When we lived in the "house in the country" we had a
well and a cistern. (1944 - She was 14 - Beaver Falls house)
The well water was not fit to drink. The cistern water was. Daddy installed pumps so the well water went into the bathroom (after he installed a bathroom.) and the cistern water went into the kitchen. So Mum did laundry in the well water. She had a washing machine in the basement and then she hung clothes outside to dry. In the winter she hung the clothes inside. Dryers did not come into the picture until around 1950.
When we moved in, we had an outhouse and Daddy installed a bathroom within a couple of years. But we always kept the outhouse for times when there wasn't enough water. If it was a dry season and there wasn't any rain, there was a decrease in the water. Whatever the rainfall was, Daddy would always say, "Go easy on that water!"
The wash machine was a big round thing, not like ours. When she'd be done washing clothes, she would take buckets of that water to clean the outhouse or mop the floors. She recycled everything. Nothing was thrown away.
Mum always had a garden and she worked hard in that garden every day. Weeding and everything. She was a Hard Worker. She milked the goats every morning.
When we girls were babies they had a cow (in the real country house outside of Zelienople). But at the Beaver Falls house they had goats.
Written by Abbie
Daddy is Abbie's dad David Mudie.
Mum is Abbie's mum Sadie Mudie
