Out in rural areas, like some of the places where my grandparents would have lived, this was a contemporary event. The kids my grandfather knew all grew up in the time of TVA bringing the grid to their world.

Old timers will still talk about The Wash. Capital T. Capital W. It was a chore that would take all day.

There was also the issue of running water. If you lived in these rural areas, running water meant the closest creek.

Even the basics were serious jobs. When you got an electric stove, when you could free up a day from rinsing and drying clothes, you could think about other jobs.

If you weren't exhausted.

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