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Laundromat
Each
CO brought his own clothing
to the camp and did his own laundry. Most men had separate clothes
for work and for the evenings and weekends. Work clothes got
dirty quickly, but men did not wash them as often. In the evening,
they changed into their camp clothes. For some of the COs , this
was the first time they had had to do their own laundry. Of course,
some of those with deep pockets could avoid the chore. John C. Klassen
describes laundry day at camp.
“We
had our own personal laundry to do, which was not done on a punctual
schedule such as mother's, and no Ivory Snow White. It was mostly
cold water, lots of soap and elbow grease, a tub and washboard.
Mending was not my favourite, but was done out of absolute necessity.
One of our men did laundry or mending for a small fee to make
extra money, if we felt flush (rich) and were willing to shell
out. Another fellow appointed himself a barber and gave you a
trim for a dime.” [ASM, 23-29]
The
experience of some of the COs was evident by their less than satisfactory
laundering technique. Henry Martens tells the story.
“We
did our laundry with a scrub board and only when we thought our
clothes really needed washing. One of our sophisticated camp members
thought he had the problem solved, remembering that his mother
had done the white shirts in boiling water to get them extra clean
and white. Well, he thought he could do even better by dumping
all his clothes: jeans, blue and red socks, white shirts and whatever,
into a big copper boiler, bringing it to a boil and stirring it
to get it crispy clean. It was clean alright, but turned out to
be “designer” clothing, The [formerly] white shirts reminded us
that we had a Joseph, with clothes of many colours, in our midst.”
[ASP, 127]
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| Two young men doing laundry at Clear Lake. |
COs washing clothes. |
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