9

A.Varesano interviewing Mary Washko -5- 7/19/72
Tape 23-1
AV: When would you start in the morning?
MW: As soon as yu saw your way clear, you know, to get to the tubs to wash.
You had to get the breakfasts out and wash them dishes and all, and
then get your clothes together.
AV: When did you start, usually?
MW: Well, sometimes when the children were real small, I'd get up and I'd be
half done before they'd be out of bed.
AV: You must have been up about five o'clock.
MW: Five, five o'clock, And you had to go out in the hydrant, get your water,
carry that in, heat in on the stove...
AV: In what?
MW: In a big boiler.
AV: Just one boiler?
MW: Well, yes, but that big boiler would hold about six or eight buckets of
water. So you really had enough.
AV: Yes.
MW: And bakin' bread, you'd start the night before, until you made about
eight loaves, it would be afternoon the next day.
AV: Well, how did you finish washing the clothes then, after you heated up
the wather?
MW: Well, then, when you washed them the second time, you had another
tub with cold water in. You'd rinse them out. You would rinse them out
good and squeeze them out, and hang them on the line. Of course there
was a lot of water in there. In the summer it was all right, but in the
winter sometimes you'd have icicles hangin' from them, till they'd melt.
AV: What did you use for soap?
MW: Well, usually it was Fels Naptha soap. I made some of my own soap. I
made it out of drippings, like lard, old lard drippings, and you'd save
that, and when you had about four pound of old dripping, I'd get a can
of lye, and dissolve so much water, you know, cold water, and dissolve
the lye in cold water, because that thing boils. You'd stir that til it
dissolved good. Then that would be hot. So you'd leave it go til that
would oool off, because that would boil if you put something in there.
Then you'd get your drippings soft.
AV: How did you do that?
MW: On the stove. You'd put the can til it melted. It was lukewarm, but the
drippings had to be like melted. And then you'd take these drippings,
when the lye water was cold, and you'd be stirring these drippings, you
know, the fat, into the lye with a stick. And you just kep on goin' and
goin' and goin' til you got all your drippings in.
AV: Then what happened?
MW: Then you had t keep stirring that til that would start settling, like soap.
And when you saw it start gettin' thick already, so then that you couldn't
stir it no more, and you'd want it smooth, you'd quit. And you'd leave it
sit til about the next day. It would be a little bit on the soft side, but
you'd cut it in soap sizes, whatever size you wanted. Then you left it in
there again for another day or two, and then it got so hard that you just
used it. And that was really good soap for clothes, becuase it took the
stains out. That lye really did. Then the trick. So you'd make soap, you'd
make maybe twelve, fourteen pieces--you'd usually have a big square
pan, I had an old one and I kept it for that purpose.
AV: How big was it about?
MW: Oh, I guess about two feet by one foot, it was an old, old time bread
pan.
AV: How high?