It was diapers and rubber pants for my baby siblings as well, I changed many being the oldest, however, I never seen actual real rubber pants in my day, all were vinyl-plastic, but mom always referred to them as rubber pants, so I carried the name forward as the years went by.
The diapers I used were cotton flannelette and rectangle in shape, and they fit from birth to toilet-training. I started off with 4 dozen diapers when my oldest was born, and then as they wore and became thinner and even threadbare, I replaced them with one to two dozen at a time which allowed for another 3-4 years of diapering. So economical.
I agree about novelty pins. Always used no-nonsense diaper pins with the larger traditional plastic safety caps, and I also used pins with metal locking heads.
Gosh, dear husband never changed a single diaper, never even touched one. He was raised in a gender specific and strict home, so baby-care was off limits. My dad was the same, never changed a diaper in his life. I sometimes wonder had I used Pampers, if I may have been able to convince dear husband to change an occasional diaper or two, but probably not.
As for waterproofing, rubber pants were a must for me, without the pants I wouldn't have considered cloth diapering. Had a couple of great aunts that claimed that they never used rubber pants, so lots of checking and changing with plain old-fashioned cloth. Me on the otherhand, I always used rubber pants. Do think rubber pants were more for moms to allow them to relax when tending to other domestic chores and things around the house... no worries over constant checking and changing when baby was diapered in rubber pants.
Was cloth diapers and rubber pants all through my babysitting years as well, and all the moms did old-fashioned home-laundered diapers in the washing machine, and hung them to dry on the clothesline. My mom told me that for the first year after I was born, she washed my diapers (by hand) in the bathtub at the end of each day, then she'd hang them to dry and pray they were ready by morning.
Then came her first washing machine, a wringer washer, and that lasted until the early 70's. Baby brother was born in 73, and in and around that time mom got a modern electric automatic washing machine. Washing diapers was never more easy! I remember how I would dump the diaper pail into the washing machine (top-loader), select the hottest water setting, add a little detergent and bleach, close the lid, then pull the button out to start the wash cycle.
When the wash cycle was done, into a waiting plastic laundry basket the diapers went, and out the back door and onto the line they'd go. On a hot summer day diapers would dry lickety-split! An hour often did it, and I'd be back outside unpinning and pulling down off the line, the long row of white rectangles, then back into the house, dump the basket out onto the kitchen table or mom and dads bed, fold and stack, and baby brother had a clean fresh supply of didies for another day.
Always double diapered, and always rubber pants over the diapers. No changing table in our house with my baby siblings, and I never relied on a changing table for my kids either. Diapers were changed in the crib, and the plastic diaper pail sat in the corner in the bathroom.
As for lubricating the pins, I did the bar soap thing, too, and my SIL used to stick her pins into a stiff sponge with a little baby oil added to the sponge. Both of my sisters used cloth diapers, too. They kept their pins in a pincushion and ran the business end of the pin through their hair at change-time like I did.
Cloth diapers and rubber pants saved us a ton of money, and when I had two wearing diapers at the same time, nothing beat old-fashioned cloth, pins, and pants! Rubber pants were cheap and lasted for months before needing replaced. $1.44 Day at Woolco... a package of 6 pairs of rubber pants for $1.44! Some months Woolco would offer two packs for the price of one! $1.44 for 12 pairs of rubber pants! Talk about economical!