I should never again complain about doing laundry. Not that I really complain all that much about doing laundry, but I do complain about having to go up and down the stairs to get to my washer. I do hang out my clothes in the good weather and even in the winter I use my drying racks. It takes a day or so for the clothes to dry this way as we keep the thermostat at about 63. But if I stay on top of it I still have other clothes to choose from while the washed clothes dry. I do laundry about twice a week. Monday is washday for the most part, but I do another load sometime towards the end of the week. I bet you are glad I told you this, huh?
This is the wash house at Mt. Vernon. I doubt George did much of his own laundry when at home. He and Martha had 100 slaves to do such things. But would I have done the same if I lived in that time and had the means to have slaves. I would like to think not, but the truth is it was very normal for the time...anyway my reason for posting this pic was not to vent about slavery, but ah...the hope for all seeing this pic would make us all appreciate having the way we have to do our laundry.
I really enjoyed seeing Mt. Vernon and how George and Martha, our country's parents, lived day to day. I think the most interesting thing is that there was the silver, fine china, fine paintings in the big house and then there was the primitiveness in which the slaves lived. (No photography allowed inside of the house so you have to take my word for that.) But in a since they all lived very primatively compared to how we live today. They had no electricity, telephones, propane, etc. Even Martha had to light a candle to light her path after dark. Even she had to use the outhouse in the middle of the night. The outhouse was not that close to where their bedroom was, either. I've been closer to a toweetee when camping than Martha was to her site of deposit! Good thing they had chamber pots. Even though George and Martha had were well off and I am not, I still live very well in comparison. I do not have to start a fire to heat up an iron to iron a few wrinkles out of a partially cotton blouse...if I did I would have to choose something else to wear or go wrinkly since I do not have a wood burning fireplace in the house. I'd have to go out into the shop attached to the house and put a fire in the woodstove there.