Laundry Continued :
When mother judged the clothes to be boiled sufficiently, she removed them with a long, stout wooden paddle to another tub of warm water for scrubbing. This was where she added her soap and scrubbed each piece of clothing on a scrub board. In case you do not know what I’m talking about, a scrub board was about 30 inches long and approximately 15 – 20 inches in width with lateral ridges of approximately one & one-half inches running the length of the board. The boards were made of either wood or metal. As mother finished the scrubbing, clothes were transferred to another tub for rinsing and after wringing out the clothes by hand they were hung on the clothes- line to dry. Clothes always smelled so clean and fresh after sun-drying.

This process of washing continued all day as the clothes had to be ready for ironing the next day (Tuesday) which was always referred to as ironing day. Now I do not want to give the impression mother did all the work. She always had help when she wanted it . There was almost always a servant on the job. Of course wash day or not there were always hungry mouths to feed and children to get off to school so mother had very little respite time. I often times feel that mother literally worked herself to death and looking back I can see how thoughtless I was as a child to not have tried more to ease her burden.

Ironing then was pretty much the same as it is today. The ironing boards were the same as now but the irons, though shaped the same were quite different. The irons were made of very thick metal and mother always had two or three in the fireplace heating to replace the one she was using as it cooled. I don’t know how the old folks managed to keep them from getting overheated.

SAM AGAIN:
I think I mentioned before that my childhood memories of Sam would be fragmented. As I was writing just now of irons heating in the fireplace an incident came to me that has to do with Sam. Lunch was our big meal and it was not served until all the children were seated around the table. The table was long enough for 5 people to sit on each side with dad on one end and mother at the other. Mother and dad sat in chairs while the rest of us sat on the two benches, one on each side. Mother cooked her main dish in a huge cast-iron pot on the fireplace and it was usually a potpourri of meat and vegetables (except those with distinctively sweetish taste such as sweet potatoes, corn etc., and these were cooked separately). On this particular day I remember mother announcing as the food was brought in to the dining room that this was all there was for lunch except for Sam; his was stuck to the bottom of the pot and he would have to wait until she could scrape it up. Sam had this taste for slightly burned food as a child but apparently it did not last very long. I wonder what peculiarities I developed as a child?

CHRISTMAS:
The secularization of Christmas in Cayman (I should say West Bay as I really can’t speak for any other part of the island. In the 19 years I lived there I only went East of Georgetown once) although different is no less or more intensive than it is in America. I mentioned “sand backing” as a custom but it was on the 23rd of December that the sand was leveled and brushed in our yard and when finished it was a beautiful sight. We did not have Christmas trees or tinsel decorations of any kind although children began hanging their stockings for Santa. December 24th was a sort of feast day and on the evening of the 23rd a lot of beef were slaughtered and the butchering was done at open-air stalls. The feasting actually began the night of the 23rd and as you walked along the streets you were aware of liver and meatballs frying everywhere. It was an occasion also for much serenading and the passing around of the bottle for an occasional nip but it was a very rare occasion when things got out of hand. At about this time children were very well stocked with fireworks, noisemakers and cap pistols so there was a cacophony of noise but it was mostly a joyful time for all. After midnight when things would quiet down a bit , the women of our church that were members of the Christian Endeavor organization would go out to serenade with Christmas Hymns which in the quiet of the night can be especially beautiful.

It is really strange how some things can stick out in your memory. I have a clear memory of only two Christmas mornings in my childhood. One in particular was of getting up and seeing my stocking just bulging and getting very excited wondering what great gifts Santa had brought. The first object my hands wrapped around was a bottle of Vaseline and in succession there were Vicks VaporRub, aspirin, and a lot of small patent medicine packages and in the very bottom was an apple – and that was my Christmas present that year. Sam had got to me again!

E N D

1/18/2004
6:40pm
End of Installment Eight