What Would Grandma Do?
I need your help. Starting tomorrow, I am going to post a series of pictures around a given theme. I need you to look at the pictures and then tell me what you think I will need to change in order to live more like Grandma. In other words - What Would Grandma Do? Now is your chance to get in on the fun! This does not have to take much time. In fact, I prefer your gut reactions! Please write your thoughts in the comments section of each given post.
The next day I will post your answers along with my own answers to What Would Grandma Do? Each set of answers will be followed by a new set of pictures around a different theme. I will keep this going for approximately 14 days (or more if I feel like I have additional areas I need to explore). Please feel free to participate everyday or as often as you can and send in your own questions if you are curious about how Grandma (or Grandpa) would have done something.
This is a really important part of My Grandma Was Green! Out of these daily observations, I will develop a list of questions I will use to interview my surviving grandparents as well as other individuals as the opportunity arises. As you can see, when I start doing these interviews, I will use the word “Grandma” to represent my grandparents, other relatives, and/or other people of my grandparents generation. I am especially interested in hearing stories about the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Your thoughts, observations and questions, along with the information I learn from doing interviews, will form the basis of my Grandma Challenges.
What is a Grandma Challenge? A Grandma Challenge is where the rubber meets the road! A Grandma Challenge is when I am actively trying to implement (or live out) a specific action or attitude in the spirit of how Grandma would have done it.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
April,
This is what my grandma Swinford did to wash clothes. First you buy a huge black pot, the kind you see in movies that witches use to make their brew, and you set it in the back yard. You put wood for a fire around it and boil a huge pot of water in which to wash clothes. You use a “scrub board” for the more tough clothes. There was something about lye soap, too. And then hang the clothes on the line like in the picture.
April,
You picked a great subject for our times based on the state of our economic and social standing in the world. We are ALL getting impacted by the sustainability, green, environmental movement in significant ways. The scarcity of oil, greenhouse gas issues, commodity prices going through the roof, and the challenge of our overall standard of living causes us to reflect back to generations where simple living was the norm. The Great Generation had an understanding of simple living approach without even knowing it.
The clothes line image tells us a lot about life, a few observations:
1. Drying clothes on the line requires patience, alters your pace, and requires dependence on nature.
2. Clothes have a different smell to them - you aren’t using fabric softener in the dryer - gas or electricity for powering the drying process, the wind gives them a different aroma (good or bad, you’ll have to let us know).
3. More use of the iron when using the line?
4. Are they stiff after drying and so we chaff or become more irritated?
5. We have to become more strategic in our drying process - check the weather - monitor the elements - what are you going to do in the fall/winter?
Great post - thanks for taking us on the journey.
Phil
I LOVE the smell of clothes hung out to dry. My mom always hangs out clothes in the pleasant months… I really wanted a clothes line when we moved to our house but so far… no dice. SO I thank you for this inspiration - I am going to go see about rigging up a clothes line and follow you into your green-dom - if all goes well. =)
By the way, *my* grandma wasn’t green at all. She was more… yellow? She had all the trees cut down from her yard so there would be less leaves to rake, she had the A/C (and set to 65) on as soon as the weather hit 70 - and the heat on (and set to 72) as soon as the weather dipped below 50.
It’s my great grandma that I think of when I think about doing things more simply. I remember that she refused to use a microwave because she thought the food tasted weird - and the rest of the family laughed at her and microwaved her food in secret in her later years. That makes me sad. She also frequently said that food didn’t taste as good as it used to. It was explained to me that it was just because she was old and didn’t remember things well anymore (although I knew that wasn’t quite true about her) but I find the research about the decline nutrient content of foods due to modern agricultural practices really compelling when I think about those complaints of hers. I think she knew something was wrong - she just didn’t know what!
April,
Your adventure is so exciting, I will enjoy going on it with you via the blog and what ever encouragement I can be to you along the way. As I have shared with you before I have attempted some of your adventure in years past. I love hanging clothes on the line for one. I love the smell of them (unless you live on a farm and the wind is from the wrong way!) Unlike another writer, I love the roughness of the towels when they are lined dried.
What day is laundry day? Maybe I can come help hang up clothes some time. Be sure to buy the snap clips, they work far better than the ones that just fit over the line!
You go girl..
April
You may or may not remember much about Grand ma and Grand Pa
Kaiserlian. They were green and didn’t even know it. The lawn was mowed with a walk behind reel mower and all the leaves were raked and picked up.
They were not mowed with a power mower. Grandma always hung out the
laundry also and I have always liked it better, it seemed fresher! Another thing Grandma did was make her own Whey every day for grand pa. It was
an “old county” thing. Pies! Grandma did not buy pie crust, she made it from scratch and to this day no one can match it. Thats it for now, as things come to mind I will post them.
Dad
My grandma had a clothes wringer and did laundry by hand for many years before having a washer.
Below are my humble opinions. I have friends who do their laundry by hand because they have to. They would think us crazy to consider not using machines. I wonder what our grandmas would have thought. We are truly blessed to have the luxury to choose one way or another.
LAUNDRY BY HAND: Done it more often than I would have chosen.
++ Big muscles. When its hot outside its a nice chore. Best when done with others over great conversations.
– It takes a lot of work and time. A lot! Especially for today’s lifestyle (I can’t imagine children make it easier). Wringing out large blankets, jeans etc. isn’t easy.
** My best friend in Paraguay uses fabric softner when doing laundry by hand so the clothes aren’t so stiff - but this might deter from that great line smell.
OVERALL: I’m not sure hand laundry is very green at times, because if you don’t have a good set-up it can use a lot of water. When I had sinks with scrubboards built-in it was pretty green, but just using a series of buckets caused more waste water. Also depends on soap runoff. Is it going into a drain for water treatment or soaking into ground water. What’s in the soap?
WASHER + LINE DRY: This is what we currently use (very typical here).
++ Saves a lot on elec. bill.
– Waiting 3 days for musty jeans to dry. (Dion brought back some febreeze so hopefully this will help). The type of air (dry vs. humid) can make a big difference in dry time. Here we have the added benefit of smog air dryer sheets. (Santiago, Chile)
OVERALL: Worth doing, but location can make it a blessing or chore.
Thank you for the wonderful tribute to Grandma, the creative conversation, and the example of living in Godly stewardship.
Natasha
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