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Green Fairy Soap


tozzin

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Back in the early fifties, at home my Mother always bought the large green block of Fairy Soap, I can’t ever remembering any other soap until I was well into my teens, no perfumed soap for us, I can always remember a block seemed to last forever and the Mother saved the noggins that were left and she put them in a saucepan with some water then put them on the stove, after a couple of hours it was rendered down to something that resembled slime, she then put it on a shelf in the “ coal ‘ole” and when washing day arrived she fetched it out and dipped her fingers in and transferred an amount into the wash tub and away she went with the Peggy tub, this practice still went on even when she acquired her first Acme washing machine, she was very reluctant to change but eventually she succumbed to wash powder, Omo, Daz, Persil plus Landry bleach, so all in all the mundane washing day saw its own innovations over the years, today the young mothers “ don’t know their born” washing in, powder in receptacle ( always use powder as it stops the horrible smell in the washer) softener close the door and the timer does it’s job, no kitchen filled with a warm damp haze with the smell of Fairy Soap, happy days.

 

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We must have been "posh". We had (carbolic) Lifebuoy and Pears....this had a dimple on each side... so the last block, when used sufficiently, would neatly fit into it for further use. Mum had her own Imperial Leather and heaven help you if you washed your grubby dannies with that! Green Fairy was for washing clothes with a scrubbing brush in our household....until washing powders came on the scene!

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24 minutes ago, lysandernovo said:

We must have been "posh". We had (carbolic) Lifebuoy and Pears....this had a dimple on each side... so the last block, when used sufficiently, would neatly fit into it for further use. Mum had her own Imperial Leather and heaven help you if you washed your grubby dannies with that! Green Fairy was for washing clothes with a scrubbing brush in our household....until washing powders came on the scene!

My mother scrub shirt collars the way you describe, but change was hard to come by in our house, dads parents came from the slums of Dublin and their income wasn’t much, so they had to be careful with money, so being careful with money rubbed off on him, but soap is soap whether it was the green fairy or scented soap they both did the same job. I find it hard to understand why today’s families have a whole range of skin softeners, shampoos etc, I’ve never used shampoo only ordinary tablet soap and as for the products for the skin I’m at a loss.

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Wash Day was  almost always on a Monday. We had a dolly tub , a dolly posh ( I still have a small one) a scrubbing board, scrubbing brushes and a hand mangle. Wet washing ,after being mangled, was put out on the wash line and heaven forbid if some neighbour had a bonfire! If they had it was invariably greeted with a few choice words.Soot was a permanent problem especially when the wind was from the East and the steelworks muck made another wash essential. Today, we have all the gadgets, all the chemicals ( mainly the result of a marketing department...with many of them packaged in such a way as to make them look almost like drinks or a sweet dessert) and its still a chore.

One really wonders how our parents ( well Mum) managed...Little wonder the launderettes took off in the early 50s ( My uncle opened one of the first in Sheffield which was called, I think, "Phoenix".

 

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3 hours ago, lysandernovo said:

Wash Day was  almost always on a Monday. We had a dolly tub , a dolly posh ( I still have a small one) a scrubbing board, scrubbing brushes and a hand mangle. Wet washing ,after being mangled, was put out on the wash line and heaven forbid if some neighbour had a bonfire! If they had it was invariably greeted with a few choice words.Soot was a permanent problem especially when the wind was from the East and the steelworks muck made another wash essential. Today, we have all the gadgets, all the chemicals ( mainly the result of a marketing department...with many of them packaged in such a way as to make them look almost like drinks or a sweet dessert) and its still a chore.

One really wonders how our parents ( well Mum) managed...Little wonder the launderettes took off in the early 50s ( My uncle opened one of the first in Sheffield which was called, I think, "Phoenix".

 

I think this scenario happened in many kitchens around Sheffield in the 40s & 50s but as my sisters all started working and extra money came into the house my mother use to hire an electric washing machine on a Saturday morning for 2/6 ( now twelve and a half pence)  the hirer brought the machine in a 3 wheeler van and he had to man handle it up ten steps, I can’t remember if he had an assistant, but this technology turned my mothers head as a few months later she had got one on the weekly. Wash day was never the same after that.

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22 minutes ago, lysandernovo said:

I never knew they hired washing machines....and what a vehicle!

Obviously this isn’t the vehicle, the one I remember was a dark green I think,  it’s  very much as I remember, but my mother definitely hired a machine on a Saturday morning but it only went on for around two months, so many cobwebs in my memories.

 

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On 19/04/2020 at 14:23, lysandernovo said:

Wash Day was  almost always on a Monday. We had a dolly tub , a dolly posh ( I still have a small one) a scrubbing board, scrubbing brushes and a hand mangle. Wet washing ,after being mangled, was put out on the wash line and heaven forbid if some neighbour had a bonfire! If they had it was invariably greeted with a few choice words.Soot was a permanent problem especially when the wind was from the East and the steelworks muck made another wash essential. Today, we have all the gadgets, all the chemicals ( mainly the result of a marketing department...with many of them packaged in such a way as to make them look almost like drinks or a sweet dessert) and its still a chore.

One really wonders how our parents ( well Mum) managed...Little wonder the launderettes took off in the early 50s ( My uncle opened one of the first in Sheffield which was called, I think, "Phoenix".

 

Was this your uncles company?

1957 directory

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Phoenix  Cleaners,  dyers and cleaners, 92 Attercliffe Common.
Phoenix  Cleaners, 185 Abbeydale Road.
Phoenix  Cleaners, ,  dyers and cleaners, 49 Chesterfield Road.
Phoenix  Cleaners, ,  dyers and cleaners, 675 Chesterfield Road.
Phoenix  Cleaners, ,  dyers and cleaners, 138 Ecclesall Road.
Phoenix  Cleaners, 11a Hoyle Street.
Phoenix  Cleaners,  dyers and cleaners, 313a Middlewood Road.
Phoenix  Cleaners, 395 South Road Road 6.
Phoenix  Cleaners, 79 Staniforth Road.

 

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