It’s amazing
what we all take for granted. Just now, I took my chenille bathrobe out of the
dryer. I hadn’t finished the laundry yesterday. I was cold wearing just my
nightie. My bathrobe was wonderfully warm. I put my arms in the sleeves and wrapped
it around myself. It felt so very good. I was no longer cold, but enfolded in
warmth. My dryer provided this pleasurable sensation.
It made me think about all the things
I take for granted and have for much of my life. All the modern conveniences
that make my life easier and better. They are just there and I use them without
thinking day after day after day after day.
My grandmother had to make her own
soap. She used ashes from her fires and fat from the hogs slaughtered each year.
It certainly wasn’t Tide or Dove or available on the shelf of the local country
store. Grandma washed clothes in a much different way than my mother eventually
did and I do now. She boiled a vat of water, put the dirty clothes in, sloshed
them around for a bit with a stick, pulled them out one at a time and scrubbed
them on a scrub board. That was a wavy piece of metal set between wood edges.
Clean, the garment was then submerged into water again to remove the soap and
finally hung to dry on a clothes line.
I can certainly see why people back
then only bathed and changed their clothes once a week. If I had to go through
that today, you can be certain I wouldn’t be putting today’s clothes into the
hamper to be washed and dried at a later time.
My mother’s life was a bit easier, but
I can remember her using a washboard when we lived in Idaho. After we moved to
Seattle, she got a wringer washer, and once a week, she pulled it from its corner
in the kitchen and did laundry. In the summer, she hung the clothes and linens
outside in the sun. In the rainy winter, they were hung in a shed adjacent the
house. Still not easy-peasy. I don’t remember that changing until my parents
left that house. It was then she got the washer and dryer that I had immediately
available when I moved into my apartment. No washboard for me and I have taken
for granted my wonderful washer and dryer ever since.
I was just telling my granddaughter
last week that I’d never had a garbage disposal or a refrigerator that
dispensed ice and running water. I also told her I hadn’t and didn’t miss ever
having them. The dishwasher is a different story. I didn’t use it much until
after John passed away. He liked to do dishes and used Ivory bar soap as his
cleanser. He said it kept his hands soft…he did have very nice hands even
though he worked with them all the time. I didn’t like using Ivory bar soap. It
really didn’t cut the grease very well. When I did the dishes without using the
dishwasher, I used Dawn on my scrubber.
Once John died and I had to do the
dishes, I turned to the dishwasher. It has a half load cycle which is almost perfect.
Just last week, my walking partner told me about an express button…we have the
same dishwasher. That’s even better than the half load and only takes 30
minutes instead of an hour and 45 minutes. The dishes came out just as clean.
And, yes, I could do all my dishes by hand each and every day because there
aren’t many and I always wear rubber gloves.
Now, those rubber gloves are something
else I’ve always taken for granted. Can you imagine how harsh grandma’s lye
soap was on her hands and those of my mother when she became old enough to help.
They never ever wore rubber gloves no matter what they were doing. I have worn them
all my life…to do the dishes, to clean the house, to clean the bathroom, to
rinse out poopy diapers. I cannot imagine doing any of that without my trusty
gloves. My dad was a baker and told me there were some things you just had to
mush about with your bare hands. I have much thinner gloves for times like that.
About the only time I didn’t and don’t wear rubber gloves of any sort was to
wash myself or my children.
The warmth of my bathrobe has dissipated,
but I’m still not cold because of the central heat. I was born on the floor in
front of a fireplace because that was the only warm place in the house. I
remember the stoves in the two houses we lived in in Idaho. They didn’t provide
heat throughout the house and had metal pipes that carried the smoke to the
outside world. Those pipes got really hot and I have a scar somewhere on the
back of my left arm from scooting behind the stove and not making myself small
enough.
Once in Seattle, we had a furnace, but
the heat wasn’t piped to every single room. Instead, the furnace was beneath
the house and the heat came up through a couple of floor registers. Want to get
really warm…stand over that register in a long flannel nightie and let the hot
air blow up around your body. Of course, I got all the heat at that point and
it didn’t go anyplace else. I don’t really remember being cold in that house,
but I do remember ice forming on the inside of the single-paned windows.
My house came equipped with a furnace
and ductwork to each and every room. The only times I’ve been cold here is when
the power went out. The longest period was five days and it became sooooooooo
cold inside. I think the covers on my bed weighed more than I did. We used the
fireplace, but you were only warm in front of it and had to turn yourself as if
on a spit to warm both sides.
Mustn’t forget about the stove. I
would have preferred a gas stove, but an electric one works just fine. I
remember how my grandmother took care of the electric stove in her apartment.
It sparkled every single day because I think it was a revelation to her. If she
could see mine right now, she’d be appalled. The closest I’ve ever come to
cooking without a real stove is using a camp stove. Still, that’s not like
cooking over an open flame in order to feed ten or more people at one time. My
grandma was one tough woman.
What about the refrigerator and
freezer? Back in Tennessee, I believe they put perishables in the closest
running water. I even remember having a friend when I was very young who had an
actual ice box for a fridge. John remembered having ice delivered to his house
when he was young. Now, I just open a door and take out cold milk or vegetables
I bought several days ago, or jars of mayonnaise and mustard. No need to make a
batch each time I want a sandwich. John and I bought an upright freezer about
52 years ago. We’ve had it repaired just once in that time. I’m still using it,
and, knock wood, it will continue to keep my meat and berries and other stuff frozen
for some time to come.
I don’t have central air conditioning,
but if I do certain things early in the morning, the house remains pretty cool
on a hot day. Otherwise, I do have a window air conditioner I can actually put
in place myself. The heat doesn’t bother me as much as it did John…69 degrees
and cloudy was his idea of perfection. For the last decade or so, we always had
the window air conditioner in place in the living room for John’s comfort on
the days it was 70 plus degrees.
There are so many things I take for
granted, I could probably go on discussing them for pages and pages, i.e.,
wanting to can fruit and vegetables rather than having to do so for survival,
having the funds to purchase whatever I need from a store (or Amazon), being able to travel more than 50 miles in an hour or less, etc.,
etc., etc.
Today is Sunday, a day on which I was
raised to believe you gave thanks for all your blessings. And, I do, I do give
thanks for every single thing in my life that makes it easier and better, more
pleasurable and desirable, far more so than it was for the women who proceeded
me.