I loathe, despise, abhor, hate, dread, and every other type of descriptive word that is negative, doing dishes. I have a dishwasher. It is quite old, not 1800's old, but old for a dishwasher. This means that before I place the dishes in the dishwasher I must wash them. I need the boiling action of the dishwasher to make certain that there are as few germs lurking on those dishes and silverware as possible. I'm immune compromised and use every way that I can to avoid becoming ill.
I am incredibly sensitive and allergic. I have heard many times in my life the unfortunate and unpleasant statement from an allergist, "You are the most highly allergic patient that I've ever worked with." This is NOT something that I take pride in. I would even prefer to be the 2ND most sensitive person that they worked with!
When I wash dishes the skin on my hands splits open. (Please do not suggest gloves, they make the situation worse. I have tried each and every type of dishwashing detergent...none are better than the others). I have nerve damage in my hands so these splits, sometimes so small that the naked eye can't see them, but trust me, I feel them. They throb sharply with each and every beat of my heart.
I have tried using paper plates but the sheer amount of waste that it creates sickens me. I wish to leave as little garbage behind me as I move through life. I recycle, and do my best to keep my "Thumbprint," on the earth a small one.
I wash the dishes twice, maybe three times a week. There are only three of us eating from our dishes and silverware so washing them only this much is sustainable. The other members of my family work hard, very, very hard. One member works three jobs, the other teaches school. If anyone thinks that you are done at the end of a school day they do not understand the demands of teaching. A writer, home all day, I am the logical person to wash the dishes. Nobody told me to do so, but I DO wish to help make my family dynamic as pleasant as possible.
When I was growing up one of my much older relatives told me that she enjoyed washing the dishes. She explained that she had grown up in a three room cabin. She had 5 siblings, and two parents eating from those dishes. Each and every morning she was dispatched with two enormous buckets to the nearby river (a mere 1/4 of a mile), to acquire the water that was needed that day for household chores. She began doing this task as a very small child and those buckets were incredibly heavy.
Returning home she had to light a fire in the wood stove to heat the water. Kindling first, and sometimes flint and tinder to create the beginning spark. (Matches were considered an expensive and unneeded expense). Logs were acquired and then chopped into small pieces for the oven box.
When the water was hot the heavy pan was carried to a makeshift sink. The water was poured into the sink, and soap flakes were cut from a home made cake of soap. The soap cake had a base of lye so the soap had excellent cleaning action on the dishes. It had excellent cleaning action on the hands as well...in fact sometimes when it was a little too strong it cleaned some of the skin right off her hands.
In her 70's she spoke of how she loved washing the dishes in the 20th century. She said that each and every time that she merely turned on the tap and hot water ran out, she was thrilled. Using a mild detergent on her dishes that did NOT eat the skin off her hands was also a great pleasure.
So, did you catch the steps that she used to wash dishes in the 1800's?
1. Haul water from the river
2. Chop logs into small enough pieces to use in the wood stove box, and find kindling to help start the fire. (When she was really small her older siblings did this task. When she grew older it was added to the dishwashing regimen).
3. Start a fire (usually there were no matches, so a flint and tinder had to be used to create the initial spark).
4. Boil the water.
5. Carry the incredibly heavy bucket of hot water to the makeshift sink and pour it in.
6. Scrape flakes from the homemade lye soap.
7. Wash the dishes.
8. Dry the dishes and put them away. (The towels used for drying the dishes were often made from flour sacks after the flour was gone, so making the towels was another part of the dishwashing routine).
This work was done three times a day. Meals had to be made three times a day as well. This meant that about the time that you had finished the laborious work of washing the dishes, it was time to cook the next meal, and then wash the dishes again.
I still despise washing the dishes...but I admit that washing them in the 21st century is MUCH more pleasant than it would have been in the 1800's!
No comments:
Post a Comment