After breakfast it was
bath time. We usually took baths two or
three together at a time (when babies came along they got a wash in the kitchen
sink, or in the small enamel tub that hung outside the back door). Mom would spread a used towel from the dirty
clothes as a makeshift bathmat, set the plug, and balance the hot and cold
water. A fresh towel was set on the
closed toilet seat and our underwear (which we called panties for a long time,
because that’s the term Mom used) was set on the tank, and she would leave us
to it. We’d shuck whatever we were
wearing and jump in, pretty gradually if we thought it too hot or too cold. There would be a fair amount of horseplay and
splashing each other, and pretend drinking of bathwater out of bath toys like
Wally Gator or Spouty Whale. Then we’d
push the plug down to drain the tub, and get out one by one, using the clean
towel to dry off, it getting damper and damper with each use, of course. Nobody wanted to be last. Once we dried we slipped our underwear on and
went to get dressed. Mom would come in
to clean when we were done, and too soppy a towel on the floor was sure to draw
a reprimand.
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