NORWAY-L Archives

From: "Jo Orvik" <>
Subject: Re: Washing and Darning Socks
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 23:25:56 -0500

Thanks Kneel for the memories. I didn't think I was that old
(b. 1946)
until I realized I left home in 1966 and we were still using
a wringer washer
and hanging clothes. I still occasionally hang sheets and
towels.
As for your question of darning socks every once in a while
when the
really warm good winter wool socks get a hole, I'll get out
a light bulb or darning
thing (can't remember what you call it but it has a rounded
flatter end with a
small handle) and try to darn a sock. My kids think I'm
nuts! Just throw
them and buy new they say. But I'm cheap!
Anyway, was wondering if anyone remembers the "pants and
shirt stretchers".
My father wore dark green work pants and shirts. After the
wash we'd put them
in a pail of starch and then work each leg onto a thin metal
frame with
springs and once on, then pull the springs to tighten them
up and let
them dry. Of course you had to be really good at this in
order to get the pants
legs on the frame exactly where you wanted the crease to be.
The shirts
were buttoned up and put on their kind of stretchers, one
for the body and then each arm. They looked crazy hanging in
the basement.
Years later I wondered how my Dad could wear those
"starched hard enough
to stand alone" pants and shirts. He said eventually, they
softened up after the
second or third day! :-) Didn't change clothes everyday
since he only had
a few pairs. At least we didn't have to iron those.
As for ironing, when we brought the clothes in from the
line, we
got out a pop bottle, filled it with water and attached a
sprinkler head.
Then we'd have to sprinkle the clothes, roll them up and put
them in the freezer
compartment to dampen totally and then iron. There was an
art to
folding the sprinkled clothes and then rolling them up for
the freezer.
Of course these sprinkled clothes included sheets ( a snap
to fold and roll) to my
father's boxer shorts which Mom insisted had to be ironed
along with his sleeveless
undershirts. I remember moving from Wisconsin to Mpls. to
continue college
in 1966 and wondering how on earth I was going to learn how
to run those fancy
washing machines and dryers. Wow! What a country bumpkin!
But I actually
grew up outside a small town. Guess we were just a slower to
modernization
small town!
Jo
P.S. When we visited our foreign exchange daughter's family
in Austria in
1995, I found her Mother still uses a wringer washer, no
electric dryer and
no microwave. They bake 12 loaves of bread each week in
large stone
"in the wall" ovens. She likes it that way she said and they
are modern
world traveler people with no lack of money.

>Before I leave lost arts of western civilization, how long
has it been
>since you have seen someone darn a sock?

This thread:

• Re: Washing and Darning Socks by "Jo Orvik" <>