This was too long for the comments section, plus I wanted to show photos. For those folks who know what a #5 washtub is, move along, move along. Nothing to see here.
For Miss Healthypants who was apparently raised on concrete, this is a #5 washtub:
Country folks all had one and it hung on a peg on the back porch. On Saturday night it was filled with water (while still on the back porch) from the well and you took a bath in it. Your legs hang over the sides and there is lots of sloshing. That's why baths took place on the back porch.
Of course most country folk don't look like this lady during a Saturday night bath.
After indoor plumbing came along the washtub wasn't used for baths anymore but all grannies kept one anyway. If you got too dirty playing outside, your grandma might snatch you nekkid and plunk you in the washtub out in the yard to knock off the big chunks before she let you back inside.
If you got annoying she would plunk you in the washtub along with some dishwashing liquid and a garden hose and let you entertain yourself for a couple of hours blowing bubbles. You got to wash the yard dogs too while you were out there. Grandma was a smart cookie.
Eventually, the washtub would rust out and wouldn't hold water anymore. At that point you either planted maters in it or turned it into a washtub bass.
I worked with a guy who could wail on a washtub bass. I was amazed that an old tub, a 1x4, and a piece of clothesline could really make music...in tune at that!
And that, Miss HP, is a #5 washtub.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
# 5 Washtub for Miss Healthypants
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
I'm glad you answered that question. I had no idea what a number 5 tub was either. My mom has flowers growing out of hers. The are pretty planters.
i knew what a number 5 washtub was..my cousins mike, larry wayne and i would take baths in them on the screened in back porch of my grandma's house...during the summer it was fun..during the winter it was colder than a sonsabitch.. and who evev was last got it the worse..we would fight like tigers to be first..i was the littlest but the smartest..can only remember once having to be last and we had been gone and came home late and it was waiting for me..cold water with a layer of scum on it....
my grandma also did the wash in it too..i rememer when she got a bigger one it was more oval and then we didn't have to use the same wash tub as the one she did laundry in...yeh, the good old days..
We had one to clean our feet in after going to the beach....or to store rags in by the washer outside....or the one we found recently in the forest with a log right through the middle of it.
My lord I had forgotten that I was bathed in one of those until we got a hot water tank when I was about 4. Until then it was a boiling kettle or two on the wood stove for hot water and being plunked into the tub in the middle of the kitchen - too damned cold in winter for outside. And we lived just outside of Toronto at that time not really in the country. We did however have an indoor toilet.
Okay now I am feeling very very very old!
Thanks for the explanation! That lady in the washtub is awfully white.
Why, thank you, Speck, for the explanation and the "tales of the #5 washtub." Loved. It. ! *smiles*
I'll bet if I ask my Grandma what a #5 washtub is, she'll know! :)
I knew what a #5 washtub was,but I never took a bath in one..I have splahed around with my little brother in my Grandma's rain barrel though!
Your grandma and mine must have known each other ;)
My grandma would just put the washtubs in the back yard and let us loose with the garden hose. After a while, the water would be full of grass. It was always so nice to tump out the grassy water and refill it with clean water.
But then again, I was a picky kid.
My grandparents used their washtub to keep the chickens from flopping all over the place after they'd wrung their necks.
Everybody ought to have one - handy dandy.
Post a Comment