Washing dishes in the days before dishwashers or even before running water was a rather tedious job. The water had to be drawn from a well and brought into the house in buckets. If one were fortunate enough to have a built-in reservoir on the cookstove, it was filled with water which got hot while the food was being cooked. In the absence of a reservoir, a teakettle or large pot was filled with water and placed on top of the stove in order for the water be hot, ready when the meal was finished.
When the food was put away after a meal, two deep round pans were placed on the table and these were filled with hot water. One was used for washing the dishes, and the other was used for rinsing them. My mother liked to pile the washed dishes in an empty pan until it was full and then pour boiling hot water over them. This was supposed to do a better job of sanitizing the dishes, but it was hardly a job for a young person to try.
Usually, two people took care of the dishwashing job. One would wash and rinse the dishes while another would dry them and put them away. By the time the job was finished, the dishwater often had a thick scum of grease on top of it, the rinse water was cold and soapy and the drying cloths were so wet that the last dishes could hardly be called dry. It is incredible to think that we survived such unsanitary methods. Surely we must have become immunized against those germs as we lived with them day in and day out!
Once a first cousin and I were spending some time at our grandparents’ house, and after supper, we were drying the dishes as Granny washed them. One minute we were laughing and talking as we worked and I was enjoying the comradery when suddenly it all came crashing in around me.
Without warning, my grandmother informed me in a very disapproving manner that my cousin was drying two dishes to my one! No doubt she was literally correct, but the implied message that I was purposefully not doing my share was far from my intentions. I was shocked and hurt to have been so misunderstood. For the first time, I had been made aware that my natural pace of physical activity was very slow in comparison to others, but that reality has reared its head many times since, just as it did when I was picking cotton beside my younger brother.
When I tried to go to sleep that night, I confided the hurt feelings to my cousin, and her understanding helped ease the homesickness that had come over me.
I remember nothing else about that visit to Granny’s, but typically, whenever grandchildren stayed with her, she liked to keep them busy. When all the farm work or housework was done, she would bring out her journals full of stories and proverbs to have us make copies for ourselves. She had taught school in her home as a young woman, and her assortment of materials was an interesting one.
Most stories were used not only for teaching or practicing writing, but they were designed, also, to teach morals and manners for acceptable daily conduct. The kind of humor in many of them would be called “silly” by today’s standards, but they were useful tools for the times, if for no other reason than to give “idle hands” something to do.
Another of Granny’s favorite things for children to do was to learn to knit. It was fun to try, but holding two long slender needles and moving yarn off of one onto the other as more yarn was added each time was too awkward for me then, and I find it still so today. Granny, on the other hand, taught several others, and she, herself, knitted everything from yards of lace edging for curtains and pillowcases and doilies of all sizes to full-sized tablecloths and bedspreads.
Visits to my grandparents’ farm were usually very pleasant. Much time was spent preparing and enjoying the things that grew on the farm. Fruit trees gave us cherries, peaches, pears, apples and persimmons and grapevines yielded big bunches of sweet, juicy grapes. The garden held a bounty of good, healthful food, and the smell of bacon and hams curing in the smokehouse let us know we would not starve. Maybe that nutritious food is what gave us the power to fight off all those germs that slipped past our dishwashing attempts!
Each child is born with special abilities that need to be discovered and developed. To compare and judge one with another is not appropriate and can only result in negative feelings or behaviors in those of the less favorable position.
