Loved this, Vee!! As a little girl in the 50's (ya, I'mm a "baby") I can recall each Monday morning rushing to get up & dressed so I could help Mormor (my mother's mother - 'member, my husband's the PD, I'm 1/2 Swedish!!) do her "vash"! We lived upstairs in a 2-family home in Hartford CT. Your rendition is just about the way things were done in her house, also!! And yes, almost EVERYTHING was ironed - even down to Morfar's union suits (don't remember the socks, though)! Yes, that was Tuesday! Anyone recall that great new clothesline invention? The line was 2 metal wires which would twist together. You would "pinch" your clothes as the line twisted! No need for clothespins!! It REALLY hurt when you got your finger stuck inbetween the wires, also! In the late summer, Mormor would make her "yelly" (I'd always joke with her about her "j's"! She had been here over 50 years & STILL couldn't get them right, so she used the "y"!) Currant jelly was the most common. I recall helping her to twist the cheesecloth to drain all the yummy juice from the berries. Then melting the wax to seal the jars. Her baked goods were the BEST! She kept her flour in a huge crock in the pantry. The bullas (a sweet yeast bun drizzled with 10X sugar/milk mixture) were the family favorite. I have many of Mormor's recipes. Mom had to "follow her around" with paper & pencil to get the ingredients/amounts, since it was all in her head! Both of my sons like the platte (Swedish pancakes) - that recipe's in my head!! Oh yes, she always had to watch her "sketches"!! I recall a few (if not all) were still the 15-minute variety on early TV. Mormor didn't sew (Moster Hilma had that talent! - that's her sister: Moster = "mother's sister". Aren't some foreign languages wonderfully explicit!?!) But Mormor taught me to knit, crochet & do many other needlecrafts (which I have gotten away from lately due to this research!!) Thanks again, Vee, for bringing back some fond memories!! -Linnea >MONDAY WAS WARSH DAY! > >This evening as I was ironing an accumulation of cotton tablecloths, >linen napkins and the like, it brought my mind back to my growing up in >the 1930s and 40s. Back in those days, housewives had a set >routine--looking back on it, I swear it must have been the law! > >Monday: Do the wash (or as Grandma pronounced it, warsh!) >Tuesday: Iron the clothes >Wednesday: Bake the bread >Thursday: Go to market?? (OK, Im lost here!) >