Mama Loved to Wash Clothes

March 20, 2020

I think I have finally figured out why mama liked to wash clothes so much. It was a fact around her house that nothing laid around dirty very long before she had it in the washing machine. Through the years we have talked about how mama liked to wash clothes. I was thinking about mama this morning and the first time I remember her washing clothes. It was when I was about four years old. 

We lived in a small government house out in the country on an Opp route when i was born. It was a nice house and I was born in the front room to the right of the porch. Daddy wanted some land and bought the old Holland Place out from Elba. We moved into the house on route 4. I was four years old. It was a big house with four rooms. We had two iron beds in the large living room, a dining room, kitchen and another bedroom for the boys. We had an outdoor toilet and we had little mice which I thought was just wonderful. Mama didn't think so and she soon put a stop to them.

 

Wash day came and mother, daddy and I headed straight across the dirt road in front of our house, down to the woods where there was a stream of water. Daddy had taken the old black wash pot down there and set it up beside the creek. He had stumps and had #3 washtubs setting on them. I think there were two or three tubs. A fire was set under the wash pot to heat the water taken from the stream. Mama put the clothes and lye soap, I assume, in it to wash the clothes. She had a battling stick daddy had made in which she punched down the clothes and pulled from the pot when she thought they were clean. She laid them on a stump and beat them. I didn't pay much attention because I was enjoying being in the woods near a stream of water and near them. Mama rung the clothes out by hand and then put them in the first tub of water, juggled them up and down, squeezed them out by hand and then on to the next tub. She really believed in rinsing her clothes well. After the job was done they lugged the clothes back up the hill to our house and to the clothes line out back where she hung them in the sun to dry. Mondays were usually wash day.

From that primitive way of washing clothes mama moved on to having a wringer type electric machine out underneath a shed behind the house. She no longer had to wring the clothes out by hand because the washer had a wringer up top. We just positioned them just right, sent them through and  the excess water was rung out. She used that washer for years and continued to hang the clothes to dry on the line. 

Mama and Daddy built a new house in 1960 on the Old Holland Place. I remember when mama bought her first electric washer and dryer. They were used but she didn't care. She put them in the utility room right behind the carport. I can see now why they made her so happy. Mama had come a long way.

Later in her life after Daddy died, she sold the house on route 4 and moved to Elba across the street from her son and family. She moved her washer and dryer inside her house. She could really wash clothes now. They were right beside her kitchen. We never understood why mama liked to wash clothes so much, but I think after today I have it figured out. She came a long way in her 102 1/2 years. She really did.

She loved to wash clothes.

I wore 401 overalls to school

From the time I was four years old until I married we lived by the Holland - Grimes Cemetery on Route 4, Elba, AL. I had no problem visiting the cemetery and looking at the tombstones. Here I am in my 401 overalls that Daddy bought me at Perry's Store. Mama didn't really want me wearing overalls, but Daddy had his way. Daddy wore 401 overalls and I wanted some like his.

I loved my overalls and recall the first day I wore them to school at Curtis. I was in the first grade. Leroy Rushing had a pair just like them, and I couldn't wait to show Leroy my overalls. Notice the little Sears Roebuck brown oxfords I had on, too. I got a new pair every school year. It just so happened that the morning I walked into the first grade class at Curtis with my new overalls on that Leroy Rushing was standing behind the little table and chairs talking to other class members. I came in smiling from ear to ear. He spotted me, and not my overalls, mind you, but my smile, and he bellowed out in his roughest voice, "It ain't funny, Glenda Williams, I can tell you that." I replied, "I was smiling 'cause we have on overalls alike. I didn't know what you are telling." Then he told me about someone getting killed or dying, and that's the end of that story. I don't remember if he even noticed we had on overalls alike or not. I think I'm still a little miffed about that.

As I think back about being in Mrs. Lena Grimes first and second grade class, I remember those little tables and chairs. I guess six people could sit at one table in the first grade. One day I was sitting down and decided to lean back in the chair. Well, guess what! I turned over backwards and hit the floor. It knocked the breath out of me, and that was my first and only time to experience that. It was very frightening.

One day another male classmate and I exchanged shoes. I think it was Leroy Rushing or either Murray Johns. I had on my little brown lace-up oxfords, and we decided to exchange shoes.

Immediately when we finished lacing them up, Mrs. Grimes called, "Bathroom time." "Oh!" I said, "We have to change shoes first!" Then the rush was on. We finished just in time to take our place in the line as we marched down the hall to the bathroom.

First and second grades were in the same classroom at Curtis School. Mrs. Grimes taught both grades. The first graders had tables and chairs. The second graders had desk. One day I stood up beside my desk to stretch while Mrs. Grimes was teaching the first graders. She told me to sit down. I told her, "You shut up." That's a story for another time...

Working together toward a common goal

I was born in a government house between Opp and Elba, AL. It was a nice little house, but daddy moved us to the Old Holland Place on Route 4, Elba. That's where I saw little mice running in the big room and thought they were wonderful. Mama didn't think so! We lived in that house around 14 years.

Mama had gotten a job at the Kinston Manufacturing Company. She was making about $75 every two weeks. I remember her telling daddy, "Grady, let's build us a new house. We can buy supplies every two weeks when I get paid, and you can build it." Daddy must have liked the idea because he sat down and drew the plan on a piece of paper while sitting at the kitchen table. Soon the place was selected out from the old house, string was run in the shape of the house, and Daddy got started.

Here is a picture of mother sitting on the foundation of the new house. Daddy must have worked at night on it. I see a light cord and light running from the old house in the picture. They built the house and paid for it as they went.

For the first time in all those years we had an indoor bathroom, bathtub and shower. Up until then we had an outdoor toilet with a fancy commode that Daddy had found somewhere. He rigged us up a shower on a concrete slab out behind the house and fixed us a shower head out there. That's where we got our baths when we didn't sponge off.

But the point is that people can do about anything they set their minds to do if they think they can. Mama and Daddy thought they could, and they did. They worked together toward a common goal, and they reached it. There's a lesson for us there.

Hunting in the Night with Julie and Daddy

Julie was a special dog. My uncle gave her to us, and we were mighty proud of her. She had short brown hair and the prettiest tail that curved around. I liked Julie a lot. Julie was smart, too. She could go hunting all by herself. I remember the night well when we heard Julie barking down at the edge of the woods behind our country house on Route 4, Elba. Our house was quiet, so it was easy to hear her. I had just gotten out of the shower and had shampooed my long hair. I was ready for bed.

Daddy said, "Glenda, Julie has something treed down at the edge of the woods. Go with me and hold the flashlight and let's see what she has treed." I pulled on my housecoast. He grabbed his gun, and off to the woods we headed. I guess it must have been about ten o'clock at night. Too late to go hunting, I know that for sure. Nevertheless, off we went across the field to find Julie. I shined the flashlight and there stood Julie looking up from the base of the tree. "Shine the light on up the tree," Daddy said. I did, and sure enough, there was something in the tree. Julie was so proud of her prize and that we had come to get it for her.

Daddy took aim, and he was a good shot, I have to say. Down the thing came. It didn't take long at all to know this thing was not something that should have been angered or shot! It was a SKUNK, and it sprayed all of us good. Oh my! Talk about taking your breath away? We got ourselves back to the house, struggling to just get some sort of fresh air. Julie stunk, Daddy stunk, and I stunk. I had to rebathe and wash my hair. I thought I would never get that smell out of my clothes or hair. And you know what? My daddy was so tickled he could not stop laughing.

Well, that was my first and last time to go hunting at night with Julie and Daddy. It was a "stinking" hunt for sure!

55 Years and counting

We did it! December 18, 2020 came and we celebrated 55 years of marriage. They have been wonderful years. Our goal has been to work for the Lord, and that is what we have done. It has been an interesting life, and we wouldn't change anything about it even if we could. 

I remember when mother and daddy celebrated their 55 wedding anniversary. That was really something special. It wasn't long until Daddy got sick with an inoperable brain tumor and finally died. 1985, September 22 was the date. I remember it well.

Homemade biscuits

Oh my! I have been watching "Cooking with Brenda Gantt," and seeing her make biscuits. A friend, who I will not name, posted a Mama's Famous Dinner Roll recipe on FB, and I was game to try it this morning. Oh boy! I could blame it on my oven not being hot enough at 350 as the recipe suggested, my amateurism (can you believe that one?), or who knows what, but mine were not good. 

The biscuits gave me a good reminder of my daddy. All my life daddy had a little rock he would show me, or it would always turn up someway, and he said it was one of Mama's first biscuits she made when they first got married. The rock looked just like a small round biscuit baked just right, but hard as a rock. Well, it was a rock!!!

Oh Mama. It still brings a chuckle as I remember her always saying, "Oh Grady, it ain't dunn it!" Probably if daddy was still around, he would slip one of my morning biscuits in his pocket to remind me of my attempt at biscuit making and yes, he would show it to me from time to time and anyone else who would listen.

Doing something for Jesus each day

Dr. Phil McGraw has shared on numerous occasions on his daily television show how he gets up each morning and asks himself what he can do to make his wife’s day better, or more enjoyable, that day. There’s no doubt fewer marriages would end in divorce if each person asked themselves that question about their companion.

As I was thinking about that statement the other morning after reading my Bible, I thought, “What can I do today for Jesus?” Immediately, I thought of the poem below.

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way

He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

We are the only Bible the careless world will read,

We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;

We are the Lord’s last message, given in word and deed;

What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy with other work than His?

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?

What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?

How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?

—Annie Johnston Flint

Of course, I want to make my precious husband’s day better every day. I want to make it special and one he will long remember. At the same time I want do something for my Lord every day. I want to be able at the end of the day to look back at that which I have done and see things I have done especially for my Lord.

Mr. Rogers penned the song, “There are many ways to say I love you.” The song states ways to express our love for others. May we look for ways each day to express our love for our companion and our Savior.