Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

75 Air. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

really worms, but in our household everyone was convinced that they were. The worms had to be niggled out with a sharp needle while each smelt was held against the light of a paraffin lamp.

"Then you can clearly see those dirty worms," Grandma said. Getting the worms out was her task. Nobody dared to infringe on this right. But talking about nervous fits, everybody was on the verge of a breakdown when Grandma sat for hours on end in the living room, with the paraffin lamp and the needle and the bunch of raw fish.

The fact is, raw smelt gives off a very penetrating odour!

Another privilege she reserved for herself was the big washing. The traditional way of doing laundry in those days was to cook the dirty linen in a tub on the gas heater. The boiling lather filled the whole house with the strong smell of soap. Then the clothes were taken out of the tub and put into another tub with clean water to rinse out the suds. Next, piece by piece, the clothes went from that into a smaller tub standing on a low table. That small tub contained hot soapsuds and a scrub board with a rippled zinc-surface. The laundry was scrubbed until it was spotlessly clean, and then finally each piece was wrung out by hand, dried and ironed.

Mother was allowed to do all the jobs connected with the big wash except the last one, the rubbing and scrubbing on the board.That was Grandma's duty and privilege. She had done it all her life. Nobody could do it as well, she told us. She would not let herself be talked out of that. So each Monday morning the discussion started in the same way.

Mother asked "Must you stand at the washtub again tomorrow?"