Wash day with Nana

On the way thru Vegas I stayed with a friend from work that had moved out there 3 years ago. We were talking about chores we hated -I said cleaning the toilet and he said drying the dishes from the dishwasher (Las Vegas water leaves streaks even with that special stuff you put in the rinse cycle) and he also disliked folding laundry after it is dried.

It reminded me of one of my earliest memories with my Nana.

I used to love doing wash with her . The night before we would gather up all the laundry in the house -nothing much -I seem to think she did wash once a week and towels went down to the basement daily. But she and I would make the trip thru the house upstairs and first floor. I think I carried the hand towel from the only bathroom. She carried the underwear and sheets. The wicker wash basket stayed with the washer- it was only for wet clean stuff. So we carried all the things to be washed down the stairs, down the four kitchen stairs, then down the basement stairs to the scariest basement ever built. Well not really, but to a little kid who loved to go down there it was wonderful not to be alone.

The basement had an alcove for the washer and utility tub. It also had partioned off areas; a small toilet room, an all purpose room., an oil tank room -with a door that was closed and my Grandfathers shop. The shop had the extra refrigerator they used, from when my mother was a kid. It was short and had a condenser on top. I remember being excited when i grew talker than it was. Next to it was a wood and glass cabinet that held all the board games and toys and metal toy soldiers my mother and her sister and two brothers had played with. We were not allowed to open it without my grandparents there. It had that real thin glass , I now realize , and my grandparents were afraid the glass would break and hurt us. It had a little scary closet that went under the steps -my Grandfather kept his wood and other stuff in there but the door was hard to open. On the side was a metal Coke Bottle Opener that we were allowed to use once a visit, when we were allowed to have a tiny bottle of coke. The door jam to the entry door was filled with measure lines from all the children and friends that had passed thru the house and of the Grandchildren as we visited. I think it was the hardest thing for us to leave after my grandfather died and they sold the house.

On the outside of the room was a chalk board with chalk and an eraser. It hung at just right height for visiting grandchildren. The shop was very organized and clean . My Grandfather was a retired cabinet maker and he had scrap paper there , that we (mainly the girls) could draw on, using the pencils he sharpened with his knife. The boys would be allowed to build things -once they had demonstrated their creativity with Lincoln Logs/Tinker Toys and erector sets. I don't know about the other boys but my brother was building with my Grandfather when he was five. My brother still likes to work with his hands and design, invent and build things. I was never jealous of his time with grandfather, just glad to get him out of our hair so Nana and I could wash.

Nana would wake me about six in the morning, if I wasn't already up, having met the sun with her. She had done most all the wash already and had it on the line -but left the towels for me to help with. The sheets were done first of course, so they could be hung on the outside lines. That way all the neighbors could see she had her wash out first. I kid you not. Then the underwear because the sheets hid them from view. They took a little longer to dry so when the sheets were dried the towels were hung in their place. Usually at the same time -I seem to recall -at all times protecting the underwear from neighbor view. Funny I never questioned her about this early morning ritual. I just knew for some reason the neighbors could not know my Grandfather wore underwear. This was weird because all the grownup boys and the little boys in my family wore underwear, how sad, I thought, that the boys in those neighbor families didn’t wear underwear. When I told my brother my underwear thoughts, he said they must be Amish and not have metal zippers. We always went thru Lancaster County on the way to the grandparents and talked about the Amish all the time. My brother knew about boy parts and metal zippers.

To wash , Nana had this open type of agitator that would swish the clothes around. then we would take them and feed them thru this wringer thing on the top that she would swing around over the laundry tub.. As the washer would empty we (the wringer) would quish all the water out from the towels into the laundry tub, and make them flat as a board. Which Nana would grab and put into a metal tub that sat on a long wooden bench. I seem to think the washer would empty into a drain on the floor -because i remember alot of water on the floor. Then we would dump all the towels from the metal tub back into the washer and fill it with rinse water and it would agitate and we would quish them all again. We may have done that twice -I cant remember. But the whole time I helped and my Nana and I would talk and laugh and she even ‘glistened’ (ladies never perspired). Even when she glistened she smelled wonderful. Funny all my mother ever did was throw the clothes in the automatic washer and then the dryer, no fun.

With Nana it was alot of work but when it was done we would load all the towels in the wicker basket (I even had my own little basket) and take them up the steep stairs (sometimes she would ask my grandfather to carry it up for us) and out the basement door, under the Grape arbor, to the back yard. Then I would hand her towels or clothespins and knowing me, talking my fool head off. She would let me smell the sheets before we took them down and then smell the towels all wet. Then she would pull the line down for me to hang the wash cloths in my little basket, then she would say;” Thank you dear , I just couldn't have done it with out your help”, and then we would go in for breakfast. Me , I am quite sure, talking little girl nonsense the whole time.

When my Grandmother had her heart attack and stroke and my grandfather had to do the wash. My mother said the first thing he bought was an automatic washer and dryer. He apparently had been trying to convince my Grandmother for years to buy them.

But by that time ,most of the old neighbors had died or moved away and she was just to sick to ever care again about her wash being done and ready to hang .............

as she met the sun on wash day..