Memories of Mom, #1

In addition to daily duties such as preparing three meals, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, keeping the house clean and orderly, washing and ironing clothes, ,mending clothes and darning stockings and making certain that I had at least one weekly bath, my mother always seem to be busy doing something.  One of these things was the yearly project of making soap.  I don't know if  housewives made soap because it wasn't available in stores or (since this was during the great depression) they just couldn't afford to buy soap.

So housewives made their own soap.  First, the soap was made outside the house because it was absolutely the worse smelling stuff ever created.in God's world. You couldn't live in a house where soap had been made.  Therefore, my Mom made soap outdoors in our back yard.  I noticed that all the farm animals fled to the opposite side of our farm when soap was being made.

During the year, Mom had collected all the fats or grease or lard used to fry meats.  After the cooking was completed, she would pour this fat into tin cans and save it in one of the sheds located out side of the house. On soap making day, my Mom used a large cast iron kettle to make the soap.  This kettle was used only one time a year.  She would build a fire in our back yard as far away from the house as possible.  The kettle was placed onto the fire and only three ingredients were poured into the kettle.  These three ingredients were fat, water and 100% Lye. The Lye had to be purchased from a grocery store.  After some time and after the mixture was tested in certain ways that only mothers knew, the mixture was poured onto a flat, galvanized pan.  This mixture was then allowed to harden for several hours or even overnight. The soap was then cut into the proper size pieces.

This home-made soap was used for all cleaning projects such as Saturday night baths, mopping floors, washing dirty clothes and dishes and washing hands before each meal.  I tell you this soap could remove the worst dirt, not to mention human skin.

Some more GROANERS found in recently discovered ancient scriptures.

What did Noah say as he was loading the Ark?  "Now I herd everything."
Why did the people on the ark think the horses were pessimistic?  "They kept saying neigh."
What animal could Noah not trust?  "The Cheetah".
Why couldn't they play cards on the ark?  Noah was sitting on the deck."
Was Noah the first one out of the Ark?  "No, he came fourth out of the ark."
Where did Noah keep the bees?  "In the ark hives."
Why couldn't Noah catch many fish?  "He only had two worms."
Where was Noah when the lights went out?  "In d'ark."