You may have seen at some time or other in some ones yard a big iron pot filled with blooming flowers. To you, it is merely a flower pot, to us born in the first quarter century or earlier it brings back many memories. Its main purpose for existing was for wash day. Once or twice a week a wood fire was built under the pot. We had no washers, dryers or bleach. The pot was filled with a solution of water, lye soap and maybe a touch of bluing. The bluing was used to make white clothes look whiter. After the solution came to a boil the pot was filled with sheets, pillow cases and towels which had been scrubbed on a rub board. A sawed off broom handle was used to poke the clothing underneath the water and to remove the clothing from the pot after they had been boiled for a few minutes. The clothing, mostly linens were then dropped into a tub of clear water to be rinsed of all soap. It usually took three tubs of rinse water to rinse the clothing free of all the soap residue. The clothing was then hung on a clothes line to dry in the sun. The linens were clean and then smelled of fresh and sweet sunshine when they were taken into the house, folded and stored away.

The soapy water from the pot was used to scrub the wooden kitchen floors & the porches. Some was used to scrub the outdoor toilet or “Johnny” as it was sometimes called. What remained was tossed on the plants for moisture.

The iron pot was used for other purposes. It was used to boil water during hog killing time when all farmers prepared their own meat. It was also used to prepare large amounts of cucumbers for pickling and to prepare grape juice for making jam and sometimes homemade wine. People used the pot for making chicken soup and flying large amounts of chicken to be served at picnics and country weddings. Of course everybody made their lye soap in the kettle. Lye soap was made with less than perfect lard from the hogs, lye and water. Lye soap was a staple in every household. It was used for all cleaning purposes except personal hygiene. Toilet soap was purchased for baths and to wash hands and faces.

That “Old Iron Pot” or kettle wasn’t an ornament but a very useful utensil and all farm homes as well as most homes in the small towns had at least one “iron pot”.