Authors Electric

Wikimedia, by Bhagerathe  I was peering into the backyard, trying to work out whether it was worth pegging washing on the line. It probably wasn't because, as I said to my friend, "It's getting very dark over Bill's mother's." The situation over Bill's mother's has been a concern all my life: usually, but not always, when there's a load of washing to be hung out. My mother mentioned the darkness over Bill's mother's at least once a week. She'd heard the phrase used by her mother and, for a while, it had puzzled her a great deal, because one of her older brothers was named Bill. So, surely, her mother was talking about herself? But she'd be nodding towards the dark clouds gathering over the hills, miles away. Who was this other Bill's mother and why was her mother keeping an eye on her? I don't suppose there's anyone in Britain who doesn't know that the phrase means, 'I think it's going to rain soon (because r...

A washing dolly My mother hated me saying that I was born in a slum, but I was.   Brades Row was a terrace of houses at right angles to the surfaced road into Oldbury. The front doors opened directly onto ‘the track’ which was exactly that — an unpaved dirt track leading down from the rough fields of scrub and hawthorn to the road. On the other side of the track stood a row of ‘brew-houses’ or ‘wash-houses’: the names were interchangeable. (‘Wash’ was pronounced with a hard ‘a’, as at the beginning of ‘acorn.’) The wash-houses were of damp, blackened brick. They contained a large stone sink, a pump, and a boiler with a fire-place underneath. This was for heating water for the laundry. It took all night for the boiler to heat the water. Some of the hot water was poured into a tub, which was where the clothes washing was actually done, the clothes being pounded in the hot, soapy water with ‘a dolly’ (see right.) The short legs went into the water and the person doing the ...