Washing Clothes

Joan Jalland interviewed by Romano Cavaroli

Now the other thing was that my Father used to wear those stiff collars and they had to be done - they were never done at home - well they weren't in our family - there was a special laundress that you took it to and I can remember having to go and collect these collars and they were sitting there washing them, doing the ironing with flat irons and the steam and the whole atmosphere was to me as a small child - used to be quite frightening - this whole thing, and I hated going there - to collect these collars. There was a lot of hissing and the place was dark and the whole thing - I think the lady always wore dark clothes and she had some apprentices there and sometimes she used to shout at them, if they didn't do things right or burnt things and the whole thing - I used to absolutely hate going there.

What happened after that...this all happened in your youth - was there any change as you grew older? Did your Mother's routine alter at all?

Oh yes, they still and long after I left home, they still had the same sort of routine, but of course by that time they had got a washing machine in the loft, but everything was still happening up there. It was an automatic washing machine and that was after 1932-33 - a large automatic washing machine was up there and that was used - that was the machine and spin dryer still they didn't have the modern machines that they've got now. But my own family - when they were young, I only ever had a mangle and a copper.

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