Re: [Cz-L] Prima Laundry

Thanks Mimi for the details:
Water softener - the soft water was called "a Loig" from the German "Lauge"
( a lye in English).
  You took ashes from the oven, tied them in a cloth bag and submerged this
into a pail of water overnight. You could also use caustic soda.
Hardy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3_at_bezeqint.net>; <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Prima Laundry

>I am sure that I heard the name Spiegelblatt, from my mother and definitely
> not in connection to laundry. Does anyone in our list know of other
> Spiegelblatts? I think I heard about "Die Spiegelblatt", which would have
> meant that Mrs. Spiegelblatt was of some renown or importance, like
> Dr. Samet, was "die Samet".
> In the 1934 address book, there are two Spiegelblatt families, but in the
> 1936 address book, there are none.
>
> As to laundry:
>
> Families did not take their laundry to a shop, this would have been
> considered "nisht balebatish" ( not proper from a good housekeeping point
> of
> view). Those families who could afford it, had a washer-woman, who came
> once every two weeks and usually spent two, three days washing and
> ironing.
> First the laundry was soaked in water for at least one night. Then it was
> wrung out, boiled in water containing washing soda, taken out of the
> boiling
> water, still steaming, with the help of a wooden stick, then it was soaped
> and washed on a washing board, wrung out again, then it was rinsed in cold
> water and wrung out yet again, then rinsed again in water containing
> starch
> and a solution of a blue dye. The starch, usually was potato starch,
> obtained from grated potatoes and had to be rinsed and cooked before it
> was
> used.
> Then the laundry was hung to dry in the attic. When it was dry it was
> taken
> down, sprinkled with water, rolled up, so it would become uniformly damp
> and
> then it was ironed. Mostly, the irons were of the old fashioned variety,
> into which hot coals from the stove had to be put.
> I remember that we did have an electric iron, but it seemed to break down
> very frequently. My father would take it apart and fix it and I liked to
> look at the mica and asbestos, which were in it.
>
> Mimi

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Received on 2010-05-08 12:05:06