Mother's Little Helper...and various chores

Talk about starting early!

Dad has written on the back of this print " She must have thought I was a hawker." My guess is that he took me by surprise as the hallway looks rather dark and he was possibly standing against the light. I certainly look geared for action! This was at Dutton Park.



Cleaning shoes at Dutton Park.

I dont know if that is Mum or one of the cousins who stayed with us while attending College.

Chores and helping in the house were taken for granted in my generation. There was no talk of payment ; it was part of family life. I cant actually remember receiving pocket money at any age but cant be sure of that.
After finishing school and starting work in 1949 it was my job to do the family wash each weekend. No automatic washing machine or a hot water system. The water was boiled in a copper and then bucketed into the machine.Ours was a single washer with rollers on top...I still used a similar machine when we came to Toowoomba in 1966.



Wash day at Bald Hills

Many of our tasks were similar to those of children today...washing and drying dishes, making one's own bed, cleaning your school shoes...and sometimes Dad's also, cutting one's own lunch...and sometimes Dad's also. We had some fun doing the dishes at Annerley ; Alan would wash, I would dry then pass the item to young Lois who walked along a row of chairs so she could reach the "dresser" to put the things away. Not sure whose idea that was but I expect Alan thought of it.

But others will probably be very different. For example I dont expect many children today would have to empty the chamber pots! These were a standard nightly feature before indoor flush toilets . We took turns to empty them into a bucket which was then filled with water and put outside to be used as liquid fertiliser on the garden. True!

I've already mentioned emptying the water from under the ice chest. The kitchen table was plain wood and had to be scrubbed regularly. I actually didn't mind doing that and have always found satisfaction in giving something a good scrub. Mum would never use a mop to wash a floor; she thought that was not hygienic so Alan and I both learned to wash a floor on our hands and knees. I remember Mum visiting me years later in Cloncurry after Kathy was born and being horrifed to see me using a floor mop. I told her that they had used mops in the maternity hospital so a mop would do me!

The silverware had to polished and that usually fell to me. The cutlery was all silver then . The good silverware was not done so often but included a teapot and sugar bowl.

The wood stove had to be "blacked" regularly. I dont remember having to do that but I think the stove at Petrie had a silver finish and I had to apply that on occasion.

Mum was always a great jam and marmalade maker. She would buy in bulk at the markets so we would come home from school ...and in later years from work ... and there would be a case of rosellas or something to be prepared for the next day. If you wanted to eat it you expected to have to help with the preparations.

One last memory of chores is that I always wore an apron. My earliest memory of an apron is of one I embroidered in sewing class at Yeronga.