Peek Week Sunday

This is the last day of Peek Week and I will go over a few things we learned this week.

In the past many people were very routine.  We see that in the vintage kitchen towels with cute embroidery of the days of the week and the schedule of the week.

Monday was wash day.  Of course it can be any day we need it to be but it helps when we have some kind of a routine, especially with so many things to do in a home. 

 But why is Monday wash day?  So I did some research.

An article in 1924 said that it was because Monday is the most miserable day of the week and washing is the most miserable thing in the world.  By combining these inflictions into one, the rest of the week is left clear for any other misery that may turn up.

That  was not satisfying for me so I did a lot of digging.  

Above a 1917 article

In the the early 1920s the younger generation started complaining about washing on Monday and wondering why did they wash on Monday.  It was explained that their mothers washed on Monday and that was how it had always been done. I read an article that some complained that they needed to soak the laundry and and do bluing and washing and doing this on Mondays did not give them enough soaking time on Mondays. They would have to soak on Sunday night and during that time doing that kind of work would not be proper. 

There were songs and rhymes made of the days of the week and schools taught girls these same seven days of the week schedule and Monday was always wash day.

Tuesday is Ironing Day. 

Many people no longer iron, and again many people do.  I iron Charles work clothing and certain clothing items that I have need to be ironed.  I also iron pillow cases, handkerchiefs, table runners and cloths.

So a bit of history of Ironing Day.  Ironing Day was on Wednesdays in the early 1900, not Tuesday.  Sometime before 1920 it was switched to Tuesday for the day after wash day would help to get them laundry ironed and put away.  What might be surprising is why it was on Wednesday?  

This was in the year of 1915.  

In the different cities that did have electricity the newspaper was saying the same thing. 

In the year of 1916 they continued this Iron on Wednesday  due to the pull on electricity.

Electricity was very fragile in the early years. 

Wednesday is Mending day.  

On an older treadle machine there is no reverse.  When you get to the end, you lift the foot plate and turn the fabric and sew back over a few stitches and then turn again and back to the end.  This locks it in.  The other old way is to tie the end of the thread in a knot.  Just a bit of information there. 

Ladies mended their garments and linens until it was completely worn out. Ladies of the house sewed their children's clothing and some of their own clothing.  Since all of the other days were filled up, making a special day to do this would make sense.

Thursday is Shopping Day and it is Calling day and not by phone but in person. 

There could be many reasons that Thursday shopping day.  Considering the era of when these traditions started, I would consider transportation of goods and when the fresh food was delivered to the stores. 

Thursday shopping day was advertised as just that, "Thursday Shopping Day".  Many of them had specials on this day. 

When we study history here in the United States we can see how the country grew as the railroads were built and the first electric and telephone.

Grocers used the ice plants and the ice came in on the trains. People could rent an ice locker to keep their groceries cool. Maybe the train with the ice came on Wednesday or Thursday.

Another factor is stores were not open the same hours or days as they are now and I remember when stores closed at noon on Wednesday and no stores were open on Sunday.  

Not everyone shopped like this, In my 1932 Journal of a young couple they bought their groceries very frequently because they lived in a city and did not have an icebox. Another journal I have they recorded their ice delivery.

I can only speculate on what started this shopping on Thursday but there is a reason it started. 

Friday was cleaning day.

Maybe it was so weekend company would not see the dirt?  I was just being funny.  

It seems a good day to do a good cleaning before the weekend. or that was the only day left to do a big clean.  

I frequently will let something slide when I am busy with something else.  This mostly happens when I am gardening and am not doing my routine.  Before I know it everything is out of place and needs cleaning.  This is why I need to stay on a flexible routine.

Baking day Saturday.

I do not know when Baking day Saturday began but this was just the way it was.

Above 1924

Above 1923

Above 1922

Above 1922  There were icebox cookies and refrigerator cookies and they were named this because the dough was chilled before baking.  This makes it easy to slice and also make ahead, wrap them and keep them cold for slicing and baking when you want to have fresh cookies.

I do not know why Baking was done on Saturday, but I do have these two cookie recipes from 1922 that you can bake on your next Saturday.  :)  Charles is all for baking on Saturdays and Mondays and Tuesday or any day.

Sunday the stores were closed, the family was together.  Families went to church and normally their church was close by to where they lived  

In my diaries, I find the women still had to feed their family on Sunday and all of that baking they did they made part of their Sunday meal.  The women still had some things to do on Sunday, they had to tend to their livestock, milk the cows, and feed the chickens.  They did have friends over on Sunday after church, it all depended if they lived rural or in the city. In my diaries the ladies would have the pastor over on Sunday to join them for their meal and at other times they would bring food to the church for food and fellowship.  To this day this still happens.

As we moved along through time and when I was growing up we would eat our meal after church and then we would all nap and rest up for the week to come. 

So that is my take on the weekly schedule that was kept for many years and still today some, but not many, keep to some form of this schedule. 

I am going to work on simplifying our home, making everything I can reachable, and less of it, remove or put away the things of today that were not in the home during the 1930s. 

I am looking forward to learning more of the skills of the 1930s,  and try and find out if they were still using the same Sunday through Saturday schedule. 

I hope that you enjoyed the Peek Week and I will pop back in with what we are going to do to get back on the road in the 1930's. 

Grandma Donna