Washing Clothes

What about the ironing?

It was lovely if it was a windy day to see all the rows of white washing on the lines, because all the neighbours washed on Mondays. If it was a wet day, they were hung around the shed, and the essential things were brought indoors into what was our sitting-come-dining-come-everything room - just this one small room which had a small lacquered black fireplace and that got very hot. On top of that stood the irons-we had three flat irons, so when the washing was dry, the ironing was done in that room, and the irons were lifted off this black surface and we kept swapping them over so they kept hot.

How did your Mother know if the heat was right?

It was very much "Ouch! I've scorched that" or over the years she became - experienced-she knew what was right. She touched the edge-sometimes she spat on the iron to see how hot it was. Later we were very fortunate to get a gas iron which plugged into a gas socket. The trouble was that if you moved the iron too quickly - she worked at a great pace - the gas flame singed the clothes, so you could not move the iron too quickly. Then of course, we moved onto the electric one.