While Grandma’s baking days were delightful, her clothes washing days were
awful. Every Monday, rain or shine. She had an electric washing machine, with
built-in ringer, as long as I can remember, but she told me about the old days when
water had to be heated on the kitchen stove and poured into big tubs in which the
clothes were rubbed clean on a washboard - corrugated metal attached to a wooden
frame. But even with a washing machine, Grandma would literally boil badly soiled
clothes (such as her husband’s railroader’s things) in a large rectangular boiler,
stirring and removing them with a sawed-off broom handle. In warm weather, the
washing was done on the back porch off the kitchen; in the winter it was done in the
kitchen. The clothes were hung to dry in the backyard, weather permitting -
otherwise in the kitchen. The washday smell was one I will never forget.
My grandmother’s pleasures were simple. She had had only an elementary
education, but she liked to read, scanning the newspapers each day and reciting to herself
her daily prayers from her prayer book. I remember the pleasure she found in reading
Gone With the Wind when it was serialized in the daily paper during the late Thirties.
On the radio, she enjoyed the Ave Maria Hour, a weekly program, as well as Amos
‘n’Andy and other regular shows. One of her favorites was the Texaco Metropolitan
Opera of the Air broadcast live from New York on Saturday afternoons. The opera’s
plot didn’t matter - the soaring arias and lush orchestrations were thrill enough.
One of her favorite social activities was playing cards, usually Setback, with
family members and friends, either at her house or theirs. She went to most of the
card parties and Bingo games at the church hall. During the annual two-week horse-
racing season at the Cumberland fair grounds, she would pick out her winners for the
day and, if a family member happened to be going to the races that day, would send
a few dollars along to cover her bets. Once in a while she would attend herself.
Mary was a faithful church-goer. On Sundays she usually went to an early
Mass, for going later would interfere with her life-long routine of preparing the
midday dinner. She went to evening services at least once during the week; during
my time at her house, it was the Saint Anthony novena on Tuesday evenings. (Saint
Anthony was one of her favorite saints; she called on him often to help find
something that had been lost.) Jesus, Mary and Joseph was her frequent, simple
prayer whenever she felt supernatural contact was appropriate.
Grandma Wallace was most kind to me. She nursed me when I was sick and
my mother had to be out at work. While I was expected to help around the house,
Grandma was never demanding about it. When she burned her hand badly from hot
melted paraffin, I washed dishes and helped her in other ways that allowed her to let
the hand heal. She was affectionate but not demonstratively so. I liked talking to her as I
sat in the kitchen watching her bake bread. Over the years I grew closer and closer to her.
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