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

Reckitt’s Blue

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.

Cardinal Red Polish

Inspired by Haiku Heights ~ Rescue 2

We recently rescued a moth that had fallen in the sink.  Gently picking it up so as not to damage those delicate wings. We placed it on the garden table to dry out.  Within seconds a robin swooped and ate it!  Fleeting freedom, poor thing.

Trapped in the water

Translucent winged moth, rescued

Fleeting freedom tastes

In Somerset the beaches are sandy but there is always the hidden danger of quicksand.  Lifeboats are of no help when people or animals are stuck in the quicksand so the coastguard service has two Hovercraft.  They are often called out to rescue children, adults, animals, jetskis, fishing boats ~ and even each other!  Read my previous post for more on this!!

Sinking in quicksand

Real danger of drowning as

High tide rushes in

My fear of swimming stems I believe from the time I fell in the North sea.  I was 10 years old walking along the cliffs when I just slipped in the mud, fell down the cliff and straight into the sea.  I still remember the feeling of sinking deeper and deeper into the dark water where I got tangled up in the weeds.  My brave uncle saved me, but I have never liked being out of my depth since then!

Ropes and weeds held me

In the depths and the darkness

Before rescue came

I watched Life of Pi recently and thoroughly enjoyed it in 3D.  With a bit of poetic licence I added in icebergs!

Iceberg splintered wood

Cast adrift from the wreckage

Praying for rescue

There is carnage on our roads in the Cotswolds; badgers, foxes, deer, pheasants, hedgehogs ~ and tragically, sometimes children or cyclists.  We have wonderful rescue services to deal with the aftermath.

Picked up by police

On the side of the road

Orphaned by traffic