Washboards and hamestraps and kraut cutters

We really don't even think about getting a pair of clothes dirty today, when washing them is so simple. We sort the clothes according to color and then deposit the same colors in the automatic washing machine. Then put in the correct amount of soap and press the right buttons, and the clothes come out clean and spun dry and ready for the dryer. Simple.

When I came along, Mom had an old manual electric wringer washing machine. Mom would heat the water on the stove and dump it in the washing machine. I'm guessing but it probably held 10 to 15 gallons of water. To get the water meant pumping the hand pump. No turning on a spigot. Mom would put some soap in the wash tub and in went the dirty clothes. Mom would turn the beater on, which would agitate the clothes and get them clean. Then Mom ran them through the wringer into a rinse tub. They sat in the rinse tub a while and then through the wringer into another rinse tub. Then through the wringer one more time and they were ready for the clothes line. It took a while to wash clothes back then.

But before then, there was a washboard. It was about 16 inches wide by 2 feet tall. On the board was a pattern of ridges where you worked the clothes over by hand. I would imagine back then the women used lye soap. It was flat work. Every piece of clothes had to be worked on the washboard. From there the clothes went into rinse tubs and wring by hand and then again into a rinse tub. Then the final wring it out by hand and then on the clothes line.

In the summer, the clothes would dry out real quick, especially if there was a breeze. But in the winter, the clothes would freeze on the line. Frozen pants and shirts and towels and cloth diapers were all hanging there frozen. How they dried, I'll never know. After coming into the house I'd imagine they finished drying over chairs and such.

Several weeks ago, we drove up west of Marble Hill, Missouri, and bought a couple Jersey steers. When we got off the blacktop we had to drive on a gravel road that was really bumpy. It was washboardy. And honestly I don't know if the washboard got its name from the road or vice versa. I know growing up we said a bumpy road was washboards. Probably a good number of the younger folks have never heard of a washboard.

Kind of like a kraut board. It was about a foot wide by 20 inches long. It had a knife-like band fixed to the board so that when you slid a head of cabbage across the board it would slice a thin layer of cabbage off. As you sliced these narrow bands off, you'd sprinkle some salt on them and tamp them into an old crock. After tamping them down layer by layer you'd make sure there was liquid over the cabbage. I usually weight the cabbage down. After 4 to 6 weeks one has sour kraut. Today many use a food processor. The old-timers used a kraut cutter. An old kraut cutter would take a slice off you if you weren't careful.

There are times I'm needing a part so I usually go to the hardware stores and look up guys, such as Ronnie or Donnie. I've gone into the stores after a part, and I really don't know what to call the part. So I go in for a "whatcamacallit" or a "dohikey" that fits on a "gizmo" and somehow they figure out what I need. So I leave with the part knowing what it's even called. Most every town had a hardware store like this. The owners might not have known a lot about anything, but they knew a little about everything.

When I was little, Dad got a gray mare from where my brother-in-law, Duane, worked. She had kind of a bum knee so they told Duane to just shoot her. He couldn't so we got her. I decided to ride her and I was little. So I found a leather strap about two feet long and two inches wide with a buckle on one end. I figured out how to hook a cinch to the strap so I had a kind of rudimentary bareback rig. It kind of worked. I didn't have a clue what the strap was. Turns out it was a hamestrap off a work harness for horses Never had a clue.

Back a few years we were over in Illinois junk shopping and I dug up a kind of green pouch about 3 by 2 by 10 inches. Inside were some neat tools. Some boxed-end wrenches and a couple screwdrivers and some tire tools. Always wondered if it was a tool kit in some old car. I know some of the old cars were prone to flat tires so you had to be prepared. Knowing how to fix a flat was required. I have kind of researched the kit but don't have a clue what it's called.

I'll never forget watching them fix a flat when I was little. They cleaned off the spot on the inside of the tire where the puncture was, put some glue on the spot followed by a patch, ran some kind of wheeled rig over the patch then lit it on fire. They must have known what they were doing cause it worked. Man what those old-timers could have done with a few gallons of green slime tire sealer. I know the tire guys don't like the slime, but it sure works on small pin hole size leaks.

Everybody has a different vocabulary and a way of talking. Somebody from the Bronx speaks different then someone from Cajun country or Southern Missouri. I sometimes watch a Cajun cook make some pots, and at times I don't have a clue what he's saying. And there are times when he mixes up the words, and it's like he is talking backward. But it's his way of talking. At times he talks about spices that I've never heard of.

John Wesley had a personal limit of something like 300 words that he used to preach with. He made sure to limit his vocabulary so that even uneducated miners and workers could understand his preaching. At times I think some talk and write using a vocabulary meant to impress rather than to educate. I'm on a couple sites on Facebook that speak to impress rather than educate and communicate. Big difference. Actually I think it's sad.

What all of us don't like is having someone talk down to us. What I do like is having someone visit with, especially over a cup of coffee.