View Full Version : A long time ago
How many remember flannel PJs? Every winter when the Alberta Clipper jumped the 2 strands of barbed wire and came down onto Oklahoma, my mother would have a thick pair of flannel PJs. 68 years ago they 8didn't have waffle weave long johns with cuffs round the ankles only the scratchy kind.
Mom, sisters, and grandma made quilts. Sadly, all but 1 has been lost thru childrens divorce.
Wash day on a wringer washer and hanging on a line, mom' hands would turn as red as a 12 ga shell. After mom said they were freeze dried, I would go out, take them down and break them onto the laundry basket.
Our bathroom had a little gas stove, and I remember at 8 lighting that stove for a bath; " remember light the wooden match, then turn on the gas slowly and stick p it in the ceramic grate." Use a hatchet to split kindling. My grandkids...no way!
My parents were born in 1911. Grand mother was born on 1886 in a covered wagon in Oklahoma Indian Territory near Apache OK. She could skip a tin can across the ground with her pump .22.
That's when I learned girls can shoot
Ironically my mother had a .22 pump. The only gun she had and now I have it, a 1890 Win. with an '06 barrel. I assume the round barrel was installed to make the gun lighter than having the octagon barrel. I asked her, she didn't know. She said she would pick up a box of .22 LR in the grocery store for 25 cents. They were on the shelf like anything else for sale.
My grandmother had a wringer washer and a flattened finger tip that got caught in it one day.
I grew up with the little space heaters too.
barretcreek
02-22-2023, 08:43
Maternal grandmother had a wringer washer too, and a coal fired furnace. Uncle lived on first floor and she lived on third. Rented second; tenant's kid stuck his arm in the wringer.
Near North Side of Chi.
Vern Humphrey
02-22-2023, 03:18
After WWII, houses were being built everywhere. There was a dump near where I lived with my grandparents in Lake Charles, LA. I used to pull my wagon to the dump and load it with off-cuts. My grandmother used them to build the fire under the wash boiler (looked like a witch's kettle.)
Flannels? it just made sense. There's no argument. If anyone wants to aurgu about it.
my Wife's maternal grandmother uses a 'semi auto' wringer washer until the day she passed,
big barrel looking washer on a stand, with the wringer above it, and what looked like a gear shift for a tractor or big truck one one corner to make the washer work (hense semi auto,,, a joke)
my maternal grandparents lived on a farm,
house built in 1835, updated sometime around or before WW2,
oil heater in the one bathroom, and in the grandparents bedroom (the room was the original Doc office for the doc that build the house) and a wood stove in the main room
the bedrooms upstairs were not heated, (doors to each heated room were kept closed, the house had little insulation)
so when visiting in the cold months , we slept under a handful of quilts, handful sometimes being 6 or more,
This year I'll be 79. I now have time to realize what those that went before did for me, and that's only the things I know of. It's an honor and a blessing to remember them.
This year I'll be 79. I now have time to realize what those that went before did for me, and that's only the things I know of. It's an honor and a blessing to remember them.
well said,
re that wringer washer, I remember when she passed (peacefully in her sleep) and he husband, (wife's grandfather) moved in with her mom, they cleaned out the house and sold the old , still working like it was new, washer for more than you could buy a new modern washer for
I joked with the wife that we should have taken it home, since she hated the one we had, but she said her grandmother never taught her how to use it,,,
I do know you had to roll it over to the sink and attach a hose to it for water
Pushing 70 hard & can still recall the coin fed gas meter’s that fired up the old copper wash tubs that nana used along with the hand wringer later 50’s,the old 20ga rabbit shotgun the grandparents both used from earlier previous year’s to feed their kids (mum & siblings) through the hard times in Oz.Flannel pj’s & hot water bottles we used in the winter time’s too.
Wringer washer. For those of you who may not have seen one the wringers (2 of them) above the washer looked like big kitchen rolling pins covered in rubber. I remember my grandmother (who used it) saying the wringers were really bad for cracking/breaking plastic buttons.
There used to be an old saying; 'got his tail caught in the wringer.'
Mark in Ottawa
02-23-2023, 04:18
I remember the wringer washers very well. When I was about 11 years old, my mother got a new one that, unlike our old one, had a pressure release so that if you caught your arm in the wringer, the top would release and you wouldn't break a bone - a major safety improvement.
Do you remember blueing?
I was 4 years old on the back porch when my mother was washing clothes in a wringer washing machine. There were other tubs with rinsing water, blueing water, and bleaching water. I was playing when I ran into a red wasp nest and they stung me dozens of times. We lived in Cass, AR (look it up) and we were isolated. My mother doctored me. She used turpentine, mixed with sugar and baking soda. I regained consciousness after 3 hours or so.
No big deal! How many of todays mothers would know what to do?
Do you remember blueing?
I was 4 years old on the back porch when my mother was washing clothes in a wringer washing machine. There were other tubs with rinsing water, blueing water, and bleaching water. I was playing when I ran into a red wasp nest and they stung me dozens of times. We lived in Cass, AR (look it up) and we were isolated. My mother doctored me. She used turpentine, mixed with sugar and baking soda. I regained consciousness after 3 hours or so.
No big deal! How many of todays mothers would know what to do?
When I was very young I was stung by something, probably a wasp. One of my Grandmother's friends took a cigarette, opened it up and packed the loose tobacco on the sting wound. It, like the baking soda absorbed the wasp venom or whatever you want to call it. Decades later my brother was stung and I suggested the cigarette since he smoked. He was amazed how well and quickly it worked.
Blueing I remember. I just don't remember any of my family ever using it. I think we just used bleach. Used to see the bars or tablets in stores for sale. It is still made and used in the tablet form and now the liquid form too.
Watching the History Channel it was mentioned that before people had refrigeration and meat and milk spoiled so quickly that sellers added laundry blueing to milk to make it look more fresh and attractive. Thank God we have laws now preventing such.
When I was very young I was stung by something, probably a wasp. One of my Grandmother's friends took a cigarette, opened it up and packed the loose tobacco on the sting wound. It, like the baking soda absorbed the wasp venom or whatever you want to call it. Decades later my brother was stung and I suggested the cigarette since he smoked. He was amazed how well and quickly it worked.
Blueing I remember. I just don't remember any of my family ever using it. I think we just used bleach. Used to see the bars or tablets in stores for sale. It is still made and used in the tablet form and now the liquid form too.
Watching the History Channel it was mentioned that before people had refrigeration and meat and milk spoiled so quickly that sellers added laundry blueing to milk to make it look more fresh and attractive. Thank God we have laws now preventing such.
go read up on what some ice cream was back in the day,
scary,
I have heard of , but not seen Blueing used,
my Maternal Grandma, when she wasn't doctoring on us (playing on a farm tended to get you bloody or bruised once in a while, ) always went for the Salve first,
not a clue who made it or what it was, guessing some first aid cream that looked almost like Vaseline, (probably a major component of it)
she would dip a finger in the jar, rub it on you and tell you to get back outside,
sometimes if we stubbed a toe etc, it got soaked in turpentine and hot water,
wasp and bee stings??
bee stings were followed by 'I told you to wear shoes'
wasp or hornet, were followed by , ' I told you to leave that nest alone, guessing you will next time'
go read up on what some ice cream was back in the day,
scary,
I have heard of , but not seen Blueing used,
my Maternal Grandma, when she wasn't doctoring on us (playing on a farm tended to get you bloody or bruised once in a while, ) always went for the Salve first,
not a clue who made it or what it was, guessing some first aid cream that looked almost like Vaseline, (probably a major component of it)
she would dip a finger in the jar, rub it on you and tell you to get back outside,
Bag Balm, I bet. Poor old cows would get their udder (bag) scratched, or cut by any number of things. G'pa and G'ma's hands, HARD working hands and fingers would crack open at the joint. Still available in drugstore under other names.
By the way how many kids today know what an "udder" is? Every youngster should learn how to milk a cow and have to reach under an old hen to get her eggs.
Bag Balm, I bet. Poor old cows would get their udder (bag) scratched, or cut by any number of things. G'pa and G'ma's hands, HARD working hands and fingers would crack open at the joint. Still available in drugstore under other names.
By the way how many kids today know what an "udder" is? Every youngster should learn how to milk a cow and have to reach under an old hen to get her eggs.
may have been, not sure, to long ago to remember a brand, and I have vague recollections of the top of the lid being worn, as in no way to read it anyway,
reaching under a het, been there, done that, even my city grandparents (Dad's side) had a hen house,
country grandma would be seen every now and again walking thru the yard, going from the hen house to the corn crib, carrying a black snake or garter by the tail,
she would not kill them, (unless they climbed a tree) but would relocate one so it ate rats and mice vs her eggs
may have been, not sure, to long ago to remember a brand, and I have vague recollections of the top of the lid being worn, as in no way to read it anyway,
reaching under a het, been there, done that, even my city grandparents (Dad's side) had a hen house,
country grandma would be seen every now and again walking thru the yard, going from the hen house to the corn crib, carrying a black snake or garter by the tail,
she would not kill them, (unless they climbed a tree) but would relocate one so it ate rats and mice vs her eggs
My grandparents, the ones who lived where I live now, had chickens. My grandmother would reach under the hens every day for the egg. One day she pulled out a large corn snake. These snakes eat eggs but this one we think was enjoying the warmth under the hen.
Can still remember the bluing used in the old wash tubs 50’s & recall the name (Reckitts crown Blue) as the product nana used.
My mother was born in 1912 and, until age 12 lived on a working cattle ranch. In 1924, when they sold the place, there was no electricity, no gas and no running water, but at least, I understand there was a pump in the kitchen. Obviously my mom was a big fan of the Roosevelt era rural electrification program. When they sold the place and moved to town in 1924 all those amenities became available. There was one heater in the house, a gas unit in the living room. In any other room you adjusted temperature by taking off or adding clothes or covers if you were in bed. There was one of those ancient refrigerators in the kitchen with the motor/compressor on top. The freezer would hold a couple of ice trays and maybe a couple of pork chops. I don't recall a wringer washer in that house but I'm sure there was one at some time. At that time, 1950s & 60s you still saw plenty of wringer washers though and they were usually on a porch; classier people kept them on the back porch :evil6: . The "drier" for, for any below the upper middle class clothes were clothes lines. Every house I lived in up until I got out of high school had clothes line poles in the back yard. I grew up in southeast Texas and south central Louisiana where the heat in the summer is brutal but we didn't have air conditioning until I was a senior in high school. My father had it better, his family immigrated to the US from France (Alsace) in the 1840s and landed in New Orleans where they stayed so they were the they at least had indoor plumbing and electricity as soon as it became available.
In the late1970s when we moved into the house we're still in the association covenant had a ban on outdoor clotheslines that were visible from the street in any direction....
Vern Humphrey
02-27-2023, 01:56
Bag Balm, I bet. Poor old cows would get their udder (bag) scratched, or cut by any number of things. G'pa and G'ma's hands, HARD working hands and fingers would crack open at the joint. Still available in drugstore under other names.
By the way how many kids today know what an "udder" is? Every youngster should learn how to milk a cow and have to reach under an old hen to get her eggs.
My wife was the Assistant Director of Nurses at the largest nursing home in Virginia. They used bag balm to prevent bedsores.
Mom still has a clothes line behind her house, don't think she uses it any more,
we had one at the house my brohter and I still own, untill maybe 20 yrs ago,
dad took it down for whatever reason (they divorced and mom moved out when I was in college)
we had one at out first house, but never installed one here ,
My wife was the Assistant Director of Nurses at the largest nursing home in Virginia. They used bag balm to prevent bedsores.
Bag Balm is good stuff. Udderly Smooth is pretty good too if Bag Balm is hard to find where you are.
FWIW, when I as an Apprentice Meat guy, we used Iodine as a sanitizer,
the same type dairymen used to use to sanitize the udders,
if you did not mix it correctly (dilute with hot water) you hands at night looked like you had jaundice
While we are on the subject of the past:
^^^ added;
No TV dinner’s.
Vegemite always on the table.
Ice cream on top of piklet’s (pancake’s) was a dessert thing.
Anything!! mum’s & Nan’s could cook was a go.
Cheer’s
Vern Humphrey
03-03-2023, 06:20
I ate my first Pizza in Houston Texas in the spring of 1952 -- so it's older than you think.
In the '50s, after we moved onto the ranch, my mom would buy the foil trays for TV dinners. Whenever there was a You Pick (go into the field, pick it yourself and pay by weight) we all went and picked. Then she'd say, "Boys, I need a deer."
Then she'd have an orgy of cooking -- she'd fill a hundred of those foil trays and put them in the freezer -- we had humongous freezer on the side porch.
And on evenings when she didn't feel like cooking, she'd say, "Are you boys hungry?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"You know where the freezer is.":icon_lol:
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