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Archiver > APG > 2008-02 > 1204040080


From: "Jack Butler" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Warsh and wrench
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:34:40 -0500
References: <975992.10609.qm@web62508.mail.re1.yahoo.com><06e901c8781b$ffdbe3b0$2101a8c0@CEB><000c01c87885$f998e6f0$020ba8c0@BARBsHP>
In-Reply-To: <000c01c87885$f998e6f0$020ba8c0@BARBsHP>


I was raised in rural central Florida, too - outside Orlando. We did have
electricity and we had another luxury - our hand-pump was inside at the
kitchen sink, right next to the ice box. I remember that the last thing you
had to do after pumping water was to refill the jar and sit it back on the
window sill so that it would be available for priming the pump the next time
that it was used. We bathed in the galvanized tub - we bathed in the kitchen
where Mama would heat water in a big stew pot. She would add the hot water
to the tub of pump water just before we got in - it was rarely a hot bath,
but if you were first in it was warm.

We had the wash tub, scrubbing board, and hand wringer too. Remember when
the washing machines came in with the electric wringer? Was there any family
that did not have at least one kid who go a hand stuck in that new fangled
wringer? My arm was black and blue for weeks.

The outhouse was at the back of the lot and the path to it was good old
sugar fine Florida sand. In the summer the sand got so hot that our bare
feet would burn and a visit to johnny became a potential for torture. But if
you were quick, you could make a wild dash to the shade of the big, ancient
mulberry tree and from there to the smaller mulberry tree closer to the
goal - no shade there, but you could grab a limb bend it down and stand on
the leaves to give your feet a break.

And during that part of the year one of our favorite activities was
following the ice man's truck from house to house so that we could collect
the slivers from him chipping the ice to order.

We "toted" slops to the pigs, and Mama would often "carry" Aunt Pess (who
was not related to us) to the five and dime or the drug store in our old
car. And if we were going to go play ball or go fishing, we had to tell Mama
what we were "fixing" to do.

We called them cold drinks or cokes (regardless of brand). An ice cream
float was ice cream with coke. An ice cream soda was ice cream with soda
water - which seems to be called sparkling water these days. We did not
have warsh or warter, but our next door neighbors put "owel" (oil) in their
cars and ate opples (apples). Most of the neighbors were from southeast
Alabama, as was my mother's family. Dad's bunch had been in Florida since
the 1820s, but it was northwest Florida - the part known as Lower Alabama in
other parts of Florida.

Jack Butler


----- Original Message -----
From: "Barb Wylie" <>
To: <>; <>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [APG] Warsh and wrench


>
>
> <(I have tried hard to train myself to say wash, dishwasher, and washing
> machine, without that warsh-thing, but it still slips out occasionally.)>
>
> Carolyn, do you then WRENCH the soap off with clear water? If I offered to
> hep you with this task, would you understand that I was offering to assist
> you?
>
> When I lived in Georgia, people didn't drive their children to school or
> take them to school; they carried them to school.
>
> Texans talk about having a tank in each pasture; turned out to be the same
> thing we call ponds. In pre-internet days, John and I arrived in Lebanon,
> New York before the town clerk's office opened. Since we knew his Moses
> Wylie was buried in the cemetery "above the reservoir," we decided to
> drive
> down Reservoir Road. How hard could it be to spot a lake in a little town
> like that? We learned the hard way that their reservoir is just an
> ordinary
> pond. Reservoir Road was so named because of the many ponds that catch run
> off from higher elevation.
>
> It always pays to know what the word meant where, when and by whom it was
> used.
>
> Barb Wylie in Grand Prairie, Texas, where it's nearly midnight and I'm
> a-fixin' to get some sleep
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
> -------------------------------
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