Each Day

Monday is so exciting, being the first working day of the week, and Tuesday is as well. Since Monday was 'wash day', Tuesday was for ironing. The only place I remember Tuesday as ironing day was at my mother's home. Monday after the laundry was done, we would take the clothing to be ironed, lay it on a flat surface such as a table and sprinkle it with clean water. Then we would fold the outside in toward the middle (such as the sleeves on a shirt would be laid in the middle). Starting at one end  we would roll the article up and place it in a plastic bag or sack. After all of the 'ironing' was rolled up and in the sack, it would be placed in the bottom of the refrigerator over night. I don't remember starching the clothes, but we may have. I was only 5 and 6 when at that time frame. I've read that people used to wash starch into the clothing, but I just don't remember doing it. At five years old I began ironing on sheets, pillow cases, and handkerchiefs. When I was seven years and beyond, my sister and I returned to live with my Grandparents I had graduated to regular things such as shirts and dresses as well.
I've included two pictures in this post. This one is of a wringer type washer and the rinse tubs. At the bottom is a picture of a refrigerator such as one that we would have had when I was young. More on that later. 


At my grandparents house our wash day was different and so was our ironing day. When I was very small (my grandparents would have been 55 the year I was born, so when I was a five year old they would have been 60) I do remember the wringer washer set up on the front porch and my grandmother washing and hanging things on the clothes line. However, by the time I was 6 or 7 they were over 60 and pumping enough water to fill the wringer washer, heating it on the gas stove, and then carrying it out to the porch wasn't an easy task. At that time we began taking clothes in to the laundry mat on Saturday. We would put the clothes in the washers then go two doors down to Ed and Martha's locker and grocery store to do our shopping. That's where we had our meat butchered and stored, so we would go pick up our weekly allotment of meat and canned goods. There was a few fresh produce items, but not many. As we got old enough my cousin, Dakota and I would go across to the 'Drug Store' and read through the comic books. We got a 25 cent allowance which would cover the cost of one comic book and one cherry coke. After our time at the soda fountain at the Drug store we would go back to the laundry mat and help sort and fold the clothes coming out of the driers. We went home and did our chores and helped with supper. There would be three baskets of ironing, which we divided between my sister, my cousin, and myself. I don't remember sprinkling the clothes and putting them in the fridge at that point, but we may have done so. At some point we graduated to spray starch.

"neither did we eat bread for nought at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you: not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you, that ye should imitate us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear of some that walk among you disorderly, that work not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing." 
(2 Thessalonians 3:8-13 ASV)

One of the tasks we have done for quite a number of years is to raise as much of our own food as is possible. God has blessed us in that we've lived 'country' most of our lives. Although we have lived carefully, and raised our own, when I can afford it we take our chickens (that we hand raise ourselves) to a butcher. About fifteen years ago I went to pick my chickens up from said butcher and one of the helpers, a middle-aged teen boy was helping me load them into the back of my vehicle. I asked him about his job, and he said it wasn't his favorite job in the world. My response was: it pays and it's honest, be thankful for it. Paul the Apostle was a tent maker. He wasn't hesitant to work with his hands, and he encourages others to work as well. The work we were busy with when I was young wasn't always easy, but it had it's rewards and blessings. Scripture encourages each of us to work willingly at whatever work we find to do. 

Halelujah! What a Savior!