Answer
though I was only a child, I certainly watched my mother and neighbors as well as my aunts and grandmothers as I grew up in the 1940's. Life was very different; most women did not work outside the home. Many homes did not have running water in the house; water was carried in buckets from an outside well, or perhaps some were lucky enough to have a pump inside. Hot water heaters were almost unheard of; water was heated on top of the stove (ours was a wood burning cook stove) and that water was used for washing dishes, washing clothes and bathing. Needless to say, baths were weekly, not daily as they are today. My own mother made laundry soap from animal fat and lye. Most of our food was raised by my mother and father; butchered animals, raised huge gardens and canned the produce for the winter months. My mother did have a washing machine, but clothes were not tumbled like they are today; they were agitated and then we hand-cranked them through a wringer to get the water out. They were always hung outdoors to dry. Everyone baked bread, pies and pastries at home; a loaf of store-bought bread was a seldom purchase and there certainly were not the varieties that we have today. My mother and other moms I knew, made a lot of the clothing for their families on treadle sewing machines. Most women were up at daybreak and still going strong after their children were in bed. No dishwashers, electric fry pans, slow cookers, convection ovens. I sort of chuckle when I hear women complaining today about all they have to do; Mom used to feed 25+ people at the holidays without any of the modern conveniences. I could go on and on, but will end by saying, "we ain't got it so darned tough now days."
