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The laundry was washed in a big vessel; and there was a woman, who - I think - came once in a month, and washed all the dirty laundry. She washed it in a tub, it was made of wood. The day before we soaked the laundry, and when she came, she started to wash in the morning, well, she was washing the whole day long. The washerwoman, Aunt Anna her name was, was an old Szekler woman. I tell you honestly I always felt sorry for her having to wash so much laundry in one day. I always helped her, once I had grown up a little.
Back then the practice was that we boiled the white laundry, the bed-linen - as at that time there was only white bed-linen, we didn't have any colored ones - in a big washing pot on the kitchen stove. We didn't have any other detergent, only washing-soda. After that we rinsed it in the streamlet. There was a streamlet in front of the house, and there was one on the other side of the street too. The streamlet had a quite speedy course, we made a dip into the streamlet, so that the laundry could be shaken there, and since it was running water, the water was replaced continuously. One could wash the laundry so well there that it turned snow- white.
Then we blued and starched the laundry. It was called washing-blue ultramarine; one could buy it in small bottles. The woman put water into the tub, added a few drops of the ultramarine washing-blue, and then she poured in the starch we had dissolved previously. The starch was available in pieces, not as a powder. Certainly one could buy it in my father's shop too. These pieces of starch had an interesting shape. We mixed the washing- blue and the starch with water, and we got light blue water, and then we put the white clothes, the bed-linen and the table-clothes into that. At that time we used only white table-clothes at meals, because we didn't have any other.
Afterwards we wrung it out and hung the laundry in the loft. It was very difficult to go up with the laundry basket, because a steep stair led up there. This part was the hardest. I was dragging the laundry basket from one step to the other, and somehow I arrived up there - I had opened the loft's door previously, so that when I got there, I could put in the basket directly before entering myself. Wires were put up in the loft, and I hung the laundry there. I remember that when I was a little older, it was rather me who carried the laundry up to the loft, like Attila Jozsef's mother.
Back then the practice was that we boiled the white laundry, the bed-linen - as at that time there was only white bed-linen, we didn't have any colored ones - in a big washing pot on the kitchen stove. We didn't have any other detergent, only washing-soda. After that we rinsed it in the streamlet. There was a streamlet in front of the house, and there was one on the other side of the street too. The streamlet had a quite speedy course, we made a dip into the streamlet, so that the laundry could be shaken there, and since it was running water, the water was replaced continuously. One could wash the laundry so well there that it turned snow- white.
Then we blued and starched the laundry. It was called washing-blue ultramarine; one could buy it in small bottles. The woman put water into the tub, added a few drops of the ultramarine washing-blue, and then she poured in the starch we had dissolved previously. The starch was available in pieces, not as a powder. Certainly one could buy it in my father's shop too. These pieces of starch had an interesting shape. We mixed the washing- blue and the starch with water, and we got light blue water, and then we put the white clothes, the bed-linen and the table-clothes into that. At that time we used only white table-clothes at meals, because we didn't have any other.
Afterwards we wrung it out and hung the laundry in the loft. It was very difficult to go up with the laundry basket, because a steep stair led up there. This part was the hardest. I was dragging the laundry basket from one step to the other, and somehow I arrived up there - I had opened the loft's door previously, so that when I got there, I could put in the basket directly before entering myself. Wires were put up in the loft, and I hung the laundry there. I remember that when I was a little older, it was rather me who carried the laundry up to the loft, like Attila Jozsef's mother.
Period
Location
Gyergyoszarhegy
Romania
Interview
Magda Fazekas