Reckitt’s Blue and cardinal Red
My post today is inspired by Haiku Heights prompt word ‘Pride’. It took me back to my childhood in the 1940s when women were expected to go back to being proud housewives so that the men returning from the war could do the ‘real’ jobs, which women had done perfectly well while they were away fighting. The housewives did this for a while, taking pride in spotlessly clean washing hanging on the line, and beautifully kept homes, which took all day to clean.
Lines of white sheets hung
over cobbled stone streets, when
Monday was washday
Do you remember Reckitt’s Blue?
I do as I grew up in the North of England in the 1940s when every woman worth her salt would boil wash her sheets to within an inch of their lives every Monday morning. There were no washing machines, and no kitchen in our houses. We had a tiny scullery with a sink and a gas cooker, a couple of cupboards and a copper for doing the washing. The sheets, always white in those days, would be boiled in a ‘copper’ and agitated with a ‘dolly’ before being rinsed in Reckitt’s Blue to make them gleam. They then had to be wrung out in a hand operated mangle or wringer as there were no spinners then. The earlier you got your washing out, and the whiter it was, the better housewife you were considered to be. It really was a source of pride, and the housewives were terribly competitive! Women used to get up really early to start the washing as it took ages to boil the water. Washing could take all day so lunch was a quick scratch affair. In our house it was usually Sunday’s left overs and chips. These were a real treat and to this day I can’t hear a tune played by Mantovani without thinking of chips as he was always on the wireless on Monday lunchtimes.
Living in a ‘back to back’ terraced house, we didn’t have a garden, just a yard with a coal house and lavatory in it. So washing was hung out to dry on lines stretched across the cobbled front street with poles to hold it up. I remember clearly as a child that whenever a doctor’s car, or an ambulance, wanted to visit a neighbour, all the women had to get their washing in and take down the lines so the car could pass! No-one else in our area had a car so the only time we saw one was when a doctor came to the street. For years I thought only doctors had cars and telephones.
The history of Reckitt’s Blue is fascinating and if you want to read all about it click on this link.
Cardinal Red Polish was another thing I remember my mum using. She would paint it on the tiles on our front doorstep and polish it thoroughly ‘til it shone. It had to be really well polished and dry otherwise it would be walked into the house if you stepped on it.
At the front door she
Knelt and shone to perfection
Her gleaming stone step.
My childhood took place in the North of England. I remember that to use Red Cardinal Polish on your doorstep, was a bit posh ! A lot of folk cleaned and coloured their doorsteps with a sandstone , Donkey Stone.
It was fun reading your memories.
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Those were the days!
No Pride of Lions
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Yes thank goodness they have gone! x
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Don’t know these products, but growing up in Brooklyn, NY, wash lines hung everywhere. Wonderful scent.
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Sounds terribly exotic to me “growing up in Brooklyn! Felling does not have the same ring! It is a mystery and a matter of luck where we are born and why, but I loved the North of England and now I love the Cotswolds so I have been very fortunate.
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You have indeed, and I now live in Portland, Oregon,
and love it.
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My daughter Lisa Smith Edry goes to Portland, Oregon every year to run USElite Ski Camps with her husband David Edry. They usually live in Vermont. Lisa says Portland is the most beautiful place and she would love to live there x
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I love the antique look of it… not familiar at all.
Eliz
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It was a long time ago when i lived in the North, all the women would polish their steps til they gleamed ~ no gardens there to fuss over so the step was the sign of welcome x
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I love both the haiku and the essay. I am a wee bit younger than you and grew up in the U.S. so I don’t remember but can identify. I especially love the notion of polishing the doorstep tiles. I remember hanging laundry and how fresh it would smell.
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Ah yes, I don’t think there is anything nicer than fresh washing straight in off thew line ~ apart from a baby’s hair after a bath!! I say that because I have been cuddling my grandson Stanley who is now a grand old 9 weeks old!
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Awww, sweet!
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Great Haiku, as usual. You kow I still use blue in washing my white stuff at home. I don’t own a washing machine just yet because I want my boys to learn how to wash. 🙂
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Wow I’m impressed that you manage without a machine x and even more impressed that you are bringing your boys up to help out and be independent! Good for you ~ they will thank you one day and so will their wives!
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My Mom had a wringer washer, hung the sheets on the line to dry in the sun and then they were ironed! Thanks for the memories!
P.S. I TAKE GREAT PRIDE in the fact I no longer iron ANYTHING – keep throwing the little wrinkled suckers back into the wash until they decide to come out wrinkle free.
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Brilliant x When I was working I waited until the ironing basket was full then I put it in the loft and got another one!
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How delightful to read about the old days when pride in a clean house was the norm! Lovely post and haiku!
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Thank you x I am so glad we have mod cons to help us today ~ it was a hard life for our mothers x
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On work–it’s nice to see, though, that we’ve readjusted the course somewhat, for the better! Bit more gender equity in place; long road ahead, no doubt.
Oh–just finished the floors, the bathroom and have the 2nd load of laundry in :>) No Reckitts here.
Speaking of which, my last encounter with BB was back in Killester, Dublin. Was out on the soccer pitch and took a sip from a bottle of cola. Yellow jacket flew up and out of the bottle and stung the inside of my cheek. One of the worst feelings! My grandmother soothed the HUGE bump with a bit of BB.
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Sounds dreadful ~ my daughter licked an ice lolly which had a wasp on it when she was 5 ! It stung her on her tongue which swelled dreadfully.
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LOL–it was at least 40 years ago and I can still feel it! Bet your daughter could say the same :>)
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Great reflections on the 40s.
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Thanks, I remember it werll and could go on all day but I guess that would bore my readers!!!
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Yes, I remember both these products and my grandmother’s house with its copper and coal store. My mother served up some of the meat left from the Sunday joint on Monday too, but we didn’t get chips very often! More likely bubble and squeek. This took me back to my childhood… what hard work it was being a housewife in those days.
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It sure was but looking back it seems life was simpler ~ if harder! My dad used to cycle 10 miles to work at the shipyards in those days ~ we hardly ever saw him as he worked so hard. But he still took me for walks in the dark to tell me all about the constellations. My hero!
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My Dad cycled to work also and he used to show me the stars through a telescope he had made 🙂
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Brilliant to make a telescope, see my latest blog ~ I’ve been learning about the Universe of Stars!
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