it all had to be kept warm like it does now you know.... [Wrap it], oh yes, oh gosh, like a baby. Generally, in those days, we'd set it at night; in the morning we'd bake it.... There'd always be a fire, a wood stove in wintertime; there'd always be a fire going. And soap. Mother'd save all winter long.... Everything we saved; even the bones, every bone - you know the marrow in the bones - and they'd be all kept separate. And then in the spring of the year, these bones would be all taken and put on the stove and boiled to get all the grease out, and then they'd throw that away. And then all the scraps was saved, every bit of scraps was saved. And one Sunday Mother would put this big boiler on and put all this from the bones and the scraps and she'd make soap. My, it was that deep. Well, you'd take the large iron pot... and two big iron handles on it. And the grease'd go into that and the lye. You know the way they used to do the lye? They'd take a keg - now I'm glad you mentioned that - quite big, and they'd put some straw on the bottom of it and they'd put ashes on top. And then they'd put water on that. And then, after a while -1 don't know how long they'd leave it - they'd pull that tap and this stuff would come out. This'd make the lye. I remember this was very early. I'm seeing this poor mother; she had one of these barrels that they did that. And the neighbours'd borrow it to make their soap. Later on, the potash came and they'd use potash instead of this lye business. But the soap'd be hard soap - there'd be other called soft soap. She'd set it aside someplace all night or the next day till it'd get right hard. It'd get right hard and cold, see. Then she'd take a knife and she'd cut it. She'd leave it in the big pot. And this was the fun of it, the next day, to see them cut it out-take a big, big knife, and sometimes, I'm telling you, it'd be [about eight inches]. Oh, deep, deep piece. And then they'd take that...upstairs someplace and put a paper or something on the floor and put it out to dry. Dyed in the Wool Clothes. You'd think about your food first. Your clothes was all hand-me- downs. You'd never get anything [new], you know what I mean. One sister would get a dress and she'd have it so long and this would be [passed down]. In fact, I know a family across from us and there was four girls and this first one had a red dress and it went down to the fourth girl. Honest to Josephine Morrissey 131