Washing Clothes

People talk about the actual look of the clothes. What about the smell? Can you remember anything about the smell of newly washed clothes?

Oh yes, absolutely, wonderful. There's nothing like it. If I hang my washing to dry and bring it in, it smells nice, but it's nothing like the beautiful boiled, starched blued clothes that came in from the line - nothing like the same smell. It was a wonderful smell. The house was reeking with soap in the morning. All the windows were open, no matter how cold it was. We didn't have central heating - all the windows had to be open because of the steam from this boiler and the clothes drying in the other room if it was a wet day. You come in from school - it was really cold because all the windows were open because you've got to dry the clothes - you can't have walls running with steam - that's not healthy.

So now you use a fully automatic washing machine - there's no connection with starching or blueing?

No, but I must admit, when I look back to my Mother's washday, it was a tremendous joy at the end of the day - the end product was so really starched, white, really brilliant white clothes, tablecloths, everything, and still think "Wouldn't it be lovely to have that? But there is no way I'm going to starch and blue.