Why Grandma Boiled Dish Rags And Why I Tried It - The Appalachian Way

My granddaughter says the washing machine does the job. Mama said otherwise. Today we settle it, and there's a pie riding on the answer. Back before electricity came up our holler, wash day was a whole Monday of carrying water from the branch, shaving lye soap into a black iron wash pot, and battling clothes on a wooden bench till you could hear it echo up and down the creek. And every single wash day, Mama boiled the dish rags. In this video I'm pulling out the big pot, a box of baking soda, and years' worth of tired, gray, sour-smelling rags to find out whether the old Appalachian way still does something a modern washing machine can't. We'll talk about why rags get stiff and quit soaking up water, what's really building up in the threads, the germs living in a damp kitchen towel, the microwave trick for a wet sponge, and why clothes dried on the line in the sun smell the way they do. There's flour sack rags, feather ticks, bluing, hog fat soap, and a few safety warnings every granny wishes somebody had told her sooner. Plus a little challenge between me and Kaylee that's going to cost one of us dessert. So does the old way hold up, or am I just set in my ways? Stick around till the end and see what color that water turns.