Typical Washday Monday For most working class homes in the 1940’s and early 50’s Monday was always wash day. Mondays meant cold meat left over from the Sunday joint with chips or bubble and squeak for dinner, because this was a quick and easy meal to prepare which it needed to be as wash day was very labour intensive day. Doing the washing would often make the whole house feel damp. Not only was there a smell of wet clothes everywhere all the windows would be steamed up too, it was not a very pleasant atmosphere to be in. Most did there washing in a dolly tub which during the week would be stored in the pantry until it was needed. A dolly tub was a metal ribbed tub made of aluminium which stood about two and a half feet high. All during the week anything that was dirty and needed to be washed would be put in the dolly tub ready for wash day to come round. On Monday mornings dirty washing was sorted into separate piles of whites, coloureds and delicates etc. The dolly tub was then filled with hot water, which they would heat in the copper or in pans which she would heat on the top of the gas cooker. If you had a boil wash it would be done in the copper rather than the dolly tub. They would put the cleanest stuff first into the dolly tub and would often part wash some of the smaller items in the sink before putting it in the dolly tub. This served to keep the water in the dolly tub clean for longer as they would have to do more than one wash using the same water. The water was agitated in the dolly tub using either a posser or a ponch. The posser sometimes also called a dolly peg had three legs and the ponch was like a copper plunger with holes in. The ponch was used in an up and down motion while the posser was turned clockwise then anti-clockwise like the central agitators type washing machines. Many a younger child in the family inherited a favourite jumper as many clothing items had been shrunk in the wash. The younger ones didnt like wearing clothing that had shrunk, but many a family could not afford just to throw stuff away. If it was possible for another member of the family to squeeze into the item that had shrunk, then even though it did not look particularly good it was still functional and therefore still usable. https://m.youtube/watch?autoplay=1&v=EZYva3khdME
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 10:12:48 +0000
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