Figure 1.--.

Another topic of interest is how we used to get our clothes clean. As I've told you my mum was never over-fussy about our clothes like some mums were but she did like us to look smart for school, Sunday school and went we went up to our Grandparents. Because she was working a lot of the jobs that needed doing around the house were done at weekends and we were expected to help out in various ways.We didn't really mind – although we used to argue with each other sometimes ! - but my mum always got us organised and pointed out that once everything was done we could get out and play so it was best just to get on with it – which was true!.

Saturday Morning

Because she was working a lot of the jobs that needed doing around the house were done at weekends and we were expected to help out in various ways.We didn't really mind – although we used to argue with each other sometimes ! - but my mum always got us organised and pointed out that once everything was done we could get out and play so it was best just to get on with it – which was true!. Anyway Saturday mornings were the main thing and it was the time my mum would be up early to get all our school clothes washed ready for the following week.

Our washer

Mum had an old washing machine – it loaded from the top and also had a spin drying compartement next to it. When the spin dryer was in operation the whole house used to shake and it made a hell of a racket and I used to be quite scared of it when I was little. Sometimes it would break down and my mum would get an odd job man round to fix it – a husband of one of her friends really. He'd never want paying but she'd always buy him a couple of packets of cigarettes. I always remember that because she would send me down to the local shop to buy them and the woman there always asked me who they were for and – although they weren't for me I always felt guilty. Unusual for then as all shops would sell cigarettes to kids and there were even machines selling them on the streets – now it's illegal to sell to kids under 16. Anyway I used to be pleased to see him as when the machine was out of operation.

The Launderette

Sometimes the washer was out of operation for a few days if the handyman had to send away for a part. We'd use the launderette on the High Street. I used to hate this as we'd get all of the clothes into big plastic bags and wheel them down to the launderette on one of my little brother's old pushchairs. Then my mum would leave me there while she went off to do the shopping with my little brother (my older brother was often out playing football for the cubs or the scouts on Saturday mornings but then he'd have to help out around the house in the afternoon while I was out playing so there was no real complaints). There was a woman in charge of the launderette who used to help me out loading the clothes into the machine and then into the big tumble dryer when they came available. The place was always vey busy on a Saturday so that shows, I think, that there were lots of other mums who worked in the week as well as the fact that quite a few families did not have washing machines. What I really didn't like about the launderette was that I was often the only boy in there – besides little kids – and I used to feel a bit self-consious of this fact. The worst of all was when one of the girls in my class at school – Susan Earles – was in there. She had a sort of thing about me – you know in a kids way – and I was always trying to run away from her. I wasn't ready for girls just then. I've told you before about how when we went on school trips we'd walk down to the tube station in twos and the teachers would always make us hold hands when we crossed the roads and you could be sure that it would be Susan Earles who would contrive to be walking next to me – I hated it. Anyway in the launderette I used to be trapped – she used to sit next to me on the bench and talk away about school and things while I desperately kept an eye out for a machine to become available so I could get away for a while. Even then things got worse as when it was my turn she'd offer to help me load the machine and would sometimes make comments on our clothes – which I didn't like. I always hoped her washing would be done first and she'd go – but her mum used to stay around talking to the woman in charge while Susan sorted out her familiy's washing and “helped” me. The worst was after we'd got the clothes out of the dryer and she'd be folding all of them neatly whereas I'd just want to stuff them back into the bags and wait for my mum to come and rescue me. The other women in the launderette probably knew what was going on and found it amusing but I hated those times and you can see why I was always glad to see the man who could fix our washing machine. Worst of all was when the place was really busy and my mum had finished the shopping before I'd even got the clothes done and she'd leave me there to finish and then come on home. Then Susan would walk home with me and I couldn't get away from her as I was pushing the pushchair with the bags of clothes on it. I used to walk as quickly as I could and hope that none of my mates spotted us – but they sometimes did and I got a load of stick for it later on in the park. I never told my mum – and the only compensation was that she used to think that it was me who had folded all of the clothes so neatly and used to be pleased saying she'd make a “soldier” of me yet. (That was just one of her sayings – something to do with her brother having been in the Army I think – and was often about clothes and when she was trying to get me put them away neatly or dress smartly which didn't come naturally to me like it did to my brother but she always said it with a smile and was never really that fussy about things except on the occaisions I've mentioned).

Drying the Clothes

Thankfully a lot of the time the washing machine was in operation at home.After the clothes had been spun-dried – which meant they were still pretty wet as it wasn't a heated tumble dryer like in the launderette – we'd hang them on the line outside or, if it was wet, put them out on the “clothes horse near the fire. The clothes horse was just a big fold-out wooden rack and not all of the clothes would go onto it at one time. I know that in the Winter my mum was always shifting our clothes around to get them dry as she wanted to have them all ready for us for the next week at school.

Michael's Home

My mate Michael's mum had a long overhead rack in their kitchen which you could let down on a pulley and get loads of clothes on – but they needed it as they had a big family. I always thought that one day I'd fix up something like that for my mum – but I never did and we moved house anyway. Like in the launderette I always felt a bit embarrassed if anyone came round while all of our clothes were out on display like that on the clothes horse – but I can't complain as I was always looking up at the rack in Michael's kitchen and comparing his clothes to mine. If I'm honest I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the kilt that he used to wear for Irish dancing because he'd never show it to me and I was fascinated by the thought of him wearing it – but he'd been so embarrassed when his mum had mentioned it in front of me that I never brought the subject up with him and never betrayed him after he made me swear never to tell anyone on the bombsite. I would have liked to have seen it though – I was curious like that as a kid.

Outdoor Drying

We had an outside flat roof leading off from the bathroom and it was there that we could rig up a washing line. It was always my job to help my mum peg out the clothes and I used to quite like this – although my mum sometimes used to get a bit annoyed with me as I'd want the clothes pegged out in a particular order – all the socks together and in pairs for instance – whereas my mum just wanted to get them on the line while it wasn't raining and then sort them out later. She went along with me for a while – waiting while I rummaged through trying to find the next matching sock – but sometimes she used to get fed up and would tell me to “just get on with it” – at least I think that's what she was saying as she normally had a mouth full of clothes pegs. I used to shake out the clothes like she'd shown me before I handed them to her and pull out the sleeves of our school shirts so that they'd dry properly. Most of our playshorts were not lined but I'm sure our school shorts always were – at least the last few pairs I had were and, as HBC notes on the linings page, the lining was almost always white nylon – the same as my brother's school shirts. (Incidentally the check shorts I have told you so much about were not lined – even though they were my best shorts – but they did have pockets that you could turn out so that they would dry properly – including a back pocket which was another thing I disliked about them. I have to say that the only time I liked seeing those shorts were when they were hanging out on the washing line with their pockets turned out as it meant that we were home from Leeds and they were being washed ready to be ironed and put away so I wouldn't have to wear them for a while!). Anyway with our school shorts my mum always had me turn them inside-out with the lining on the outside before she pegged them out. When I asked her why she told me that the sun helped to bring out the brightness on white but that grey would fade in the sunlight. I think she was right – just one of those things mum's know. She probably wished she hadn't told me though because after that I always tried to get my grey school shirts pegged out towards the end of the line where there was some shade from the next house as I didn't want them to fade and she finally lost her temper with me one day when I was spending ages trying to give her my brothers white shirts first and holding back my grey ones. She only lost her temper because it looked like it might be coming on to rain and when she told me to stop messing about I started an argument with her telling her that I was doing her a favour because I was making sure that the white shirts would be cleaner and the grey ones wouldn't fade and it was her that had told me that! It was true – but I'd been arguing quite a lot with her over clothes lately and, in truth, was getting to be a bit obssessive about what I would or wouldn't wear and when this started getting out of hand she started to put her foot down. I can't blame her really – on the one hand I'd not care at all about things – pulling on any old pair of shorts and a jumper as long as I could get out to play and never combing my own hair before I left for school but on the other insisting on certain things like always having grey shirts for school even in the Summer and even wearing a particular colour of briefs (green) to start back at shool on a Monday with.She'd indulge my fads so far – but when they started to extend to the washing line that was it!.

Winter Freeze

We had cord shorts for play - but they weren't allowed for school or mum wouldn't see them as "best". I rather liked the cord shorts, but my older broyher did't like them. I recall one day when our laundry got frozen solid one day when the weather got cold. For some reason it was our cord shorts that were really frozen. We had quite a time with them when we brought them in. We even held our little brother up so that he could had a go at the frozen cords.

Hand Washing and Ironing

So that's my take on linings and a few other things!. There were quite a lot of other things to do with looking after our clothes – like shoes and things – and my mum also used to hand wash a few things in the evenings at the kitchen sink – mainly jumpers so it's quite a big subject. After the Saturday morning washing and the other jobs around the house I'd be off out to the park to play football or something and get another lot of clothes dirty! - but as I say my mum wasn't too fussy about that – as long as our school clothes were all ready for the next week. She never used to do a lot of ironing in one go – she'd iron our school clothes fresh every morning before we set off and I used to like that.

Mending

The other thing I've remembered is that when we'd be getting the clothes back indoors my mum would be checking them for damage and putting them aside. My mum didn't do a lot of sewing – she didn't have time – but she would make some minor repairs – mainly replacing buttons or darning socks. Anything bigger – like a torn school shirt and she'd try to replace it and we'd wear the old one to play in until it packed in. We weren't really meant to play in our school shorts – but they'd get the normal hammering at school itself or on the way home but I don't ever remember tearing a pair and if I had my mum (besides going mad if she thought it was due to real carelessness!) would not have sent me out to school in them like some boys were – she'd have found the money for a new pair. My elder brother used to sew – my mum taught him and he used to sew the badges onto his cub jumper himself. He also used to iron his own cub and scout uniforms – but he would never iron anything of mine!. If Saturday afternoon was always great for me to get out and play after the household tasks had been done Sunday afternoon was even more precious to me. As I've said before I used to go to Sunday school in the morning and then we'd eat and then I'd be straining at the leash to get out for a few hours – we also had to be in early on Sunday to finally get all our stuff ready for school and have a proper bath and things. All this time my mum would still be doing things around the house and looking after my little brother and things. I've remembered the time my mum decided that it was time I learnt to sew but I'll tell you about that some other time if you'd like,

Bill