Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion On Bath Night
by Paul Big Bear
Dear Friends,
“Saturday night, bath night!” There was a time when Saturday night was bath night, the whole family bathed, one at a time in the same tub and the same hot water carried bucket by bucket to fill the tub; father first, mother next, then the children oldest to youngest. The water became dirtier with each bath thus the saying “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” But this was how folks who worked the land, the mines, or other hard sun up to sun down jobs, readied for Sunday when the family would don their Sunday go to meeting clothes and gather with friends and neighbors.
As a young man I often heard “Saturday night, bath night.” Oh we bathed every day, indoor bathing too, we had a bathtub, a big iron claw foot one with hot and cold running water, and a shower head with a circular shower curtain for those who preferred to stand up while getting clean. A bar of lye soap or Fels Naptha was our bath soap, body and hair, and we had a back brush in truth it got used all over. Fels Naptha was also laundry soap, dish soap, and clean most everything soap. Summertime we bathed in the lake, in shallow water since those soaps when dropped sank, how special was it when someone came home with a bar of Ivory Soap that floated.
By the time I entered high school bathing was a lot different, Mom had her soap that smelled real flowery, dad had a man’s soap, no pretty smell just serious dirt removal. Shampoo came in a bottle and we used it every time we bathed. A shower was nice, you rinsed off the dirt as fast as the soap cleaned it off but there was also something nice about having the choice of sitting in a hot tub and soaking some of the sore out of your muscles.
Yes the ritual of staying clean has come a long way, soft soap bars, liquid soaps, fancy wash cloths and sponges, deodorant soaps, fragrances of flowers, fruits, honey, and perfumes. You can have fragrant shampoos and cream rinses for your hair. Yes we have come a long way with our bathing habits. Now, about that shaving mug, brush, and straight razor.