KyKaren1949

Without a refrig or ice box, how did you keep perishables from spoiling??

(This is an interesting thread.)

patsyo56721

I also remember having to iron everything - no poleyster, no blends - everything was cotton, even my husbands work pants and shirts. I remember putting the pants on stretchers which was a big help and made the pants look great. I really don't miss that experience at all. I also remember no TV, microwave, dishwasher, 1-car households, no computers, no cell phones, when most mothers did not work outside the home, etc. etc. Guess I'm really giving my age away. Still, there's a lot to be said for those days when life was not on such a fast track and everyday life was not so hectic and dysfunctional.
Marilyn: We must be the same age.

Catherine Marie

Every Saturday morning, I would have to iron the sheets, tea towels, pj's, boxers, etc on the mangle iron. Sometimes it would take me all afternoon. I would crank up the radio or record player- I was a teen in the mid/late 60's- and do the family ironing. I loved the smell of the fresh laundry, heated up by the iron. Crisply folded. Those items on page one were stuck in the top of a bottle and used for water to sprinkle the clothes. Then I'd roll up the item, let it sit and get perfectly damp and then put it through the mangle. I still love the look of something crisp, cotton, and ironed without so much as a wrinkle.

KyKaren1949

Uh oh...what is a "mangle iron"? That's a new word for me.

Catherine Marie

A mangle iron sits on the floor and you sit up to it, much like sitting up to a sewing machine. It has a large roll ( about 2 feet long) which is covered with a cotton covering like an ironing board cover. A separate section which is the 'iron' part and which heats up like the dickens moves in to meet the curve of the cotton covered roll. The roll then turns and you feed the item to be ironed between the cotton covered roll and the heated plate. Once the garment is ironed, it falls into folds behind the iron and onto a small platform. There is a knee or foot pedal which controls the heated plate. That is, when you manouver the pedal, it makes the plate come in to meet the roll or moves out when you are finished ironing. Hope this gives you an idea of the process.

skeet

I HAVE MY GRANDMOTHERS CURLING FOR HER HAIR THAT YOU PUT ON THE STOVE ALSO MY GRANDFATHERS DOUBLE EDGE RAZER IN A CASE.

GrannieAnnie

no coincidence. Google picks up on key words we use and choses ads to match. Try a response with an off the wall item not related to quilting or sewing and you'll see ads that match that word come up.

I'll use "pitchfork" and I bet I'll get some farm tool ads.

GrannieAnnie

If you like scary stories by Stephen King, he's got a short story about a mangler!

GrannieAnnie

Meats were cured or smoked. Our family had a smoke house----I remember we made sausage and smoked it--------was that good. And hams adn shoulders were cured with brown sugar and salt peter adn whatever else. I'm 63 and our family got electricity when I was tiny!

Most veggies were canned. In our celler (dirt floor and stone walls) we had a potato bin and shelves for the canned food.

Of course we had cows------so we had fresh milk. And butter after removing the creama and churning it. I always though that was fun.

GrannieAnnie

I remember our first TV. My grandmother died right after Christmas in 1959. My mom got her TV. All the other siblings in her family had TVs already. One of the first TV shows I remember watching was Coronado Nine-------with Rod TAylor.

I'm going to skip the outhouse stories! lol