03:23

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Aldrans

2008-06-16

Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1930

I had a lot of work to do with the washing. It used to be the custom to do a big washing twice a year. We had this huge tub. The bedclothes were made of a rough weave of linen. There was a woman in the village who always helped out. That's how she earned her living. She helped when it was time to do the washing. It always took two whole days. We had to use soap made from ashes as we didn't have any detergent. The soap was made from pure charcoal ashes which were cooked and then strained. First the washing had to be pre-washed with washboards, you know. Have you ever seen one - a washboard? Have you seen one or not? You can still find them in museums and so on. We did the pre-washing and then put the washing into the tub with a soapy solution made from ashes. We used a special cloth, a very rough one. It was called 'Werch', the Werch cloth. I don't know what you call it in high German ? we called it Werch. It had a rough weave, very rough. We covered the tub with it and pulled it tight. Then we poured the soapy solution back into the cauldron. First we had sieved off the ashes. We heated it and poured the boiling suds into the tub, covering the white washing. This was done three, five or seven times ? always an odd number ? usually five times. The tub had a stick which was pulled out, underneath was the cauldron, and then the suds drained out of the tub. The suds were heated and boiled up again in the cauldron. After pouring the soapy water over the washing for the last time, it was left to soak overnight to remove the dirt. We didn't have detergent but this worked quite well. The fabric was less fine than it is nowadays. We usually did a big washing twice a year.