DailySusan Humor Blog

WIFESTYLES, THEN VS. NOW

Somebody gave me a cookbook and storybook about the life of a southwest Iowa farm wife in the 1940s and '50s. ''Up a Country Lane Cookbook'' by Evelyn Birkby (University of Iowa Press, 1993) is a real kick in the pants to us high-tech softies who think housework is hard. HAH!

For Evelyn, Monday was always laundry day. She used a square-tub Maytag on her back porch with an attached wringer and two rinse tubs. She ran a hose out to it from the kitchen sink. She had to lift each piece out by hand, with a broomstick, to the wringer to get the soapy water out of each garment. Then she used the same broomstick in the rinse tub to slosh everything up and down in the hot rinse, and again in the cold.

She used the same wash and rinse water over and over again, so she started with the bedsheets, moved through the towels, dishcloths, Sunday shirts, children's clothes, colored things and finally her farmer husband's workclothes.

She cooked her own starch, and wrung it out of each garment by hand before attaching it all to the clothesline to dry. Then she'd fold everything and sprinkled the cottons to dampen them for ironing the next day.

Now imagine doing that laundry routine on a typical February day in the Midlands, on the unheated porch and windswept, below-freezing farmstead. Imagine the weird shapes the clothes would make as they froze on the clothesline. She called them ''icicle scarecrows.''

Next time I feel like whining about my housework, I'm going to think about Evelyn Birkby. Next time I gripe about having to go to the grocery store, I'm going to remember how she had to come up with chicken dinners – the ''do it yourself'' way.

I will never again use the expression ''dancing around like a chicken with its head cut off'' without a little gulp, and a lot of gratitude that this is now, and that was then.

Cluck, cluck! I would have made a horrible housewife back then. I'm a . . . CHICKEN!

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Prayer Request: Praise, thanks and a wink to our heavenly Father today. Remember our prayer a few days ago, that a young lady in Colorado would receive clear guidance on whether the young man in her life is ''the'' one? Money woes seemed to be the stressor. Well, the very next day after she asked for prayer, the young man got a promotion and a raise. She's elated. Well, well, well. Love is in the air . . . and prayer is amazing. (Hebrews 4:16)