if there was anything more than fat, Gillets lye and water that was required to make it. I can see my mother standing at the stove stirring the soap, lifting some of it on a wooden stick above the pot, and letting it fall back into the pot thick and syrupy looking. She seemed to know by testing it this way when the soap was ready to come off the stove. It was then poured into a wooden tub and left to cool and set. Then it was cut into squares, lifted out and placed to dry well before it could be used. Wash day was really something that entailed a lot of work and energy. The water had to be pumped and carried into the house, heated on the stove and then emptied into the wash and rinse tubs. Each piece of laundry had to be scrubbed on the wash board, wrung by hand, put into the rinse tub, wrung again by hand and then sometimes boiled in a clothes boiler before it was ready to hang on the clothesline to dry. There was no electricity then so the clothes had to be ironed by flatirons, which were heated on top of the stove. There would be three or four irons heating on the stove at a time. Whenever the iron being used cooled down, it was put back on the stove to reheat. The wooden handle of the cool iron was snapped off and attached to a hot iron. The mens dress shirts had separate collars which were attached by collar buttons. If dad was in a rush to drive to Mass or some other place and he could not find his collar buttons, it would be quite a catastrophe until they were found. St. Anthony must have been overworked in those days, I am sure, with the faithful calling on him in many such situations. Faith was always rewarded and my parents never failed to tell how St. Anthony came to the rescue whenever something was lost. Upstairs there were five bedrooms. The stairs went up from the front hall. One thing that comes to mind when I think about the front hall is the red lamp that hung from a chain and could be lowered by pulling on the ring that was at the bottom of the chain suspension and raised by pushing gently on the lamp. The family considered it a real beauty. However, it was not to remain that as one evening when Frank came home, he removed his overcoat and threw it towards the bannister post at the foot of the stairs. The coat hit the lamp and knocked it to the floor where it smashed into many pieces. I am sure that Frank thought that it was the end of him too. I even felt a tremor of anxiety for him but all he got was a lecture about his carelessness from my mother. The family all felt badly about the lamp but we learned to live without it although the hall never looked the same. There was a storage room at the top of the stairs. There were a couple of old trunks in it, a spinning wheel and mat and quilting frames. There was also a rag bag in which any worn clothing, old underwear and socks were kept. During the long winter evenings these pieces of clothing were cut up to be used for hooking mats. The underwear was dyed and later turned into pretty flowers on the mats. Each bedroom had the bare essentials—a bed, a table or dresser of some sort and a place to hang clothes. Of course, in those days most people didn't have many clothes so clothes closets were not consid¬ ered necessary. 68