DAY 85 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

Good Morning, Class of '64

A Women"s Work - Marijana

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul”
Yiddish Proverb

“Soap and water and common sense are the best disinfectants.”
William Osler

There are four things a child needs: 
plenty of love, 
nourishing food, 
regular sleep, 
and lots of soap and water
  Ivy Baker Priest  

The Child's Bath - Mary Cassatt

 Another Day With Larry

Homemade Lye Soap

Mom made homemade soap for many years. I cannot remember the exact process, but I know that it required fats and lye. She saved fats from frying meat and any other source she had. When she had enough accumulated, she cooked the fats with lye.

 



It had to be stirred a lot while cooking; she had a large wooden spoon that was used exclusively for making soap. I’ve heard her talk about making her own lye by percolating water through wood ashes; we certainly had plenty of them. But in my lifetime, she used Red Devil brand commercial lye. 

After cooking for quite a while, the impurities were skimmed off the top, and the soap was poured into an old dishpan to harden. After the soap had set up a little, it was cut into pieces about 3 x 4 inches and 3 inches thick. It got very hard so it had to be cut before it was completely set up.

 


This soap was used to wash dishes, to wash clothes, and for general cleaning and mopping floors. Mom cut it into thin shavings that would readily dissolve in hot water. 




 
We did use commercial soap to bathe - Lifebuoy, I believe. 


And there was always a bar of Lava on the sink for hand washing. We needed that Lava; there aren’t many clean jobs on a farm. 




The best that I can recall, the homemade soap was very effective. It seemed to clean very well. I believe that it would compare well with commercial products today. 

Granny Making Lye Soap - Antique Picture

1952 HITS ARCHIVE:
It's In The Book
(Grandma's Lye Soap)
(The song comes near the end.)
A recorded comic monologue, partly sung,
partly in the manner of a revivalist preacher
on Little Bo-Peep. Marketed as a pop song,
it made the Billboard chart in 1952, reaching
number one. Over two million copies were sold,
and it received a gold record.
No. 1 on the Billboard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_in_the_Book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Standley
Johnny Standley

 

Grandma’s Lye Soap
http://appalachianheritagesoaps.com/blog/2011/08/26/lye-soap-use-7-inspiring-a-song/
Do you remember Grandma’s Lye soap,
Good for cleaning throughout the home -
But the secret was in the scrubbing -
It wouldn’t suds, it wouldn’t foam!
 

CHORUS:
O let’s all sing right out for Grandma’s Lye Soap
Good for cleaning all over the place,
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes-
Good for hands, and good for face.
 

Verse:
Little Herman and brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the lye soap
And they haven’t heard a word in years!
 

CHORUS:
O let’s all sing right out for Grandma’s Lye Soap
Good for cleaning all over the place,
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes-
Good for hands, and good for face.
 

Verse:
Mrs. O’Malley, out in the valley
Suffered from ulcers, I understand
She swallowed a cake of Grandma’s Lye Soap-
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land!
 

CHORUS:
O let’s all sing right out for Grandma’s Lye Soap
Good for cleaning all over the place,
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes-
Good for hands, and good for face.

(Can you count the gum chewers in
Dick Clark's audience in this video?) 

Soap Making Time - Essie Treat Ward

Splish, Splash (I Was Taking a Bath)
The song helped to give Darin a
major boost in his career.
It reached No. 3 on the
U.S. pop singles chart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splish_Splash_%28song%29
Bobby Darin -1958

It Can't Be Time to Take a Bath
 
A. Maria Plover
 
It can't be time to take a bath.
I took one just last week.
I'm sure the spots you think are grime
are freckles on my cheek.
 
I'm just as clean as clean can be.
You won't find any dirt.
I rubbed my mouth clean with my hands,
then wiped them on my shirt.
 
My feet were muddy yesterday,
but that's not longer true.
I walked home barefoot in the rain,
so now they're spotless, too.
 
There was some gunk behind my ears—
a funny shade of gray.
Don't worry, though, 'cause it's all gone.
The cat licked it away.
 
And so you see, there is no need
to point me toward the tub.
It's just a waste of water.
I've got nothing left to scrub!

After the Bath - Mary Cassatt