Chores

[frawin]

Bonnie, I have some of my Dad's grocery ads framed and on the wall, I was just looking at one from 1937, Oxydol (For Fine Garments) Large Pkg 21cents, Dreft Laundry soap, Small Pkg 14 cents and large Pkg 23 cents. My how times have changed.
Frank Winn

[Bonnie M.]

I imagine that 21¢ for a box of Oxydol was harder to come by than what we pay for a box today.  Is Dreft still on the market?

[frawin]

Yes, I've seen Dreft on the market.  In fact, when my grandkids were real small, I kept that in case they needed to do laundry while they were at our house.  The oldest is 9 now.  Also, their mother, was allergic to some soaps, so if she needed to do some laundry it was there for her as well.  In fact, I think I still have some up in the cupboard and use it when I don't want a harsher
detergent

Myrna

[frawin]

Bonnie you are right about that. I am sure that in 1937 21 cents was hard to come by. I never look in the laundry soap section so I don't know if Dreft is still available or not. We drive to Sam's and Myrna always gets the big bottle of liquid Cheer. When I was little there was still 10 or so of us kids at home and wash day was a big thing. They set up the tubs and filled all of them, all of the clothes were sorted in piles and they filled the old washer and it seemed like it was an all day afair. The bigger girls would help and when the first loads were done they would start hanging the clothes on the line. Mom put the pants strechers in the legs of all of the pants before they hung them out. Dad had an old Mangle, I think that was the way it was spelled, and he would iron all of the aprons from the meat market on it and he ironed other things on it but I don't remember what. Automatic washers and dryers have definitely helped with reducing the big load that doing the laundry was.
Frank

[Wilma]

Did any of you use the old gasoline powered Maytag?  I remember Mother would check everything and then start it by stepping on a kick starter.  If she couldn't get it started, she would wait until Daddy came in and he would start it for her.  We were still using it in 1947 when we moved to Elk County as there wasn't any electricity in the country then.  About a year later I moved to Ottawa County where there was electricity and we bought an electric washing machine, but still had to carry the water, heat it on the stove and carry all the rinse water.  I didn't get my first automatic washer and dryer until after the last baby was out of diapers.

[frawin]

Wilma, the most I remember about one of the Maytag washer motors, during the 40s there was an old fella in Howard by the name of Clarence Macklin that mounted one of the Maytag motors on a bicycle and he rode it everywhere. That was the first motorbike I remember. Clarence never drove a car to my knowledge, but he was proud of his motor bike.
Frank

[frawin]

I remember that we had a washing machine set up in the "wash house".  It had a small gasoline motor and there was a belt connected to the washing machine inside.  I truly don't remember much about it other than that.  I do remember that we had an ice box and when you went to town, you got the block of ice just before leaving town, and hurried home.  We later had a kerosene refrigerator.  It was one of my "chores" after school to make sure there was plenty of kerosene in the refrigerator!  I can barely remember that we had a wood stove to cook on---can remember that it was blue.  We then got a stove that used "white gas" .  I can remember that you had to pump it, to put the correct air mix with the gas.  The oven had a gauge on the side and it had to be watched to make sure it stayed at the right temperature.  If it started going up or down, you had to adjust it.  It was a great day when electricity was available at our place!  My uncle came to wire the house and I "helped" him!  I can remember crawling under the house to push the wiring through the holes that he had drilled.   That was a part that I didn't like-- I was always afraid that I might meet up with a snake under there!  It was wonderful, though, when we got an electaric refrigerator, and electric cookstove, and radio.  Done away with the battery radio.  I can remember thinking we were really up town.  I think it was most exciting when we got electric lights to put on the Christmas tree!

Isn't it strange the things we remember?

Myrna

[Bonnie M.]

"Did any of you use the old gasoline powered Maytag? "

Yes, we had the gasoline powered Maytag washer, and, the same as you, if Mother couldn't get it started, we would wait for daddy to get home, and he would get it started.  We moved to Longton from the country in 1945, and that was our first time to have electricity.  Wow!  A bath in something other than a "wash tub," lights with the flick of the switch, it makes me think we were back in the "Little House on the Prairie" days! 

I can remember having an "ice box," then we got a "Servel Electrolux gas refrigerator"  Daddy worked for Union Gas, and we had free gas at our house, so we actually had "gas" lights, that were installed and hung out from the walls some way, and they had mantles, if you broke one, you were not looked upon with favor! 

[frawin]

Bonnie, our refrigerator was Servel--only it was kerosene.  I remember the mantles too, only ours was on kerosene lamps (Aladdin).  One of those lamps is now electric and in my living room!  I can remember my great aunt and Uncle having electric lights at their house, but they were run by a generator (wind maybe?)  I was too small to remember--I'll have to ask Mother how they were run.

Myrna

[Wilma]

One of my friends out in the country had a gasoline powered generator and when the lights started to dim, someone had to go out and refuel the generator.  I think it was called a Delco system.  Some of you guys, am I right about this?  They also had a wind generator.  I think they only had lights hooked up to it.  At that time we were living in town with electricity and had an electric motor on the old Maytag.  My folks held onto the gasoline motor though and used it later when we moved to the country and when we moved to Elk County.  We also had the old wood ice box and always had plenty of ice as daddy was the ice man.  Mother cooked on a coal oil stove and I will never know how she managed to adjust the burners just right for the oven.  There was an old wood cook stove in the house in Elk County when we moved there and she cooked on it for a long time besides the coal oil stove.  And beans do taste better when cooked on a wood stove.