By KAREN MADORIN
It’s the time of year when memories of Grandma’s fall cleaning rap, rap, rap at my sub-conscious. Those jobs took a full week and included washing walls, windows, baseboards, corners, and all household bedding. Generally, I attempt to ignore that insistent nudging, but Grandma’s mom and grandmas drilled into her reasons for all this work, especially stripping beds to bare mattresses and washing and hanging laundry to dry in Kansas breezes. She clearly shared that lesson with me. That first night crawling exhausted into freshly laundered bedding delivers a grand reward for so much labor.
Despite a desire to dawdle, it’s time to haul more sheets, mattress pads, and blankets to the laundry room. I finished one bed last weekend, and look forward to completing a couple more before I tackle the rest of the list. Grandma was right! As I tugged line-dried linens over my shoulders, I savored the scents of sunshine and fresh air. Mother Nature’s perfume beats scented detergent and softener.
While I lay there, grateful I could wash everything in hot water and hang it out to dry, Great-Great Grandma Sarah came to mind. An English immigrant to Russell County, she maintained a fresh, tidy prairie home and taught her daughters and their daughters to do the same. Certainly, she worked much harder than I to complete this seasonal chore.
Lacking piped-in water heated in a hot water tank, she hand-pumped water and hauled buckets full to a huge cauldron heating over a fire built in her yard. Of course, she made her own lye soap following each fall’s butchering. She had wash tub, stomper, soap, and rinse pail ready along with bluing to add to her white’s water. I’ve always wondered where she hung her laundry to keep it out of the dirt before she got a real clothes line.
What took me most of a day to finish as I wrapped up other chores, wrote, or read while I waited on the automatic washing machine to complete each cycle would require Grandma Sarah’s undivided attention and every muscle in her body as she scrubbed that season’s scents and grime out of her family’s bedding. It’s no wonder families tell stories about 3 or more family members sharing a bed when you consider both space issues and laundry.
While Grandma did the wash, spouse and kids needed fed and looked after. Based on family stories, Sarah planned ahead. I imagine her setting a kettle of beans and pork fat on a low fire the day before this bigger than usual load so she didn’t have to cook as well as wrangle wet quilts and sheets on wash day. To challenge her further, she had to make beds once the bedding dried. I’ve no doubt she appreciated when her daughters could help.
When little ones ran about, she’d watch to be sure no one fell either in the fire or simmering kettles. Every pioneer knew of a funeral held for a child lost on laundry day.
As I slipped into my clean, sunshine-scented bedding, I imagined the satisfaction Great-Great Grandma Sarah felt as she tucked her loved ones into bed at the end of that laundry day. I hope she stayed awake long enough to savor her labor before she fell into exhausted sleep.