Soap and me
When I was about 4 years old my mother would send me to the corner grocery
store in Rexburg. She would send me with a note and I would sometimes ask for
some "P soap and G soap"
. It was a bar soap made by Proctor and Gamble. Of course I could not read the note. I would be instructed to say, the note is worth a piece of candy, usually an all day sucker. That request was written on the note by my mother. My parents would not send me with any money. They charged their groceries and then paid the bill at the end of the month.
This was laundry soap.
My grandmother Stucki made homemade lye soap even until we lived in Lander. She used any fat that was available. We used this for laundry. There is a song about lye soap. You can hear it Here. The song has two parts. I have copied the text relating to the soap below.
We had a hand soap called Palmolive. We would use that to wash our hands and
bathe.
Lux soap was a hand soap. We used it also when we took a bath. It
sponsored a radio program called the Lux Radio Theater. We used to listen to it
at night.
Dove soap came out in 1957 and was a detergent soap and was to soften the skin.
I used it after we were married.
Dial was the first soap to help with body odor. It was anti-bacterial and came
out when we lived in Lander. I used it occasionally.
Do you remember
grandma's lye soap?
Good for everything in the home,
And the secret was in the scrubbing,
It wouldn't suds and couldn't foam.
Then let us sing
right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap
Used for - for everything, everything on the place,
For pots and kettles, the dirty dishes, and for your hands and forYour face.
So we'll now sing
the second verse.
Let's get it with great exuberance, let's live it up.
It's not raining inside tonight.
Everyone, let's have a happy time.
Are we ready? All together, the second verse.
Little Herman and
brother Thurman
Had an aversion to washing their ears
Grandma scrubbed them with the lye soap.
And they haven't heard a word in years.
Then let us sing
right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap.
Sing all out, all over the place.
The pots and kettles, the dirty dishes, and also hands and also face.
Well, let's sing
what's left of the last verse.
Let's have a happy time, everyone.
The last verse, al-l-l-l together.
Ev-v-v-very one!
Mm-m-m-m. Thank you
kindly, kindly,
M-m-mrs. O'Malley, out in the valley,
Suffered from Ulcers, I understand.
She swallowed a cake of grandma's lye soap,
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land.
Then let us sing
right out of grandma's, of grandma's lye soap.
Sing right out. All over the place.
The pots and - the pots and pans, oh dirty dishes,
And the hands and the face.
