When I was growing up in the 1930’s and 40’s, we usually washed our dishes in a dishpan full of hot sudsy water on the kitchen cabinet. On cooler days, we set the dishpan on top of the wood cook stove which kept our dish water hot all of the time. Our water was heated in two teakettles on the back of our wood cook stove. The soap we used to wash dishes and our clothes was called P&G (Proctor and Gamble) It was in a solid block about half the size of a brick with a blue and white wrapper with a large "P & G" written on it. We always washed the glasses first then the china and silverware. Last of all, we washed the pots and pans. As the dishes were washed, we placed them in another dishpan and used steaming hot water from a tea kettle to sterilize or “scald” them, as Mama called it. Mama never let the dishes drain dry, so we dried them with a tea towel made from flour sacks. Some were embroidered with the days of the week and some had unfinished raw edges. The dish towels were most absorbent when they were well worn. Our dish "rags" were just that; rags from everything from dress or shirt tails to old worn bath or hand towels. Our floor mops were made from the same materials. Only the wealthier people had store bought dish cloths and mop heads. I liked the bath towel remnants best as they held more water and had a better scrubbing power. The dress and shirt tails were smooth and did not pick up or remove soil like the terry cloth rags did. We often used the dish rinse water to mop the floors as well as the rinse water from washday. We also kept a slop bucket in the kitchen where all of the food scraps and dishwater was dumped. Then, it was fed to the pigs. Mama told us the lye in the soap that we used to wash our dishes helped get rid of the pig's internal parasites. Nowadays, a dishwasher eliminates of all of this old fashioned hand labor. I rarely use rubber gloves and am glad I have the convenience of my dishwasher that helps keep my hands from chapping.

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Created December 19, 2020

Updated: 14 June, 2021

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