New Years Day 2011

PLEASE NOTE that this is not a diary but an attempt to leave writings about ordinary life and is intended for future social historians in 2525 and beyond. The 2525 is taken from the song by Zager and Evans,,,,

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find…..

2/1/2011
The weather yesterday, New Years Day, was grey and horrible. I stayed in and was lazy. My husband, David, had some appointments for his work to do but I only did was some washing and a bit of cooking. Later I sat watching the television (TV) and did some knitting. I have taken to doing quite a lot of knitting this winter to keep my fingers moving, I have arthritis. I made a hat for my friend’s little girl and now have to make a second for the sister, They have hearts going round the crown which the youngsters today seem to love,

The TV was not that good, it never is on these holidays. Mostly films which I am not interested in. They are nearly all old ones of second or even third rate. I cannot guess how many times they have shown The Towering Inferno. Later we did wallow in several programmes about the comedians Morcambe and Wise including a play about their youth. I miss their humour which was clever and clean. You could watch it with your grandmother as the saying goes. Indeed I did watch it with my aged father one year at Christmas and we laughed ourselves silly. Have decided to buy a DVD of their Christmas shows.

I know there will be many places to find world or local news in the future but here this is as it appears to me from my sources, you could say what impinges on me from my windows on the world.
World news is short at holidays on TV so I got most of it from the radio which I have on quietly under my pillow at night. After having had a long drought there is a terrible flood in Queensland, Australia which they say covers land the size of France and Germany put together. Many towns are inundated and now a woman has been found dead. The people are warned in going back to their homes to be careful of snakes, spiders and crocodiles!

Here in the UK we have had a riot at an open prison in Sussex. The prisoners set fire to the prison and had to be subdued by riot forces. Apparently 500 of them were only guarded at night by two prison warders. The prisoners go out and buy alcohol which is now being blamed for the violence and riot. I cannot think that open prisons were different in the past. I remember being told by somebody who had been an inmate in such a prison that they walked out over the fields behind the prison to meet and have sex with girl friends and wives. Julie

Later 23.40

Doing the washing in 2011

When ever I see or read the social history of any period there are always descriptions of how day to day things were done such as preparing food, doing washing, clothes worn, shopping etc. So I shall start with how I in 2011 keep my clothes and linen clean.

David and I throw our dirty clothes in a laundry box as we take them off. From there I take them to a front loading washing machine in my kitchen which has various wash, rinse and spin cycles. It holds fairly large load that takes about an hour and 20 minutes to two hours to wash depending on which cycle I choose. During the week I usually do one load a day. This is mainly because in the winter I have to dry my clothes on an airier at the top of the stairs where there is an electric heater. In the summer I take it out to the garden where I have a rotary washing line and I can save on electric heat. I wash our sheets, duvet covers and towels etc. once a week. Many people have tumble dryers either as part of the washing machine or a separate machine. I am not so lucky.

Using my electric iron I try to do my ironing once a week which often takes me a whole morning. This may be partly because I am getting older and I have some pains plus I am slower than I used to be, but I get it done. I use a washing powder which gets biological stains out which I know is not so good for the environment but I do use a lower heat setting on the machine, I also use a softener in the last rinse.

What a difference to the past even in my own life time. I don’t quite go back to the copper and washing dolly but I boiled all my whites and such things as my baby’s nappies in a bucket. I didn’t even have a mangle until someone gave me an old Edwardian mangle with large woodern rollers. You couldn’t put anything through that had buttons on as it broke them, only flat linens but at least it was a help. I moved up to a top loader and electric mangle after a few years. In my very early life we didn’t wash everything like we do now mainly because we didn’t have so many things. The rule was ‘On on, one off and one in the wash. My school blouse was worn for a week as was my underwear, At one time in my younger days I used a Victorian flat iron which was heated on the gas ring!

I still dislike doing washing and ironing but after 70 years have become accustomed to it. It is really so much easier now.  Julie