"CATWASH" – VINEGAR, EGG-YOLK and other things

We take many things for granted today, such as having access to a bathroom and a toilet is one thing we take for granted

In today’s world we feel that unless we shower every day, we are unhygienic, and we take it for granted “that we have a bathroom” with all different kinds of soaps, shampoos etc.

Today that might seem strange to most people, but when I lived in Denmark – until I got married – my parents never had the luxury of having a bathroom.

OUR TOILET NEEDS – when I was a child 

When I was little, we lived on Munkebjergvej 53, Taarnby in a nice house, but there was no bathroom.

Munkebjergvej 53, Taarnby, Copenhagen, Denmark

There was an “inside locum” which was in a room attached to the house with cement floor and two small rooms. One for the “locum” and the other room was “our pig” which was raised to be slaughtered.

The “locum” was hole in the ground with a pail and a seat.  My Dad had to empty the pail every day into the garden.

HOW DID WE KEEP OURSELVES CLEAN?

Our daily cleaning was “Catwash” – in Danish “kattevask or klatvask” which was cleaning of face and below.  It was done in the kitchen with a small pan.

Once a week we had our hair got washed – “bending over the head into the small pan” in water with vinegar and rinsed with an egg yolk.

THE BIG BATH

My sister Birgit, to the left, me - the weird looking one and three of my friends. Having a bath.

We could only get a BIG BATH in the summertime, because it had to be done outside in a huge wooden tub. My Dad would heat water enough on the wooden stove to fill the tub.

We took turns to take the bath – in the same water.

I guess they did the same in the United States – where the baby was the last one to get the bath and from where the saying is “Don’t throw out the baby with bathwater”, assuming by then the water was so dull looking that you might forget there was a baby in it.

GOING TO PUBLIC “BATH PLACES ON VESTERBRO, COPENHAGEN.

My mom, sister Birgit and I moved into Vesterbro 1947 - when my parents divorced. It was two-room apartment with a hallway and a kitchen. No toilet nor bathroom

So, once a week we went to a “public bath place” where you could get a shower and go in the sauna.

They would give you “træuld” – which was a small ball of flaked wood -  to wash yourself with.  It was tough on the skin, so our bodies would turn red from the harshness of the “træuld".

TRÆULD

In the apartment on Kongshøjgade there was no access to neither shower nor even our own toilet.

We had to go out of the apartment – from the backdoor - for the toilet.  There was only one toilet on each floor which was a “shared toilet” with the neighbor next door.

But we still felt we were lucky, since there were many huge apartment buildings in Copenhagen that only had “one” shared toilet outside in a room outside in the back.  So if you lived on the fourth or fifth floor you had to walk down all the stairs and go “outside” to go to bathroom. My ex. Bent Lindhardt lived in a such an apartment on Østerbro – when he was a child.

MY FIRST REAL BATHROOM

It was not before when I got married – 1957 in Copenhagen, Denmark – my ex and I moved into an apartment in Husum “where there was a bathroom with a “sit-down” bathtub and shower.

We were both so excited. Personally, I felt I had moved in to “heaven”. I had never had that “luxury” before of sitting and soaking in a bathtub.

BATHTUB WAS ALSO USED FOR HANDWASHING OF CLOTHES.

We also used it for rinsing clothes that we had to wash by hand every day, since we only had access to “the common washing room in the basement” once a month where we could wash our clothes and linen etc. there was also huge rollers for ironing and we ironed everything, incl diapers.

But the daily washing of cloth diapers had to be done cooking them in a huge pot on the stove and then we rinsed them in our bathtub and hang them up to dry over the tub. No such luxury of disposable diapers.

But again, we still felt it was an improvement over “our childhood experience on Vesterbro of washing clothes”  where we had to walk four-five floors down to the basement.

It was a whole day affair where we had to heat water in a huge pot to get our clothes clean. After they were cooked and washed on a washboard, we had to carry all the clothes up to “the loft” which was five floors up -  above the apartment – to hang the clothes to dry.

Nevertheless, there are still many places in the world where they do not have the luxury of having access to daily showers and clean toilets with toilet paper etc.

Vibeke Lindhardt

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THE ALBERTA HUTTERITES.

I went on a tour to the “Wilson Hutterite Colony” south of Coaldale, Alberta - - sponsored by the Lethbridge Galt Museum - and learned that The Hutterites have not changed their lifestyle much in 491 years.

The first thing you get to view when you arrive to the colony which consist of 107 members, is their kindergarten.

I had to shake my head and tell myself that I was NOT dreaming when I was standing in front of a group the cutest little innocent looking kids that was dressed like “miniature” Hutterite men and women.

The little boys had the same hats as the adult man wear and the girls their little polka dotted scarves that only show the pretty little braid on their forehead.

You realized that they were as exited to view “those strange looking adults” as we were to view them.”  Their like cute healthy-looking faces were beaming.

The little children sang two songs in English that they learn in kindergarten. At home they speak High German – from the Bavaria area -The children learn English in kindergarten and school. You could tell they have a little accent.

HOUSING AND NUMBERS

The Hutterites have not changed their lifestyle much since the hatmaker Jacob Hutter – started the Hutterite colony lifestyle 1528 in Moravia, Czechoslovakia.

photo of Jacob Hutter

Each family have their own place to live on the colony. Some families have their own house, whereas some houses have more than one apartment.

There are about 180 Hutterite colonies with approx. 16.000 people in Alberta.

For many years the Hutterites fled from place to place. First from Moravia to Germany, then to Russia then to North and South Dakota in the United states and then to Canada.

In most cases they moved because they did not want to go to War – like the Jehova Witnesses”.

MARRIAGE

The Hutterites marry to somebody either within the same colony or to somebody from another colony.

Many Hutterites don’t marry anymore to control inbreeding. As a matter of fact, the two women who were our tour guides were not married.

If a colony get to the number of 144, the rule is that the colony will have to break up to two colonies, which mean acquiring new land and many times acquiring new land can be a huge problem.

THE WORLD COULD FALL APART AND THE HUTTERITES WOULD BASICALLY BE OK

If there were a major disaster in Lethbridge tomorrow, the grocery stores quite likely would be empty in one hour.  Most people – unless they believe in food storage and emergency supplies like the members of ”The Church Of Jesus Christ members do – they would suffer and would want to turn to neighbors and the Government for help.

The “The Church Of Jesus Christ” members – also nicknamed “Mormons” lived a somewhat similar lifestyle for many years that was called “the United Order” under their leader Joseph Smith and later Brigham Young,   where everybody brought their goods to the “storehouse” and then in return got what they needed for their families.

The church stopped living that lifestyle, because The US Congress used this practice to delay granting land ownership to the LDS members when they migrated to Utah. Nevertheless, Utah still have some physical memories of that lifestyle in f. example the name of the town “Orderville”.

After what I viewed at the Wilson Hutterite colony, I made the conclusion that If a major disaster happened in Alberta tomorrow the Hutterites would properly not only be ok for a very long time, but it is quite likely that many people would turn to the Hutterites for help.

THE HUTTERITES ARE EXTREMELY SELFSUFICIENT

The Wilson colony in Alberta has its own shoe and boot making workshop and one could see that the old European trades were handed down as we watched them “right there under your nose”.

They make their own clocks and brooms.  They have their own car-repair shop and car wash and many other things that make them totally self-sufficient.

The Hutterites have their own cows, lambs and chickens and their own slaughterhouse. They grow not only their own grain and crops but produce a lot own of “the local grown” vegetable sold at the local markets.

Everything on the colony is modern and up-to-date.  The only thing that looked “old fashioned” was their incinerators where they burn garbage. It stuck out like a sore thumb.

HUTTERITE MEALS

We were invited for a good old-fashioned German lunch with mashed potatoes, sausages, fresh cooked home grown beet and a delicious carrot cake.

The Hutterites eat together. The kindergarten children – age 3-6 eat – get their breakfast and lunch at the kindergarten. They are there all day while the parents work. They even have a little “nap room”.

When the children start school – on the Colony – at the age of six- they eat breakfast and lunch in a separate room from the adult’s “food” room.

The Adults all eat breakfast and lunch together in a “common food room”.  The women on one side and the men on the other side. They eat their evening meal “at home”.

The meals are all prepared in huge modern kitchens. As a matter of fact, the Hutterites have modern equipment’s everywhere.

THE HUTTERITE RELIGION

I asked one of the tour guides if they believe in Jesus Christ. She got very emotionally and told me that Christ is the center of their religion. While we were sharing a wonderful lunch with the Hutterites, some of the women and children sang to religious songs for us. Some of the words were “He is beside us” – He is inside us”.

The Hutterites are Anabaptists which means that they do not believe in christening or baptizing children.  One must be an adult to be baptized, so one can choose for themselves.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Wilson Hutterite Colony and would take the opportunity to back and learn more about their unusual lifestyle. One could feel that their faith is a huge part of their lives.

Vibeke Lindhardt

12 September 2019

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Note: The Wilson Colony is a very conservative colony and we were told that we could not take photos of people, only “some” of the places.

Therefore, any photos in this article of “Albert Hutterite people” are NOT from the Wilson Colony, but photos that got permission to take at the Lethbridge Farmers Market.