

On grandma's backporch
there was a washstand, and on that stand was
a bucket of water, a 'washpan', handsoap
(probably homemade lye soap) and a towel
hanging from a nail close by...
 You had to wash up before
you came into her kitchen to eat a meal...
Face, neck, ears and 'behind' your ears, and
your hands...
Back in
those days we didn't have water coming into
the house, it came from a 'well' and was
carried into the house in a 'water
bucket'....

There was two things that
grandma wouldn't tolerate at her table, one
was dirty hands and the other was a dirty
mouth, which meant 'bad language!'
I
have had my mouth washed with that lye soap a
'few' times there in front of that ol' washstand
when I was a youngster... Yes, she was very
strict about that....

And she always gave thanks
to God for the meals she prepared and also
for the water and soap so we could be
clean....
One of her favorite saying
was
'cleanliness is next to godliness!'
I always thought that was a scripture
straight from the bible! ha haaa
Just
remembering...again.... Melva

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