Helen Mussleman (C)
(5:05) Mrs. Mussleman describes what everyday living was like during the early 1900s in Florence, Alabama.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Helen Mussleman March 4, 2008 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Freda Daily Clip 3 Helen Mussleman: Now, my granddaddy lived...
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/209 |
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Electronic |
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Oral Histories Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Helen Mussleman (C) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Privies; Domestic life |
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(5:05) Mrs. Mussleman describes what everyday living was like during the early 1900s in Florence, Alabama.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Helen Mussleman
March 4, 2008
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Freda Daily
Clip 3
Helen Mussleman: Now, my granddaddy lived to be ninety- three years old. He lived with my mother’s two old maid sisters, up on Cherry Hill, and she, one of them, worked in Ashcraft Cotton Mill and made a living. And right outside his porch you could sit up there on the point of his hill and watch, [ long ago] we called it Sweetwater, you see everywhere, you know. And he dug a hole out and put a wooden box in there, outside, right outside his porch, you could step out right there, and, and then he put sawdust in there and bought, you could buy ice then, put ice in there and he had a lid, and he put their milk and butter in there and then put something on top of that lid on it, put it down; that’s the way they kept theirs.
Freda Daily: How did he get water?
HM: They, they, well he had water back then, they had some water that came there on, in a spigot.
FD: Ok.
HM: Oh, yeah, back then they moved, they lived down in downtown, you know. Oh, their bathrooms, we thought they were something else, because they had concrete floors and nice commode.
FD: A flush commode.
HM: No. You didn’t flush them. They kept a sack of big lime in there, my aunts would, and then they’d scrub the floors out. Um- hm. But out in the country it was different. Oh, yeah.
FD: Did you have a privy or did you just go to the woods?
HM: Well, sometimes you’d go out behind the trees or anywhere you wanted to if you lived where there were a bunch of trees. Or you had the privies, sometimes three or four holes.
FD: Yeah, I, I can relate to that. Tell me about washday.
HM: Washday we washed all day long, on the rub board. And we had lots of lines and we’d fill them up and then you’d have some, you know, lines, or barbed wire line around the place or garden or whatever, and throw the raggedy stuff over that, but the other lines, they’d get dry, we’d take some down, hang some more. Wash all day long on them things. We’d washed, we’d rub them on the rub board, we had three tubs and we’d rub them on the rub board and go put them in the wash pot and boil them. And then we’d change water through this tub, you know, and then when we took them out of the wash pot and rub them again through that water, and then we’d rinse them in the next water, and the third water we had a little bottle, about that tall, called bluing, put a little bluing in it. That was our last rinse water.
FD: So they’d be, look white.
HM: Yeah. Suppose to be. I wish I had one of those. They’s made out of wood and they’re about that big around and looked like you just bored a little hole in it; it didn’t hold much in there.
FD: Now, what did you use it for?
HM: Bluing. I don’t know—
FD: For your bluing?
HM: Put a sprinkle, some in, in the last tub of your rinse water. And [ inaudible] blue made it a little bit blue. I don’t know why but that what they was. They called it bluing.
FD: I remember it, but, like they put in the hair today to keep it from being yellowish.
HM: Yeah, but I, I don’t know if it’s the same stuff or not. And, and the Watkins man, this was after I married and lived, moved out in the country with my [ inaudible], the Watkins man come by and we’d buy that big bottles of liniment, my mother- in- law would, and also, flavoring, the same, looked like the same kind of bottles, and they liked a caramel pudding, caramel, and they had to have a dessert, they thought, every meal and I’d make them caramel, pour in your puddings, you know, you brown you some sugar and just make a pudding with meringue on it. And I’d just pick up that big old liniment bottle, you know, that bottle and pour me some in there [ like I get it made]. But I don’t know who stuck that liniment bottle up there. One day I got my pudding made and I just ‘ plst’ dumped her in there and it was a liniment. Ruined my pudding. Oh, me. I tell you. And our clothes, like I said, we didn’t have many clothes. And they made our panties out of flour sacks.
FD: Did you use elastic or a button?
HM: Oh, they had some rubber [ backing] to put in there and, uh, and my men folks laughed and said theirs was made out of self- rising flour sacks. |
| title |
Helen Mussleman (C) |
| titleStr |
Helen Mussleman (C) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLoral_hist209 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/209 |
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http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/209 |
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1782468788501872640 |
| spelling |
Helen Mussleman (C)Privies; Domestic life(5:05) Mrs. Mussleman describes what everyday living was like during the early 1900s in Florence, Alabama.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryHelen Mussleman2008-3-4sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Collection.Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Helen Mussleman
March 4, 2008
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Freda Daily
Clip 3
Helen Mussleman: Now, my granddaddy lived to be ninety- three years old. He lived with my mother’s two old maid sisters, up on Cherry Hill, and she, one of them, worked in Ashcraft Cotton Mill and made a living. And right outside his porch you could sit up there on the point of his hill and watch, [ long ago] we called it Sweetwater, you see everywhere, you know. And he dug a hole out and put a wooden box in there, outside, right outside his porch, you could step out right there, and, and then he put sawdust in there and bought, you could buy ice then, put ice in there and he had a lid, and he put their milk and butter in there and then put something on top of that lid on it, put it down; that’s the way they kept theirs.
Freda Daily: How did he get water?
HM: They, they, well he had water back then, they had some water that came there on, in a spigot.
FD: Ok.
HM: Oh, yeah, back then they moved, they lived down in downtown, you know. Oh, their bathrooms, we thought they were something else, because they had concrete floors and nice commode.
FD: A flush commode.
HM: No. You didn’t flush them. They kept a sack of big lime in there, my aunts would, and then they’d scrub the floors out. Um- hm. But out in the country it was different. Oh, yeah.
FD: Did you have a privy or did you just go to the woods?
HM: Well, sometimes you’d go out behind the trees or anywhere you wanted to if you lived where there were a bunch of trees. Or you had the privies, sometimes three or four holes.
FD: Yeah, I, I can relate to that. Tell me about washday.
HM: Washday we washed all day long, on the rub board. And we had lots of lines and we’d fill them up and then you’d have some, you know, lines, or barbed wire line around the place or garden or whatever, and throw the raggedy stuff over that, but the other lines, they’d get dry, we’d take some down, hang some more. Wash all day long on them things. We’d washed, we’d rub them on the rub board, we had three tubs and we’d rub them on the rub board and go put them in the wash pot and boil them. And then we’d change water through this tub, you know, and then when we took them out of the wash pot and rub them again through that water, and then we’d rinse them in the next water, and the third water we had a little bottle, about that tall, called bluing, put a little bluing in it. That was our last rinse water.
FD: So they’d be, look white.
HM: Yeah. Suppose to be. I wish I had one of those. They’s made out of wood and they’re about that big around and looked like you just bored a little hole in it; it didn’t hold much in there.
FD: Now, what did you use it for?
HM: Bluing. I don’t know—
FD: For your bluing?
HM: Put a sprinkle, some in, in the last tub of your rinse water. And [ inaudible] blue made it a little bit blue. I don’t know why but that what they was. They called it bluing.
FD: I remember it, but, like they put in the hair today to keep it from being yellowish.
HM: Yeah, but I, I don’t know if it’s the same stuff or not. And, and the Watkins man, this was after I married and lived, moved out in the country with my [ inaudible], the Watkins man come by and we’d buy that big bottles of liniment, my mother- in- law would, and also, flavoring, the same, looked like the same kind of bottles, and they liked a caramel pudding, caramel, and they had to have a dessert, they thought, every meal and I’d make them caramel, pour in your puddings, you know, you brown you some sugar and just make a pudding with meringue on it. And I’d just pick up that big old liniment bottle, you know, that bottle and pour me some in there [ like I get it made]. But I don’t know who stuck that liniment bottle up there. One day I got my pudding made and I just ‘ plst’ dumped her in there and it was a liniment. Ruined my pudding. Oh, me. I tell you. And our clothes, like I said, we didn’t have many clothes. And they made our panties out of flour sacks.
FD: Did you use elastic or a button?
HM: Oh, they had some rubber [ backing] to put in there and, uh, and my men folks laughed and said theirs was made out of self- rising flour sacks.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/oral_hist,209 |