So soon we forget! The next time you complain of having to do the laundry - at home or at the local laundromat - where you have plenty of hot and cold water, a spin-dry machine, and a dryer to do the whole job remarkably easily, before you complain about how tough it is (like breaking a fingernail opening the package of new, blue, all-temperature Cheer or having to fold the clothes as they come out of the dryer), stop and remember it was not always so simple. Here is a "receipt" of an old grandmother in Kentucky for washing clothes:

1. Build a fire in the backyard to heat a kettle of rain water.

2. Set the tubs so that the smoke won't blow in the eyes if the wind is pert.

3. Shave one whole cake of homemade lye soap in the boiling water.

4. Sort things and make three piles: one for whi…