This poem is from a little poetry book I found in the op shop. It was a collection of Norfolk Poems by Archie Bigg. It reminded me so much of my Nana's laundry that I have changed his word Grandma to Nana and Sunlight soap to Velvet soap.
Nana's Laundry.
I remember Nana's laundry
With a basket made of cane
And lines that stretched from wall to wall
To hang things when it rained.
There used to be a copper
Out where Nana used to toil
And a stick to lift the clothes out
When the water reached the boil.
There were twin tubs made of concrete
With a wringer in between
A wringer in a laundry now
Is never ever seen
Upon a shelf a little box
Of starch called Silver Star,
Kero tins for buckets-
Remember back that far?
A dipper with a handle
To help our Nana cope
And a little wire basket
With a piece of Velvet Soap
She used to have a washboard
For scrubbing out the clothes
You must be getting on in years
If you used one of those.
A saucer on the window sill
With bags of Reckitt's Blue
To make the white clothes whiter still
And good for bee stings too.
Some sand soap and a scrub brush
For scrubbing all the floors,
And some firewood for the copper
In a box behind the door.
A tin roof and some guttering
With a funny sort of sag
And a heap of wooden dolly pegs
In a home made hessian bag.
And out the back , a clothes line,
Not the kind that spins around
But a clothes prop held the clothes up high
From dragging on the ground.
I wonder what would Nana say
If only she could see
That wash-a-matic marvel
Where the copper used to be
The dryer in the corner
The tubs of stainless steel
Hot water pouring from the taps,
I wonder how she'd feel.
I think that Nana would approve
The changes made, and yet
There were things in Nana's laundry
That I simply can't forget.
