Sunday, Day of Rest ( Chapter 5 My Story)

Sundays tended to be washing and ironing day, that is  providing the weather was fine. The copper was filled with water, which meant a couple of journeys to collect the water with the milk churn. A fire was built and lit underneath the copper, soap and the dirty washing put into it. When the water was  boiling , my brother and I took up our positions with the ponch agitating the washing as hard as we could. In  the mean time my mother had prepared the irons, ready to do the ironing. The ironing was usually done outside, as she had at her disposal two types of iron. The first being the flat iron, made of cast iron it wa placed on the fire until red hot. The iron was then slipped into a tin sleeve, so that the clothes did not get burnt, and this would be used as long as the iron remained hot. This required a number of irons in the fire in order to ensure that a smooth progress could be maintained. The second type of iron was the charcoal iron, this had a little fire grate inside the body of the iron, this was filled with charcoal which when fully lit would keep the sole plate of the iron hot. This iron was the reason for being outside as it had a tendancy to belch smoke and soot particles every where. Both these irons were eventually superceded by a calor gas fired iron. Other duties on a Sunday was the disposal of the toilet efluent. This entailed the carrying of the toilet tub to a spot some way from the house. the digging of a hole and burrying the contents. i assure you this was not our favorite task.Althogh Peter and i did find it worked well for us one sunday. We had visitors, a friend of my mothers from manchester. she had a particularly nauseating daughter who was dressed in a white frilly dress. We were told to go outside and play, which we did, choosing to play where we had buried the toilet. Needless to say she found it, her not being privy to it's where abouts,  the advantage that we had.