Spring Cleaning.............

I have done this before but have a few more followers now, I will try to make it a bit different. Those of us of a certain age (you know who you are) will remember some of the things I am going to talk about. The rest of you, be very happy you didn't have to do this. Having said that even though work was hard for women, for men too for that matter, it was a more peaceful time. After the war...............ah I got so sick of that phrase "Before the war" "after the war" and in my naive selfishness of a child I didn't realize just how much of a chunk of their lives was taken in that war. More than years. My Dad was a POW in Japan. My mum didn't know for a couple of years if he was alive or dead, and he was "not the same man who came back" ..........how could he be? Well......they settled into a council house in what was then a small village. Mum worked and I stayed with neighbours before and after school until she returned. All the ladies on Bidwell Hill (where we lived) had much the same way of life. None of us knew we were poor. We originated the Shabby in Chic. People cared and looked out for each other.
The rites of Spring.........open the windows, wash the curtains, wash the windows.


Washing windows consisted of wiping on some pink windolene paste and waiting for it to dry. Usually done when the curtains were taken down and removed when ready to go back up. We are talking of the white lace curtains everyone had back then. Drive up any road ( if you could, no one had cars back then) and you would see them in almost every window.


I suppose before they did any of this it would be best to get the chimney swept.

most fires were coal fires until coak came about, that burned longer apparently. The coal man would deliver to the house.

The combination of coal dust and cigarette smoke, everyone smoked back then it seemed. Very few people did not. It made for an unhealthy living condition for most people, combine that with the dampness. If you took the pictures off the wall you would see the new looking paper under it. Yes, everyone seemed to wallpaper, simply because it added insulation maybe. Who knows, but the combination of patterns left a lot to be desired if you ask me. Patterned carpet, patterned curtains, patterned wallpaper and then patterned furniture with patterned cushions. OMG.
Laundry done by hand in water boiled on the stove was a once a week chore, but there would be more when doing the Spring cleaning. Bedding, you know, blankets and so on had to be done. No dry cleaning back then. If you could afford it that stuff could go to the laundry. Mum worked in a laundry for awhile. I know what they mean by sweat shops. Baby nappies (diapers) were cloth and boiled up on the stove in a large pan. I was still doing that in 1971 when we came here to the states.




All of those were daily chores and to wash in the morning we would boil the water in the pan on the stove. Dad did that because he got up first. I can remember my grandmothers life and suspect it was harder than mums, but not a lot changed until the 1960s. As I said, I was still doing things in the 1970s just as my mother did. Spring cleaning is still something I like to get done, but as I get older its harder to make the effort. Rather than wash walls, I would rather paint them.