The other day I hand washed two white pillow cases. They came out so well. Mike had a little sore on his ear which had bled onto his pillow case. I decided to wash both the white ones from my pillow and his. After giving them a wash and leaving them in Omo, by the time they got onto the line, they were perfect. The great result made us decide, on this sunny Monday, to do the same with the rest of the whites. We did all the dark clothes in the washing machine and loaded a whole heap of whites into the bath.
Bad move.
This exercise is best done in small portions.
Instead, I spent the day thinking of Bennet. Bennet was the man who cleaned my parent’s house when I was a child. He came to us one day, knocking on the door and saying he was looking for a job. My Dad asked him for references and he produced them. On that day in about 1974, Bennet started working for us. He stayed until some years after I left home. Eventually, I heard that Bennet had died of meningitis.
We had no washing machine back in those days. Yip. Bennet washed ALL the clothes by hand. They were washed in the bath, rinsed, wrung out and hung on the line. That was why I thought of Bennet today. It was what Mike and I did. We have never washed sheets and a duvet cover in the bath before. We filled the bath with tank water and put all the whites in, (including a light blue duvet cover) and Mike walked up and down on them.
#646 of my 1000 thanks is for the fun image in my head of Mike walking up and down the bath stomping on the washing! Certainly a lot of dirt came out.
Bennet never walked on the clothes in the bath. He kneeled at the bath and scrubbed them. It was hard work. Clearly, Mike and I lack the skill that Bennet had. We rinsed the whites, wrung them and put them on the line.
Later this evening I went to get them in.
The outcome? They weren’t rinsed properly. Soooo, tomorrow, we will put them in the washing machine and do another load. We haven’t used the washing machine for about a month so to do two loads a day apart is okay. We have concluded we won’t wash a bath load of linen by hand again! 🙂
When I was growing up, we also had no vacuum cleaner and so Bennet would crawl across the carpet on his hands and knees sweeping the carpet with a dustpan brush. I often came into the lounge when he was busy with that. He would clean our shoes and polish them. He cooked dinner as well.
It was a life I became accustomed to. It ended when I moved to Cape Town at the age of 18. From then on, while I had help when I was staying in the nurses’ home (the rooms were service and the food was cooked), I had to do my own laundry and ironing. Then when I moved out of the nurses’ home, one month before marrying Mike, reality hit home. That was when I had to learn about real housework!
Thank you Bennet for all the help when I was growing up. I am sorry I don’t have a photo of him.
Talking of looking back, we have been thinking of words that we don’t hear any more:
Intermission at the movies! And party-lines. Remember those?
So it’s the last day of the month. We close the door on April and when I wake up tomorrow, I will say “this month our granddaughter arrives”.
Exodus 14:13
Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.
These are the days.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂
Gym:
- 3km run – 19:34 (I did the first 1km in 6:01) + 4 minute cool down.
- Circuit plus stepping in between – 22 minutes
- A whole stack of other machines – 15 minutes