rec·ol·lect
ˌrekəˈlekt/
verb
remember (something); call to mind.
Do you remember sitting around listening to elderly people who talk about "back in the day" and say "Well, I recollect when...."
Well, today I recollect when.....
Laundry day was actually a whole day.... or two. Mom washed our clothes in a wringer washer. We had well water and it wasn't a very deep well so we had to watch how much water we ran in a day.
She had a galvanized tub that she used to put the rinse water in. She would fill it with cold water the night before so she would have enough water to wash the next day.
No spin cycle on a wringer washer. So you had to literally run them through the ringer as many times as it took to get all the water out after washing. (by the way, this is a stock photo, not my mom).
Then you had to swing the wringer portion over your rinse tub, rinse them by hand and run them through the wringer again.
Then you would go out and hang them on the line to dry.
Once they were dry you "brought them in" to be ironed and/or folded. I remember her having a sprinkler bottle and there were certain things she would sprinkle and then put them in a pile and tie them up in a tablecloth and put them in the refrigerator. Apparently, keeping them cold helped get the wrinkles out when she ironed.
She always ironed in the living room while we watched Hazel, Pete & Gladys or Dick Van Dyke.
And if it was something like dress shirts or our pretty little dresses, she would use Niagara Spray Starch.
So doing laundry was a two day sprint, not just "toss a load in...do something...move it to dryer...do something else...fold and put away" like it is today.
So yes, I recollect when laundry took more than a day. But I also recollect that her efforts were all worth it because we made a fine looking family.
