As young women with many children (several in the house at any one time), my grandmothers washed their family clothes by hand. Imagine how that was. They also hung laundry out to dry in warm weather. (What they did in cold weather, I can’t say for sure.)
I remember going to visit them and seeing criss-crossing clotheslines with clothes drying in the wind and sun. For many years my mother did that, too; and I often helped.
No wonder, what with the constant laundry and other chores my grandmothers did, that their hands were often chapped and swollen. But that was a given in those days. Still, their hands seemed soothing and lovely in whatever condition they appeared, as the patted and caressed us grandchildren.
As young women with many children (several in the house at any one time), my grandmothers washed their family clothes by hand. Imagine how that was. They also hung laundry out to dry in warm weather. (What they did in cold weather, I can’t say for sure.)
I remember going to visit them and seeing criss-crossing clotheslines with clothes drying in the wind and sun. For many years my mother did that, too; and I often helped.
No wonder, what with the constant laundry and other chores my grandmothers did, that their hands were often chapped and swollen. But that was a given in those days. Still, their hands seemed soothing and lovely in whatever condition they appeared, as the patted and caressed us grandchildren.