is 79 years of age.  Now I have to be concerned that the health care I have now will not be decreasing, the retirement check that makes my life comfortable today will not be diminished, and my freedom, as I know it today, will not be restricted.  Never in the last 68 years have I felt there was a threat to these.

I am not a real social person, but I do use a social media and through it keep up with the major issues of the day.  These can be very depressing, but because I also am exposed to things that are just day to day happenings of others, it takes the edge off the doom and gloom.  What I am really driving for is a balance of the events in live that will keep a person on the positive side rather than the negative.  Everyone has something that gives them some pleasure.  Without these pleasure moments, and the realization that it is a responsibility each of us have to ourselves to remain positive and strong, we might as well just give up and die.  Giving up is not in the make-up of a good Christian.  Prayer and guidance from the Bible will make us much stronger than we can do on our own. We must use these for additional strength.

I hope to be able to influence our Congressman to do what is right for the people who elect them, but if I cannot, then I hope and pray that I will be able to live my remaining days as I picture, and have the strength to forgive and forget.

God Bless and keep you, have faith that America will remain the land of the free.

This morning, while drinking coffee with my wife, we got to talking about washing clothes.  Seems like we always have a load of something to put in the washing machine.   But we started discussing how we washed clothes as we grew up.  Many of you have never seen or done the type washing I will talk about today.

We had a wash day that usually took all day.  In the small town where I spent most of my early life, we would have a couple of wash tubs of water set up outside. Using a washboard to wash the clothes, rinse by hand in the second tub, then hang them on a cloths line to dry, was a lot of physical work.

Then someone opened a laundry (unlike today’s laundromat).  There were wringer washers with three tubs setup around it.  Now this was a lot better than washing with a washboard, but it cost to wash a load, as I remember, it was about 25 cents a load.  After sorting the clothes, the whites would go first, then the colored, then the work clothes.  Mainly in that order because you didn’t change the wash water with each load. Since the washing machine had no timer, it was up to the person washing the clothes to decide when they were ready to wring out and put into the rinse tub.  Now this ringer was a little dangerous, and if you ever got an arm or hand in it, you certainly knew it.  Luckily there was a release on the end where you could lift the top roller up.  This was designed that way because clothes sometimes would get caught in it and wrap around the ringer.  Mostly, though, you would use a push stick to start the clothes into the wringer. The push stick was also used to swish the clothes since the water would be very hot.  The first rinse was to get the soap out, and a person would have to swish the clothes in this to release the soap. Next while a new load of clothes were washing, you would swing the wringer around to position it between the first rinse tub and the second rinse tub.  Then, once again, you would vigorously swish the clothes to get more soap out. Now moving the wringer between the second and third tubs, wringing the clothes into the last for the final rinse.  In this final rinse, you would have added the bluing to make the whites look really white. (This bluing was also good on ant bites) The clothes would then be wrung out and put in a basket to take home to hang on a clothes line. This process would continue for all the laundry until done.  In the summer, it was hot in the laundry, since there was no air conditioning or swamp coolers, and with all the humidity from the wash, it was a very sweaty proposition. Luckily I don’t remember the winter wash too well, I think I was in school on wash day.

Once the clothes were on the line, there was still care that had to be taken, get them in if it started raining, hope a dust devil didn’t blow them off the line, and on really windy days hope the sand didn’t blow. (Really scratchy clothes when that happened).  Many times I would come home from school, go take the clothes off the line and they were stiff as a board, have you heard of freeze dried. When the clothes were still too wet to put away, they would be spread around on furniture to finish drying if they could not be rehung.

Once the clothes were dry, they would be brought into the house and folded and put away, except for those that were in need of ironing.  Since there was no permanent press, most everything was ironed.  These would be sprinkled with water.  The sprinkler would be anything from a large beer bottle or coke bottle to whatever had a fairly small mouth with a screw on lid.  The lid would have holes punched in it so it would let out the proper amount of water.  Some would have a sprinkler head that had a cork on it to fit inside the bottle.  Once a piece of clothing was properly sprinkled, it would be rolled up and put into the basket for ironing, or in the refrigerator until you were ready to iron. For some of us, with no refrigerator, it meant ironing right away.

Now, my Mother had an electric iron, but getting the right temperature to iron was a trick, seems the adjustments on the early electric irons were not perfect,  and there were no steam irons then either. My Grandmother would use an electric iron, but I watched her iron many clothes with old sad irons (for those who do not know what a sad iron is, it was an iron that was heated on the stove).  Her house did not have electric outlets, so she would have to screw an outlet into the overhead light fixture, then the light bulb into it, then she could see to iron.  I think she was more comfortable with them than the electric iron.

Nowadays, we can run in, throw clothes in a washer, dryer, pull them out and put them back on in a hour’s time.  Then, to wash something by hand, hang to dry and then iron it to put it back on, would take a half of day at least.

I may be a little off on some of what I remember, it has been the better part of 60 years ago, but I think you get the point.  I don’t think there is a woman alive (nor children that helped, for that matter) that would call laundry day the good old days and yearn for a return to it.

God Bless and Keep You.