Warshing Recipe

[easyspindry]

“Warshing" Clothes Recipe.........

Never thought of a "warsher" in this light before..what a blessing!
"Warshing Clothes Recipe" -- imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !
Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe: this is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -
with spelling errors and all.

WARSHING CLOTHES Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water. Sort things, make 3 piles 1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.
Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs.. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
================================================
Paste this over your washer and dryer Next time when you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks.. First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer.
For you non-southerners - wrench means, rinse

 

[turquoisedude]

I think I can remember seeing this a magazine DECADES ago... Thanks for sharing it and refreshing the memory!!

 

[davek]

Washer

Early washer ads are always full of obvious hyperbole about what a chore washing was and how easy an automatic washer is. Except that it's not hyperbole and every bit of it is true.

A few years ago, I had moved into an apartment that a friend had to leave, and she gave me the Kenmore Limited Edition set that was in it. The washer promptly broke (fried digital board) and I was quoted a horrible price to fix them. I replaced it with a shiny new Whirlpool Ultimate Care II. Between it and my big JVC TV, I was living high on a low hog. I had never owned a washer, and this was my first real carpeted apartment with nice stuff and everything.

I was a substitute teacher, too. I remember having some down time, and a student asked me (in front of all the others) "what's the coolest thing you own?" I told them that I had recently made 2 $400 purchases- a JVC TV and a Whirlpool washer. I told them that if someone came to the door with a gun and said "we're taking the TV or the washer," I would've helped them load the TV. That's how big a difference it makes to have a washer.

I went a while without one again, and now have my little portable. I still don't take it for granted. Whoever invented the automatic washer deserved the Nobel Prize. Some nights, in some homes, the Nobel Peace Prize as well.

 

[gyrafoam]

"wrench" indeed-------

The true pronunciation is more like "rainch".
More importantly, southerners do not typically refer to "wash" as "warsh" so I am immediately suspect of the "Alabama" origin of this recipie. Now I know lots of Northern folks that do pronounce it that way!

Where did this come from?

 

[gyrafoam]

Oh, and Southerners "bole" water they do not "boil" it.

 

[brisnat81]

Thats exactly how my Grandmother did it up until the 60's. The copper was located in a wash house on the side of the shed with two concrete laundry tubs and the wood fired copper. There was a cold tap with a hose on it to fill the copper and tubs.

By the time I came along, only the copper was left at the edge of the fernery and it was used for making Tomato Sauce.

Mum spent many years as a small child turning the hand crank on the wringer as my Grandmother fed the clothes through.

They didnt get a washing machine until the mid 60's when they got a semi auto front loader.

 

[easyspindry]

I knew a lady from Kentucky that "warshed" and "rinched" her clothes.

Jerry Gay

 

[dblrinz]

Here in Pittsburgh

Well, we "worsh" our clothes OR do the worshin' OR hang "ot" da worshin'...

 

[whirlcool]

I think the Warsh may be Appalachian in origin. Maybe the family grew up in eastern Kentucky or Tennessee and later moved to Alabama? I have heard Warsh used in Arkansas before east of Memphis.

 

[mixergal]

Warsh

I hear "warsh" for wash and "wrench" for rinse up here in Michigan a lot - mostly by the old Poles and Germans.....and those of us who grew up in a Polish household

-Sherri

 

[imperialmarkxii]

Warshing Stories

And... Eventually came the "Ringer Warsher" Hot Damn LOL!

If you were lucky, there might even be a piece of Chawklet cake to go w/ that cup o' tea. ... at the end of the warsh day, of course. HA HA !!

-Russell

 

[dblrinz]

Wringer Washer

My grandmother and great aunts called these Conventional Washers or usually just The Conventional...Most of these women used these until the mid to late 60's.

 

[everythingold]

a lot of warshing up bear in West Virginia. Never figured out the "up bear" origin but that's what they say in the WV panhandle.