Childhood memories, The Monday Washday

Nice memory Robert. I can smell the damp sheets etc, hung up on the pulley-operated clothes airer, and the stronger odour of the block of red soap my mother used. Dolly tub, posser and mangle (squeezers) were all part of the Monday ritual.(-:

Thank Jim but don't forget the "Blue" added to whiten clothes, I think it was ultramarine blue powder? She didn't have a pulley operated airer they were just put on the bow in front of the fire, and strangely a dolly was called a maid in our area but why I don't know. To dry they were hung out on a long washing line, I do remember her crying one time when the line broke and the washing fell into the mud, hard times.

I love paintings like this Robert which tell a story of everyday life. Super painting and you’ve got the steam very well.

Thank you Tessa.

Great painting Robert, made me recall helping my grandad use the mangle to wring our the sheets.n

Thanks Paul, those mangles were hard work, we are so lucky these days.

Gosh remember it all so well, can remember the smell of washday, mam scrubbing shirt collars on the wooden kitchen table, it was all day on a Monday. I even had a washtub and boiler when I was first married, 1963, we had a rented house and an outhouse where I did my washing. Happy days though none the less 😀

Very true Linda they were happy times despite the hardships there was always plenty of love and laughter, and good friends and nieghbours.

This is so nostalgically beautiful. The days when washing was done on a Monday etc., your treatment of light and the steam is so credible and this is a great painting of social history Paul.

Thank you for your kind comments Carole

So sorry I meant ‘Robert’ not Paul.

What a great painting and tells a wonderful story, I really like a narrative in a painting and this is a superb example.

Hi Heather, many thanks for your kind comments

Spot on, Robert in every detail!

Many thanks Thalia.

Remember it well, Mondays in the scullery. After getting bombed out I think we saved the tin bath! Well depicted.