Monday - it rained quite a bit
Tuesday - I was busy with laundry, and being eco friendly with my washing water.
Wednesday - more water -Bob went to have a quick shower - and I suddenly heard a plaintive voice "Ang, I need some help!" I dashed into the bathroom, and found one very wet husband, standing in the
Thursday - I knelt by the bath and washed my hair using water in a plastic jug. I can't remember when I last did that!
Today- David-The-Deacon is coming round to fit a new shower for us.
Bless has commented about laundry in her youth - and I remember my Mum, boiling the copper, and turning the mangle. And then handwashing clothes at Uni, and putting them through a spin dryer. Newlywed I had a tiny secondhand machine which had to be filled and emptied with a jug - and then rinsing was done in the bath.
And as for bodies - in my childhood, it was a bath once a week, and a 'strip-wash' at the basin on the other days. And sharing the bath with my baby brother. In 1979 we had a rubber shower attachment which pushed onto the taps- but I think I was in my 30s before I lived anywhere with a proper plumbed-in shower.
How times have changed!
I remember the first time I saw the baptism pool under the floor at the chapel I went to as a child - I was amazed as I had no idea it was there.
ReplyDeleteLooks a very happy occasion
It was wonderful - I forgot to mention the excellent refreshments which followed the service- and everyone stayed to chat. Children are always fascinated to discover there is a hidden pool under the chapel carpet!
DeleteI didn't live with a proper shower in my house until I was 32& married. We had a mixer tap shower fitted when I was 21 but the water pressure was so egregiously low that, unless you were having a freezing shower, nothing came out if you turned the tap hotter. I got to know the freezing showers well in the 4months leading up to my wedding as the boiler had broken & the repair jobs kept going wrong. My wedding day, I showered at a friend's house!
ReplyDeleteHope yours is fixed soon.
I meant to write this yesterday but when I lived in Indonesia, I had to do all my washing in a big plastic bowl with washing powder & cold water as my accommodation only had cold water. I dreaded laundry day. Everything was so hot and sweaty as well as dusty due to the climate there and dusty roads-it was always a nightmare. The one time I took my big bathing towel to the Laundry, it was so wonderful to receive it back washed and smelling sweet! It was a luxury I couldn't afford regularly.
P.S. apparently my Mum's grandparents (or maybe Great-great?)were very affluent and had servants. It is very weird to think of this!
ReplyDeleteI remember when my Mother 'graduated' from the mangle (trapped fingers were an occupational hazard) to a twin tub. She'd put it on in the morning when we went to school and was still at it when we came home for lunch!!She thought she was the bees knees when her new automatic washing machine was plumbed in eventually!
ReplyDeleteI had a twin tub when Steph was a baby - and the terry towelling nappies had to be laundered every day. I could have done with a mangle to wring them out!
DeleteHope you have your new shower fixed, now, Angela.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting (I think) to read about how water plays such an important role in so many religions.
You are right, Bless. Washing/cleansing is such an important symbol, and also the quenching of thirst. Thank you for reminding us
DeleteA drop fell on the apple tree
ReplyDeleteAnother on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,
And made the gables laugh.
A few went out to help the brook,
That went to help the sea.
Myself conjectured, Were they pearls,
What necklaces could be!
The dust replaced in hoisted roa
The birds jocoser sung;
The sunshine threw his hat away,
The orchards spangles hung.
The breezes brought dejected
And bathed them in the glee;
The East put out a single flag,
And signed the fete away.
Emily Dickinson
That's a great poem, Philip. I like Emily D's stuff, but I had not come across that one before. Thank you. The original "Water, water everywhere" came from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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